Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Theories of cultural studies'

This research summarizes, compares and analyzes the origins and developments of integration in Europe, Asia and Africa since World War Two. There have been some interesting findings. Europe has been the most successful region, having realized free movements of people, goods, services and money in several countries within the European Union (EU). Africa has been more advanced in institutional integration than Asia, although its level of economic development, constrained by instability, corruption, and poor socio-economic conditions, has hindered integration; meanwhile, its regional economic communities (RECs) have been more successful than the continental organization. Despite the improved economic conditions, Asia has been experiencing difficulties in community building due to lack of consensus and a partnership among major powers. There has not been any continental organization in Asia; nor has the subregional grouping, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), progressed far in economic and political integration.
x, 327 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm

This is an ethnographic case study, based in participant observation, which investigates and analyzes how the everyday relationships between Europeans, South Americans expatriates & Angolan nationals, are structured in a common transnational labor community in Angola, named Cambambe. This study investigates if there are any features of post-colonial power relations that affect and shape the interactions between those three communities. Thus, if the contemporary forms of relationship, as expressed by this community, can still be compared to that old hard power stereotype namely labor relations from the colonial past, or if those have changed with modernity. In doing so, this study equally analyzes not only how the interactions between the three communities is expressed in terms of identity, culture and ethnic belonging, but also how such expressions bring about tangible consequences for the groups relating to their social and institutional positions inside the working community. Furthermore, this study examines if the three group populations are able to go beyond their ethnic and cultural boundaries in order to create common zones of togetherness and empowerment, and if so, how these zones are shaped. To do so, the analysis observes how the intergroup perceives power into their relational context, focusing in four dimensions, namely; rationality, perceived justice, material resources and identity. Moreover, this is a multidisciplinary analysis which makes use of the theoretical lenses provided by the post-colonial theory, psychology of intergroup relations and power theories in international relations, to shed light into the understanding of contemporary labor communities and in the position of the post-colonial subjects in society in a North to South perspective.

Transculturalism refers to how cultural barriers are transcended and how cultures meet. Because the transcultural perspective reflects hitherto unrepresented spaces, it revises and innovates literary canons. This study investigates aspects of transculturalism in texts dealing with travel by the Canadian writer Janice Kulyk Keefer. It also explores how these aspects might alter our view of Canadian literature. The transcultural perspectives between mainstream Canada and Ukraine, Europe and Acadie have been analysed through three tropes of travel: departure, passage and arrival. Keefer’s texts have been read in accordance with Mikhail Bakhtin's dialogic theories to chart transcultural encounters and clashes. This thesis argues that a historic consciousness of their ethnic group gives the young generation a transcultural position that enables them to profit from their dual cultural competence. Although Imagined Communities are affirmed as receptacles of the cultural heritage, the impending environmental catastrophe demands that the national interests that they represent be abandoned for international co-operation. In Keefer’s European texts the transcultural aspects reflect how travel becomes synonymous with quests and epiphanies. Travelling is described as a learning process in Rest Harrow where the protagonist’s increasing cultural competence changes her from a tourist to a real traveller. The transcultural aspects also unmask prejudices, collisions and failed transitions. In this context Imagined Communities are criticized as agents of the colonial discourse, chauvinism, and intolerance. The transcultural perspective also reveals that patriarchal paradigms and the silencing of persecutions victimize the young generation. Furthermore, their ignorance of the mother tongue works as a linguistic barrier shutting them out from their ethnic group. Keefer's Acadian texts support Bakhtin's contention that isolated groups become intolerant to strangers and deviants. While the transcultural perspective unmasks tourists' perception of other countries as idiosyncratic, also the travellers' own ironic postmodernist view of themselves as tourists and of the artificiality of tourism is featured. The cultural assumptions of literary discourse are challenged by border blurring phenomena such as story-telling, the camivalesque, intertextuality and historiographic metafiction. Thus the morality of Keefer's transcultural approach lies also in her literary technique. The alternative perspective inherent in transculturalism makes individuals break away from their given cultural context to embrace a new transcultural ethos.

Diss. Umeå : Umeå universitet, 1996

digitalisering@umu

Master of Science
Department of Psychological Sciences
Clive J. A. Fullagar
This mixed-methods study consisted of two phases. First, interviews were conducted with ROTC instructors responsible for organizational socialization of newcomers to the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force. This data shaped surveys given to organizational newcomers in phase II, which measured organizational culture and cognitive leadership schemas. It was hypothesized that implicit leadership theories (ILTs) would reflect respective organizational cultures. Although this was supported in the qualitative results from Phase I, it was not supported in the quantitative results from Phase II. However, analyses showed that leadership is still perceived as a masculine role in both the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force, as was hypothesized. It was also hypothesized that leaders in line occupations would be seen as better leaders than leaders in staff occupations. This was supported for the Air Force sample, but not the Army sample. During the interviews, ROTC instructors asserted that male and female leaders were equally capable, and that line and staff leaders were equally capable. However, questioning revealed that organizational stereotypes still defined the quintessential leader as a male in a line occupation, although females had more opportunities to fill those key occupations in the Air Force than in the Army, at the time of this study. This discrepancy, along with the discrepancies in results between the qualitative and quantitative data, indicate that organizational culture has perhaps changed at the levels of visible artifacts and espoused values with respect to diversity, but has not yet changed at the fundamental level of basic assumptions.

This thesis examines how the experience of touch is depicted in modern/contemporary Japanese literature and culture. Employing touch-related 20th century French thought (Merleau-Ponty, Derrida, Nancy) and psychoanalytic theory (Klein, Anzieu, Kimura), it discusses how the representations of touch illuminate various aspects of human existence, specifically: the mediated nature of touch, the process of the bodily encounters, the formation of subject identity, sexual differences, and the way memories of touch depicted in literature affect our sense of temporality. Touch is a particularly interesting way of approaching Japanese literature because touching between people (apart from mother and child, called skinship) has been considerably repressed at least until after WW2, due to the relative absence of public practices of touch, authors’ aesthetic choices and censorship. Opposing this tendency, female authors born postwar write freely about touch. In comparison to Judeo-Christian cultures, Japanese culture has historically not been open to tactile communication, nor is explicit articulation of internal experience, as in psychoanalysis, particularly prominent. Japanese literary characters are thus especially self-conscious about touch. Following a theoretical and historical overview regarding touch and contact in the Introduction, Chapter 1 discusses different ways of mediating touch in the works of Yoshiyuki Junnosuke, Tanizaki Jun’ichirō, and Abe Kōbō. Chapter 2 argues how high levels of mediation affect the manners of engaging in direct encounters with others in Yoshiyuki, Kawabata Yasunari, and Matsuura Rieko. Chapter 3 discusses the temporality of tactile memories in Yoshiyuki, Kawabata, and Ogawa Yoko. Reflecting on such a complicated portrayal of touch in Japanese culture will help fill a gap in the existing scholarship regarding touch in literature. By critically examining the relationship between theories and literature in the East and West, this thesis also significantly contributes to the field of comparative literature and cultural studies as an example of cross-cultural research on touch.

Humor builds the ground to share the common and the uncommon, to ease the uneasiness, to laugh at oneself and the other. It is amusing and rebellious, revealing the obvious from the obscure and challenging the unchallenged. The purpose of this Master thesis is to examine the subversive humor use within Deaf communities, centered around the hearing society, as well as to explore subversive humor’s role in reinforcing the Deaf identity and resisting the often assigned otherness. Taken the form of a case study this thesis analyses two examples: a short film The Kiss, produced by Charlie Swinbourne and the series of graphical drawings from Tais, created by Alícia Sort Leal. Using visual analysis and close reading as analytical methods as well as classical (Superiority, Incongruity, Relief) and contemporary (Reversal) humor theories, this thesis provides an insight into reflective and mirroring effects of humor.

The question of whether cinema is democratic is a vast one, which requires research limitations of time and place to actually find an answer for. In this study, the place will be the United States, because nowhere else is the industry of cinema so powerful and generates more elements of popular culture; where also the country is considered to be democratic and practicing freedom of speech. The time will be the period following 11th September 2001: a date after which American politics has been chaotic both inside and outside the country, consequently producing a very controversial subject matter to debate in films.

However, the question still remains huge as the answer might differentiate according to the varying scope different types of cinema productions may hold. Accordingly, we will limit our focus within the field of political alternative films; and apply and seek to verify Jürgen Habermas’ theory of the public sphere in analysing their content to reach inferences on democracy. Afterwards, enlarging our perspective to the American cinema industry by and large, we will argue that the economic value of a film and the subject it deals with undermine the democratic ideals of equal representation the public sphere carries, as capitalism enters the scene. Some other dilemmas will emerge on this path: are movies being imposed by a dominant class in order to make the audience passive towards their environment? Or is it the audience, the people themselves, who create the aspects of popular culture in cinema?

Finally, we are to put the first question in other terms: does cinema socially and democratically represent its viewers’ ideology? In the limit of our empirical means, giving responses to those questions will be the heart of this thesis.

This study is about trust for public institutions and what the foundation is that builds this confidence. For this study I have used three dependent variables to define different aspects of public institutions. These are trust in the legal system, trust in political parties and state of health services nowadays.  The method that is used in the study is based on a comparative study between two countries, Sweden and Portugal.  The actual result is made up by comparing means and regressions by using 13 independent variables. Many of the independent variables that has been used is deriving from institutional theories of Putnam and Rothstein These theories points out the importance of strong traditions of civic engagement and that the success of the trust of the institutions depends in large part on the horizontal bonds that make up social capital. Other theories describe the malicious venom that is the outcome of corruption and the importance of happiness. The cultural dimensions by Hofstede are also included in the list of theories, especially those dealing with the freedom and free from collectivism and caring for others well-being. With help from these theories thirteen independent variables were emerged. The result that comes from the study is that the trust is first of all the obvious Sweden has a higher level of trust in all the different aspects than Portugal. Although the regressions shows that only 4,8 -11,2% can be explained, there is still possible to make clear conclusions. The clearest conclusion we can draw is that state of happiness makes a difference regarding trust for the institutions. Other things that influence the trust are civic engagement by working in another organization and believing in equality seems to correlate with higher trust. Caring for others seems to have a slightly negative effect on the trust. With this we can conclude that altruists do not have a higher trust on public institutions than others. A clearer tendency is that the sense of feeling free is negative on the trust for the public institutions.

The theme of this thesis is suicide mortality in its various aspects, seen from an international, European perspective. It questions the existence of social (structural) concomitants to suicide mortality and investigates attitudes towards and legislation concerning suicide, as well as some historical processes pertaining to their development. Paper 1 replicates an authoritative study of the "correlates of suicide" on a national level in European countries. It shows that the findings of this study do not hold 16 years later, and it presents some ideas as to why these changes have taken place. It is suggested that there are no simple social correlates to suicide on this level, and that suicide rates tend to vary according to, among other things, international cultural influences. Paper 2 investigates penal legislation relating to suicide in European countries. Three types of punishable action are found: 1) aiding suicide, 2) abetting suicide, and 3) driving somebody to suicide. A majority of European countries include some of these acts in their criminal laws. However, the laws vary very widely between countries, thereby constituting a notable exception to the common presumption of uniformity of law. The scope of the criminalization and the severity of the penalties for the crimes covary both with cultural attitudes towards suicide and with suicide rates. The results are interpreted as indicating the existence of a cultural-normative system, consisting of the cultural attitudes towards suicide, the laws regulating the actions relating to suicide and, perhaps, religion. It influences the occurrence of suicide, mainly by offering individuals cultural models of behavior. Paper 3 describes the process towards the decriminalization of suicide (in 1864) in Sweden, its causes and consequences. It is suggested that the law change took place because of a) the international ideological currents of the time (the heritage of the Enlightenment), b) the examples presented by other European countries, and c) the radical changes in people's behavior. The reform was long overdue, and thus did not have a direct effect on suicide mortality. The increase in Swedish suicide rates in the 19th century is seen as connected with certain aspects of the "modernization" process. Paper 4 addresses the prospects and problems connected with the ap-plication of Talcott Parsons's functionalist theory to suicide research, in particular when contrasting it with Durkheim's theory. It is found that the latter, despite its shortcomings, still dominates socially oriented suicide research. Parsons's theory is seen as implicating the cultural primacy of suicide mortality. Its general usability is, however, highly uncertain since many of its essential constituent parts are not well suited to the subject. A model for suicide rates, consisting of cultural (domestic and inter-national), political, social, diffusion and availability factors is presented. Taken together, the papers constitute a case for cultural (as opposed to socio-structural) research into suicide mortality. They question the repeated testing of structural variables in favor of creating cultural indicators. They suggest some new lines of research, and call for a consistently universal perspective on the problem of suicide and suicide mortality.

Härtill fyra uppsatser.

Around the world, religion takes many forms that vary greatly in practices, beliefs, and doctrine. In fact, defining the term "religion" is a difficult task in encompassing a multitude of faiths. In America, various cultural practices emulate the religious nature of various classic religions. Sport is a peculiar example that hold the interests of millions. However, the way sport is experienced as a fan differs greatly from the way sport is experienced as an athlete. I argue that to an athlete, sport functions as a placeholder for religion in modern-day America. By exploring various functions of religion, as defined by Winston King in the Encyclopedia of Religion (1959), it is clear that sport offers the same components as religion. However, as scholars such as Price and Chidester have found, sport does not function completely as a religion for fans. I finish with a discussion of why sport in the eyes of a fan fails to meet the requirements for sport acting as religion; using King's definition, it becomes clear that sport, for fans, fails to offer the same type of traditionalism and sacred experiences as found in religion, as well as the experience of sport for an athlete.

Aim: Culture exists in every organization, whether you actively work with it or not. Old cultures often carry traditions and are hard to change. The purpose of this thesis is to describe Gävle Galvan from an organizational point of view and also to investigate the culture from a gender point of view.

Method: The thesis is written with a qualitative and narrative approach. I have taken part in three person’s stories through interviews and thereby created picture of their everyday work on Gävle Galvan. It’s hard to describe a company’s culture and I have, with help from the stories and my own observations, tried to give an as balanced picture as possible. The interviews and my observations, together with organizational theoretical concepts, create my story of the company.

Conclusions: This study is confirmed by Schein’s theory; it’s difficult to change old behaviours and traditions, what Schein calls assumptions. Gävle Galvan characterizes by its history and how it’s always been. What once was created has been well kept and led to an assumption. The culture has a couple of culture carrier who have been in the organization for many decades. These persons are often respected because they have a long experience of the profession and they will not accept new co-workers that don’t share their norms and values. The forced habits make it hard for Gävle Galvan to adjust their activities in terms of equality between the sexes. Traditions contribute to generalize the female sex and the profit of having both women and men in an organization doesn’t come thru.

Syfte: Kultur är något som finns i organisationer, oavsett om ett aktivt kulturarbete sker eller inte. Äldre kulturer bär ofta med sig traditioner och har en djupt rotad kultur som är svår att förändra. Syftet med uppsatsen är att beskriva Gävle Galvan ur organisationsteoretiska begrepp samt se på organisationen och dess kultur ur ett genusperspektiv.

Metod: Uppsatsen är skriven ur en kvalitativ, berättande ansats. Jag har tagit del av tre personers berättelser genom att ställa intervjufrågor och därmed fått en bild av deras vardag på Gävle Galvan. Det är svårt att beskriva ett företags kultur och jag har med hjälp av dessa tre personer och mina egna iakttagelser på plats försökt få en nyanserad bild av Gävle Galvan. Intervjuberättelserna och iakttagelser blir med hjälp organisationsteoretiska begrepp min berättelse om företaget.

Slutsats: Studien bekräftas av Scheins teori, det är svårt att ändra djupt rotade beteende och traditioner alltså det Schein kallar antaganden. Gävle Galvan präglas av dess historia och hur det alltid har varit. Det som en gång skapats har vårdats och sjunkit in till förgivet-tagna-antagande. Kulturen har några kulturbärare som arbetat i organisationen i många decennier, dessa personer är ofta respekterade eftersom de har lång erfarenhet av yrket och stöter bort människor som inte delar samma normer och värderingar. Dessa vana mönster gör de även svårt för Gävle Galvan att anpassa verksamheten ur ett jämställt perspektiv. Traditionerna bidrar till en generalisering av kvinnor och vinsterna med en jämställd arbetsplats lyfts inte fram.

This dissertation follows an interdisciplinary approach that weaves practice and theory in the disciplines of visual communication, semiotics, cultural studies, linguistics, and new media art. The research methodology is practice-based located within a historical and contemporary context that allows for artistic experimentation and new knowledge to be generated through reflected creative practice This research proposes a context within which society can develop a transcultural means of communication with the objective of gaining completely unambiguous forms of understanding. This research explores the possibility of an open source scaffold for pictorial language that fosters self-enhancing diversity of production models, communication paths, and interactive communities. The dissertation explores research strategies and visual practice in relationship to a proposed global use of a common system of visual semantic decoding that would allow for visual synthesis by individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds. It is proposed that a shared collective knowledge of signs, symbols, and pictographs, supported by the advancement of future communication and information systems, can lead to a visual communication system that will be universally accepted. There is a historic, on-going and collective consensus on the need for a universal language in the near-future posthuman condition. In answer to this need, this dissertation contextualises and goes on to explore a realised case study of a practice-based solution for a universal pictorial communication system. The system may at times seem ambitious and abstract, however, it aims to include all cultures of the world, seeking to establish a direction that identifies and locates cultural similarities over cultural difference. This practice-based enquiry proposes a direction that should maintain coherence, logic, and veracity in order to develop a pictographic communication system that is a valid representation of the human experience in a posthuman condition.

Interactions are formed and shaped differently from culture to culture. This thesis focuses on this phenomenon and in the first part deals with (from a theoretical view) the question, how the interplay between language-use and culture can be described. A cross-disciplinary approach within the scope of cross-cultural communication research is developed as is a semiotic concept, based on mainly linguistic, interactional and anthropological theories and methods. In order to describe different culture-specific interactional styles the semiotic field called embedding culture is outlined as an important resource for participants organizing talk-in-interactions. In the second part of this book the relevance of this approach is applied and tested. With the aid of various video recordings of ‘lunch-talks’ among colleagues at a restaurant in Sweden and Germany, this specific type of action and their cultural patterns are analyzed in order to describe cultural-specific styles in face-to-face-interaction. The methodological problem of recorded interaction is pointed out and the role of the camera highlighted. As the analyzed data is mainly based on interactions between men also gender-aspects are discussed. Furthermore, the scenario, time aspects and the customs and rituals of interactions at table are taken into account as relevant features of the embedding culture, all going into a culture-specific style of interaction. The results of the empirical study are, finally, correlated with other, not interaction-based analyses in the field of cross-cultural communication, and the specific national-cultural dimensions are critically discussed.
Interaktioner utformas och gestaltas olika från kultur till kultur. Avhandlingen fokuserar på denna aspekt och behandlar först ur ett teoretiskt perspektiv hur detta fenomen kan beskrivas. Med en tvärvetenskaplig ansats inom ramen av den s.k. interkulturella kommunikationsforskningen (cross-cultural communication) kombineras kulturanalytiska med lingvistiska och samtalsanalytiska teorier och metoder. Ett semiotiskt koncept utarbetas med hjälp av vilka olika kulturspecifika interaktionsstilar kan beskrivas. Det semiotiska fältet som koncipierats kallas för Einbettungskultur (’inbäddningskulturen’). I den andra delen används och prövas detta koncept. Med hjälp av ett flertal videoinspelade lunchsamtal i Sverige och Tyskland analyseras konkreta exempel på kommunikativ praxis och deras kulturella mönster i jämförbara interaktionssituationer. Det beskrivs hur den kulturspecifika interaktionsstilen vid lunchen bland svenska arbetskollegor kan skilja sig från det tyskspråkiga sättet att gestalta samma interaktionstyp. Inspelningssituationen problematiseras och kamerans roll i interaktionen diskuteras. Eftersom analyserna huvudsakligen baseras på samtal mellan män tas genusperspektivet upp. Vid sidan av själva samtalen analyseras även scenariot, tidsaspekten och ritualiseringen av interaktionen vid bordet som tre aspekter av inbäddningskulturen som tillsammans bidrar till en kulturspecifik interaktionsstil. Resultaten av den kulturella analysen som tar sin utgångspunkt i en konkret och jämförbar interaktionssituation i olika kulturer relateras avslutningsvis till andra, icke-interaktionsbaserade analyser inom den interkulturella kommunikationsforskningen och nationalkulturella beskrivningar problematiseras.

The Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) study contributed a wealth of knowledge regarding the differences across national/societal cultures. However, it did not attempt to measure the potential variations in implicit leadership theories (ILTs; leadership prototypes) that could occur due to individuals being influenced by more than one national culture within countries, such as bicultural individuals. Variations found within a country can be described by their extent of acculturation or adoption of one or more cultural influences. The extent of a person’s acculturation may predict individual ILTs, which are the patterns of attributes that bicultural persons associate with good leaders. In addition, the extent of a person’s cultural intelligence (CQ) may interact with acculturation in impacting ILTs because CQ influences a person’s ability to understand and adjust mental modes to cultural norm. This study explored the relationships among acculturation, CQ, and ILTs in a sample of respondents from Mexican descent living in the United States. The results of the study provide a better understanding of how variations in national culture impact ILTs. In addition, the findings suggest interpretation of cultural dimensions is complex. Significant findings include (a) differences across acculturation levels regarding expectation for a leader to be characterized by the ILT dimensions of sensitivity and tyranny; (b) very Mexican-oriented individuals (acculturation Level 1) showing more expectation for a leader to be characterized as well-dressed, well-groomed, compassionate, understanding, sympathetic, and sensitive and less expectation for a leader to be domineering and demanding than Anglo-oriented individuals (acculturation Level 3), acculturation serving as a predictor of metacognitive CQ; (c) acculturation and metacogntive CQ clearly interacting thus complicating the picture of cultural effects occurring during adjustments to a new cultural setting; and (d) metacognitive CQ serving as a partial mediator between acculturation level and the ILT dimension of sensitivity.

During June of 2015, an anthropological and sociological study was conducted in the Dominican city of Bani. On the surface, the banilejo people appear to be devout Catholics. However, having had access to their personal lives, it was evident that their peculiar family traditions and folklore hinted at their liminal identities. This study involved interviewing 23 female subjects with questions found in the Spanish and Portuguese inquisitorial manuals. In addition, their mitochondrial DNA sequences were analyzed and demonstrated a high percentage of consanguinity and inbreeding within Bani's population. The genetic analysis of their mitochondrial DNA yielded genetic links with Jewish women from worldwide Jewish communities. Victor Turner's communitas theory and Geertz's thick description were used as the methodology. Ultimately, the sociological and anthropological analysis of their way of life evidenced how their ancestors preserved Jewish identity covertly throughout the inquisition time period (1481-1834) and how they continue to perpetuate it in contemporary times through consanguinity, and the power of superstition and taboo.

Conventional ways of looking at livelihood systems and household food security fail to capture the variations in procurement strategies used by different households to obtain resources. This can be attributed to the fact that the attention of the developers is mostly focused on national food supplies. Aggregate data obscures the local and regional inequality and seasonal disparities in access to food. This is exacerbated by the preconceived notion that peasant societies are a monolithic unit. Thus, our understanding of the internal dynamics of peasant communities, and of cooperation and conflict among their members becomes distorted. Considerable variability exists in Chad and Haiti both in terms of livelihood systems and household resource endowments. This dissertation argues that approaches to food security must address this variability at the household level. Social differentiation exists between households and within households within any given community. To improve our understanding of intra-household dynamics, gender analysis must be used to delineate the economic activities, division of labor, and access to and control over resources that exist among household members. Most food security scholars have assumed that rural households can adapt to sudden crises. This dissertation shows that rural households are always in the dynamic process of coping; crises are not conjunctural but rather endemic. The coping mechanisms they develop are not as well patterned as the literature portrays them. In a context of failing livelihood systems of the last two decades, people's responses to vulnerability vary according to changing circumstances. Another major assumption about food security is that child nutritional status is an indicator of the food and health conditions of child household and of the entire community. Research conducted in Haiti presents a case study which runs counter to this general assumption. Variability, flexibility, adaptability, diversification and resilience are key concepts in household food security. Studies on food security should take into consideration at least five major sources of variations: (1) Contrasts among livelihood systems; (2) Intra-community variations; (3) Differences in household resource endowments; (4) Variation between households or local communities in relation to the "national state"; and (5) Changes in all of the foregoing sources of variation over time.

According to former brain surgeon, Nils Simonson, Swedish schools are wasting their students’ time by using teaching methods that lead to poor memorization, namely reading and listening as separate activities. He instead suggests that the students use methods that lead to better memorization. The study described in this rendering focuses on two of Simonson’s suggestions – discussion and peer teaching. This work accounts for a study, in which Swedish 8 thgrade English students were working in asymmetrical pairs, i.e. pairs composed by students on different levels of achievement. The study was aimed at finding an answer to the thesis question of whether working in asymmetrical pairs led to a larger or smaller improvement, on a final grammar test, than the improvement of the rest of the students in the class, who were working individually, and thus formed a control group for the study. The result was that the students in three out of four asymmetrical pairs improved their results more than the control group. Since one of the students in the fourth asymmetrical pair had been absent, they had only been working together during half the period of the study. This probably explains why their improvement was only on the same level as the improvement of the students in the control group. The answer to the thesis question is therefore that working in asymmetrical pairs led to better results on the final grammar test, than working individually. If the results of the participating students are divided into different groups, we also find that the students with the lowest results on the initial grammar test were those who improved their results the most, which could possibly be explained by a better room for improvement. Due to the short time range of the study, it was limited to one class, and the generalizability of the study is hence very low. However, it could potentially serve as a pilot study for larger research projects. My main idea of future research is thus to expand the study to a larger number of students. It would also be interesting to incorporate students on all levels of achievement into a similar research project. This work incorporates predominant teaching science theory, such as socio-cultural theories, and influential second language acquisition theory, such as the input hypothesis, the output hypothesis and focus on form instruction.

The main purpose of this essay is to study how classroom interaction can take place in a class for Second Language Learners (SLL).1 I have applied a case study methodology on a linguistic method used by a Teacher in Swedish as Second Language working on a primary school situated in the Southern suburbs of Stockholm. The learning method is based on extensive reading of books which comprehend several learning techniques organized into a process that support the development of linguistic skills such as discussing in a group, writing, reading and thinking in a second language. The methodology applied is based on observations, on an interview with a Teacher in Swedish as Second Language and on a questionnaire answered by 11 students that participated on “Boksamtal”. Based on a theoretical framework about socio cultural theories on learning and scaffolding,2 I attempt to integrate theory and practice to investigate how the Teacher succeed on applying effective methods for second language learning. Through the analyses of the data is also my intention to emphasize the advantages and disadvantages of such a method. In order to clarify the analysis I have identified two different kind of scaffolding: the Teacher-Student interaction and the scaffolding that creates through the learning methods on “Boksamtal”. The results of the analysis shows that a school organization that affirms the student’s identities, has a well organized program based on context-embedded teaching with a combination of different forms of scaffolding succeed to generate critical language awareness and cognitive skills. On the other hand I found several points that are worth attention such as the a lack of cooperation between the mother tongue Teachers and the other Teachers of the school, and the importance of choosing appropriated books on which the students can easily relate to. Furthermore I found two points that need deeper reflection, which strategies can be used for shy students that do not produce a word and how can the school find adequate support for a second language student born in Sweden who has not attained the expected level. 1 Cummins 2001: 3262 Gibbons 2006: 29

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2007.
Title from electronic title page (viewed Apr. 25, 2008). "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English." Discipline: English; Department/School: English.

In this thesis we shall be concerned with the study of models which arise as a consequence of adopting discrete regularisations for various Euclidean space quantum field theories. Specifically, we employ a random triangulation of the continuum space, and define the fields only over nodes or links of the mesh. Lattice field theories, together with the Renormalisation Group, are introduced in the first chapter. Continuum physics is shown to depend on the positions and stabilities of zeroes of the β-function, which in turn requires a knowledge of the critical behaviour of the associated statistical model. In Chapter 2. we examine a theory of Dirac fermions in 2 + 1 dimensions on a random lattice. We investigate the behaviour of the 2-pt function and fermion condensate in the absence of any background gauge field. The results indicate certain doubling problems, generic to regular lattice formulations of fermion field theories, are evaded, at least at tree graph level. We then go on to examine the fermion vacuum currents in the presence of background fields with non-zero winding number. We are able to demonstrate the existence of a Chern-Simon's topological term in the gauge field effective action which yields parity violating vacuum currents. The magnitude of these are in agreement with certain continuum calculations. The final chapter concerns the properties of random surfaces. The particular class of models chosen originate as discretisations of Polyakov's string. The partition function is approximated by a sum over all possible random triangulations and an integral over vertex positions. The sum over random lattices is intended to mimick the functional integral over intrinsic metrics encountered in the continuum, and the model may also be pictured as 2D quantum gravity coupled to a scalar field. We consider the phase structure of the models when two forms of extrinsic curvature are added to the standard action. Monte-Carlo simulation indicates that with one type of curvature term a strong 2^nd order phase transition exists at finite coupling, leading to a new continuum limit for the model possessing long-range correlation properties. With the other type a much weaker higher order transition is observed. In this case the surface will be crumpled at long distance. We discuss the implications of these results for continuum surfaces.

The vast majority of all experimental results in particle physics can be described by the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics. However, neither the existence of neutrino masses nor the mixing in the leptonic sector, which have been observed, can be described within this model. In fact, the model only describes a fraction of the known energy in the Universe. Thus, we know there must exist a theory beyond the SM. There is a plethora of possible candidates for such a model, such as supersymmetry, extra dimensional theories, and string theory. So far, there are no evidence in favor of these models. These theories often reside at high energies, and will therefore be manifest as effective theories at the low energies experienced here on Earth. A first example in extra-dimensional theories. From our four-dimensional point of view, particles which propagate through the extra dimensions will effectivel be perceived as towers of heavy particles. In this thesis we consider an extra-dimensional model with universal extra dimensions, where all SM particles are allowed to propagate through the extra dimensions. Especially, we place a bound on the range of validity for this model. We study the renormalization group running of the leptonic parameters as well as the Higgs self-coupling in this model with the neutrino masses generated by a Weinberg operator. Grand unified theories, where the gauge couplings of the SM are unified into a single oe at some high energy scale, are motivated by the electroweak unification. The unification must necessarily take place at energies many orders of magnitude greater than those that ever can be achieved on Earth. In order to make sense of the theoru, ehich is given at the grand unified scale, at the electroweak scale, the symmetry at the grand unified scale is broken down to the SM symmetry. Within these models the SM is considered as an effective field theory. We study renormalization group running of the leptonic parameters in a non-supersymmetric SO(10) model which is broken in two steps via the Pati-Salam group. Finally, the discovery of the new boson at the LHC provides a new opportunity to search for physics beyond the SM. We consider an effective model where the magnitudes of the couplings in the Higgs sector are scaled by so-called coupling scale factors. We perform Bayesian parameter inference based on the LHC data. Furthermore, we perform Bayesian model comparison, comparing models where one or several of the Higgs couplings are allowed, to the SM, where the couplings are fixed.

QC 20141020

Niniejsza rozprawa poświęcona jest zagadnieniu wpływu teorii kulturowych na współczesne koncepcje literatury grozy. W rezultacie, bezpośrednim przedmiotem analizy są w niej teksty krytyczne. W tekstach tych badaniom podlegają możliwe wpływy teorii kulturowych na konceptualizacje zarówno poszczególnych tekstów grozy jak i literatury gotyckiej jako takiej. Perspektywa badawcza, przyjęta w niniejszej rozprawie, jest zatem bliska perspektywie nowego historyzmu. Opiera się ona w znacznej mierze na teorii dyskursu Michela Foucaulta oraz na jego koncepcji przedmiotu jako dyskursywnego konstruktu. Z tej perspektywy, krytyka literatury grozy funkcjonuje w obrębie dyskursu, czy też sama reprezentuje dyskurs, w wyniku czego aktywnie konstruuje własny przedmiot badań. Z przyjętego w rozprawie punktu widzenia, koncepcja literatury grozy postrzegana jest jako konstrukt powstały w procesie przekształcania i dopasowywania do określonych ram dyskursywnych. Aby uwidocznić ten proces, niniejsza praca przyjmuje, iż groza charakteryzuje się nade wszystko swą ‘współczesnością’: tym, że jest niezmiennie zanurzona w swym własnych kontekście historycznych, właściwym dla danej epoki i znanym zarówno autorowi, jak i bezpośredniemu odbiorcy. Co więcej, na kontekst ten składają się nie tyle dane wydarzenia historyczne, co współczesne tekstom grozy dyskursy – społeczne, polityczne, ekonomiczne i kulturowe. Wydaje się, że tylko poprzez uwzględnienie wpływu owych dyskursów na tekst grozy i jego odbiór, tekst taki może zostać odpowiednio skontekstualizowany i opisany. Przez teorie kulturowe rozumie się tu szereg szerszych perspektyw społecznokulturowych do których od lat siedemdziesiątych dwudziestego wieku odwoływali się w swych analizach krytycy grozy. Najważniejszymi z nich wydają się psychoanaliza, Marksizm i feminizm i to im rozprawa poświęca najwięcej uwagi. Są to bowiem teorie, które wedle współczesnych przedstawień historii krytyki literatury grozy, pomogły ustanowić współczesny społeczno-kulturowy status literatury gotyckiej. Decyzja o skupieniu się na analizie tekstów krytycznych, nie literackich, jest wynikiem refleksji nad paradoksalnym, jak mogłoby się wydawać, statusem, jakim w dzisiejszych czasach cieszy się literatura grozy. Stanowi ona przedmiot rozległych badań od około półwiecza, umożliwiając badaczom wgląd zarówno w tło historycznoliterackie poszczególnych tekstów, jak i w ogólną historię współczesnej kultury zachodu. Jednakże, bardzo trudno jest odpowiedzieć choćby na tak proste pytanie, jak „Czym jest literatura gotycka?” Wydaje się, że mimo lat badań, jesteśmy coraz dalsi od udzielenia takich odpowiedzi. Fakt ten kieruje naszą uwagę na rolę krytyki literackiej w kształtowaniu postrzegania tekstu literackiego. Wydaje się, że koniecznym jest postawienie następującego pytania: dlaczego współcześni badacze grozy ukazują tą literaturę jako niedefiniowalną, wysoce zróżnicowaną i hybrydyczną, w stopniu uniemożliwiającym jej pełne uchwycenie i opisanie, pomimo całych lat owocnych badań? Niniejsza rozprawa przyjmuje jako swój punkt wyjścia założenie, że wyżej wspomniane teorie kulturowe, używane niejednokrotnie jako narzędzia analizy tekstu, dążą do odkrycia ponadczasowej prawdy, jednocześnie same będąc ‘bytami’ historycznymi. W wyniku tego, oparcie się na nich bez jednoczesnego uwzględnienia dyskursywnego tła danego tekstu prowadzi do przetworzenia i niejako ‘napisania’ owego tekstu na nowo, zgodnie z przyjętą perspektywą. Dzieje się tak, ponieważ krytyk literacki, w trakcie analizy, skupia się na tych elementach tekstu, na które wrażliwa jest dana teoria, pomijając te, których ramy dyskursywne, właściwe dla tej teorii, nie są w stanie objaśnić. Rezultatem jest przetworzenie tekstu grozy według ramy dyskursywnej współczesnej badaczowi, ale obcej dla samego tekstu. Niniejsze rozprawa, jednocześnie, sama oparta jest na teorii. Jej celem nie jest jednak odrzucenie teorii jako narzędzia badawczego. Zamiast tego, rozprawa przyjmuje stanowisko, że analiza teoretyczna musi być koniecznie poparta analizą historyczną. W ten sposób, możliwe jest uniknięcie projekcji założeń właściwych danej teorii na dany tekst. Dlatego też analizy prowadzone w trakcie rozprawy, siłą rzeczy, podparte są rozważaniami na temat dyskursów, które mogły mieć wpływ zarówno na powstanie jak i odbiór danych tekstów literackich w przeszłości. W rozprawie szczególny nacisk kładziony jest na rozważenie kwestii subwersywności literatury gotyckiej. Podczas gdy współczesna krytyka grozy ukazuje ową literaturę jako niemożliwą do pełnego zdefiniowania, mimo wszystko podkreśla subwersywność i transgresywność jako jej nieodłączne cechy charakterystyczne, czy wręcz ‘gatunkowe.’ Te, z kolei, znajdują odzwierciedlenie, z jednej strony, w założeniu niedefiniowalności literatury grozy (groza z natury podważa obowiązujące normy i przekracza granice gatunkowe), a z drugiej strony, w założeniu marginalizacji grozy (przy czym, fakt, że literatura grozy podlegała marginalizacji uznawany jest za dowód na jej ‘gatunkowe’ zaangażowanie w kontestację porządku społeczno-kulturowego, a sama marginalizacja, za przejaw ‘wyparcia’). Jak się jednak okazuje, literatura gotycka jest nie tyle niemożliwa do zdefiniowania, co założenie niedefiniowalności okazuje się funkcjonalne w obrębie współczesnego dyskursu krytycznego. Pozwala ono bowiem na dowolne definiowanie badanego zjawiska, bez ryzyka powstania ogólnie przyjętej definicji, będącej swego rodzaju ograniczającą i zinstytucjonalizowaną ‘wielką narracją,’ z punktu widzenia której możliwe byłoby automatyczne wykluczenie konkretnych koncepcji jako ‘niewłaściwych.’ Co więcej, wydaje się, że niesłuszne jest uznanie charakteru grozy za opozycyjny, czy kontestacyjny na podstawie faktu, że była ona marginalizowana w dyskursach krytycznych przeszłości. Jak pokazuje niniejsza rozprawa, ani niedefiniowalność, ani postawa anty-oświeceniowa nie są cechami charakterystycznymi literatury grozy. Pozwalają, jednakże, współczesnym badaczom na konstruowanie zjawiska literackiej grozy w taki sposób, by potwierdzało ono ich własny punkt widzenia, czy mogło posłużyć realizacji ich własnych celów. Rozdział pierwszy rozprawy poświęcony jest analizie współczesnych przedstawień historii badań nad literaturą grozy. Takie przedstawienia bardzo często powielają pewien schemat, w którym podstawą dla określenia współczesnego statusu badacza jest stanowcze odcięcie się od perspektyw wcześniejszych pokoleń badaczy, dominujących przed rokiem 1980, a przyjęcie perspektywy charakteryzującej się ugruntowaniem analizy w dostępnych teoriach kulturowych. Jak ukazują współczesne historie badań nad grozą, to zmiana, raczej niż ewolucja, leży u podstaw współczesnego statusu zarówno literatury grozy jak i jej krytyki. Nakreślenie spójnego obrazu współczesnej dziedziny badań nad literaturą grozy – dziedziny ogromnie zróżnicowanej – jest z kolei możliwe poprzez przyjęcie założenia, że badania te wskazują na subwersywny charakter zjawiska, któremu są poświęcone. Rozdział drugi poświęcony jest, z kolei, ukazaniu kontr-historii, które świadczą o dużej samoświadomości współczesnej krytyki grozy. Szereg tekstów krytycznych, przytaczanych w tym rozdziale, wskazuje na fakt, że sami badacze, zwłaszcza ci analizujący literaturę grozy z punktu widzenia nowego historyzmu, stają się coraz to bardziej świadomi procesu przetwarzania, jakiemu podlega literatura gotycka w trakcie analizy z punktu widzenia teorii w przypadku, gdy nie ma miejsca odwołanie się do kontekstu historycznego danego tekstu. Szczególnie problematyczna okazuje się być pod tym względem psychoanaliza. Dostrzegany jest również fakt, że współczesne koncepcje grozy niejednokrotnie służą poparciu kontestacyjnych postaw samych badaczy. Rozdział trzeci poświęcony jest metodologii badawczej niniejszej rozprawy. Metodologia ta opiera przede wszystkim na rozważaniach Michela Foucaulta nad dyskursem, które umożliwiają postrzegania krytyki literackiej jako swoistego dyskursu, w obrębie którego ma miejsce konstruowanie przedmiotu padań. Rozdział rozważa też przyjęte w rozprawie rozumienie ‘znaczenia’ tekstu jako ugruntowanego w tle dyskursywnym danej epoki, oraz rozważa współczesne ukazania historii badań nad grozą, oparte na odgrodzeniu się od wcześniejszych perspektyw, w świetle rozważań Stanleya Fisha nad zasadami jakie rządzą naszym postrzeganiem danej interpretacji jako właściwej. Rozdział proponuje też wytłumaczenie dla faktu, że krytyka literatury grozy wciąż zdaje się często dążyć do ‘odkrycia’ jednoznacznych prawd o swym przedmiocie badań. Rozdział czwarty omawia sposoby, w jakie sama myśl Foucaulta jest współcześnie wykorzystywana przez krytykę literacką w rozważaniach nad grozą. Z jednej strony, przytoczony zostaje przykład Roberta Milesa, który w swym studium „Gothic Writing, 1750-1820. A Genealogy” odwołuje się do genealogii Foucaulta jako wyjątkowo skutecznej metody badawczej w przypadku literatury grozy i ukazuje w jaki sposób przyjęte w niniejszej rozprawie stanowisko metodologiczne zbliża się do i różni od tego przyjętego przez Milesa. Z drugiej strony, analizie podlegają przykłady tekstów krytycznych, w których myśl Foucaulta sama ulega przetworzeniu przez pryzmat przyjętej koncepcji literatury grozy. W wyniku tego, zamiast prowadzić do ukazania nowych faktów i związków, służy potwierdzeniu wcześniej obranego stanowiska. W końcu, rozdziały piaty i szósty poświęcone są, kolejno, analizie koncepcji niedefiniowalności i marginalizacji literatury grozy. Rozdział piąty analizuje szereg tekstów krytycznych, począwszy od studium J.M.S. Tompkins z pierwszej połowy dwudziestego wieku, a kończąc na studium Anne Williams z ostatniej dekady tego samego stulecia. W wyniku analiz, okazuje się, iż nie ma zasadniczej różnicy pomiędzy wczesną a współczesną krytyką grozy, ponieważ, bez względu na przyjęta perspektywę metodologiczną, obie konstruują literaturę grozy w odniesieniu do własnych ram dyskursywnych, tym samym ograniczając swój punkt widzenia do założeń właściwych tejże ramie. Co więcej, podczas gdy współcześni badacze starają się nie dopuścić do powstania ‘wielkiej narracji,’ która zdominowałaby ich dziedzinę badań, podjęte przez nich starania mające na celu ukazanie, że groza nie ogranicza się do zjawiska marginalnego i przelotnego, przyczyniają się do rozproszenia granic tego zjawiska i umożliwiają weryfikację istniejących koncepcji literatury gotyckiej. Rozdział szósty, z kolei, ukazuje w jaki sposób marginalizacja grozy, mająca swój początek w osiemnastym wieku i negatywnej recepcji krytycznej wczesnych powieści gotyckich, uznawana jest przez współczesnych badaczy za oznakę i potwierdzenie subwersywności gatunku. Z tego punktu widzenia, literatura grozy zagraża porządkowi oświeceniowemu pod względem społecznym, moralnym i estetycznym, co czyni ja niezwykle bliską współczesnym badaczom i cenną dla badań nad formowaniem się tożsamości społeczno-kulturowej klasy średniej. Jednakże, rozdział ma na celu ukazać, że literatura grozy nie jest z założenia anty-oświeceniowa, ani nie kontestuje porządku społecznego narzuconego przez klasę średnią. Wręcz przeciwnie, wczesna powieść gotycka wpisuje się w tło dyskursywne swej epoki, odzwierciedlając zachodzące w niej przemiany społeczne, kulturowe, polityczne, a zwłaszcza ekonomiczne. Jako taka, okazuje się ona być zjawiskiem reprezentatywnym dla osiemnastowiecznej kultury brytyjskiej i często ucieleśniającym wartości klasy średniej, a nie otwarcie antagonistycznym.

In den Anfängen der Cultural Studies in der Birmingham School spielte Geschlecht eine eher untergeordnete Rolle. Bald wurden jedoch auch feministische Positionen herangezogen, um Ungleichheiten der Alltagspraxis zu erklären, die nicht klassentheoretisch zu fassen waren. In den Arbeiten von Rubin und Mulvey beispielsweise werden Geschlecht bzw. Geschlechtsunterscheidungen und -ungleichheiten durch makrosoziale Wissensstrukturen und kollektive Praktiken reproduziert.

In den Anfängen der Cultural Studies in der Birmingham School spielte Geschlecht eine eher untergeordnete Rolle. Bald wurden jedoch auch feministische Positionen herangezogen, um Ungleichheiten der Alltagspraxis zu erklären, die nicht klassentheoretisch zu fassen waren. In den Arbeiten von Rubin und Mulvey beispielsweise werden Geschlecht bzw. Geschlechtsunterscheidungen und -ungleichheiten durch makrosoziale Wissensstrukturen und kollektive Praktiken reproduziert.

International cooperation on export controls for technology is based on three assumptions, that it is possible: to know against whom controls should be directed; to control the international transfer of technology; and to define the items to be controlled. These assumptions paint a very hierarchical framing of one of the central problems in export controls: dual-use technology. This hierarchical framing has been in continual contention with a competitive framing that views the problem as the marketability of technology. This thesis analyses historical and contemporary debates between these two framings of the problem of dual-use technology, focusing on the multilateral Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies. Using a framework of concepts from Science & Technology Studies and the theory of sociocultural viability, I analyse the Arrangement as a classification system, where political, economic, and social debates are codified in the lists of controlled items, which then structure future debates. How a technology is (not) defined, I argue, depends as much on the particular set of social relations in which the technology is enacted as on any tangible aspects the technology may have. The hierarchical framing is currently hegemonic within Wassenaar, and I show how actors that express this framing use several strategies in resolving anomalies that arise concerning the classification of dual-use technology. These strategies have had mixed success, and I show how they have adequately resolved some cases (e.g. quantum cryptography), while other areas have proved much more difficult (e.g. focal plane arrays and computers). With the development of controls on intangible technology transfers, a third, egalitarian framing is arising, and I argue that initial steps have already been taken to incorporate this framing with the discourse on dual-use technology. However, the rise of this framing also calls into question the fundamental assumption of export controls that technology is excludable, and therefore definable.

This thesis considers the main theoretical positions within the contemporary sociology of nationalism. These can be grouped into two basic types, primordialist theories which assert that nationalism is an inevitable aspect of all human societies, and modernist theories which assert that nationalism and the nation-state first developed within western Europe in recent centuries. With respect to primordialist approaches to nationalism, it is argued that the main common explanation offered is human biological propensity. Consideration is concentrated on the most recent and plausible of such theories, sociobiology. Sociobiological accounts root nationalism and racism in genetic programming which favours close kin, or rather to the redirection of this programming in complex societies, where the social group is not a kin group. It is argued that the stated assumptions of the sociobiologists do not entail the conclusions they draw as to the roots of nationalism, and that in order to arrive at such conclusions further and implausible assumptions have to be made. With respect to modernists, the first group of writers who are considered are those, represented by Carlton Hayes, Hans Kohn and Elie Kedourie, whose main thesis is that the nation-state and nationalism are recent phenomena. Next, the two major attempts to relate nationalism and the nation-state to imperatives specific either to capitalist societies (in the `orthodox' marxist theory elaborated about the turn of the twentieth century) or to the processes of modernisation and industrialisation (the `Weberian' account of Ernest Gellner) are discussed. It is argued that modernist accounts can only be sustained by starting from a definition of nationalism and the nation-state which conflates such phenomena with others which are specific to the modern world. The marxist and Gellner accounts form the necessary starting point for any explanation as to why the nation-state is apparently the sole viable form of polity in the modern world, but their assumption that no pre-modern society was national leaves them without an adequate account of the earliest origins of the nation-state and of nationalism. Finally, a case study from the history of England argues both the achievement of a national state form and the elucidation of crucial components of a nationalist ideology were attained at a period not consistent with any of the versions of the modernist thesis.

Diese Arbeit befasst sich mit Quantenfeldtheorien auf nicht-kommutativen Räumen. Solche Modelle treten im Zusammenhang mit der Stringtheorie und mit der Quantengravitation auf. Ihre nicht-störungstheoretische Behandlung ist üblicherweise schwierig. Hier untersuchen wir jedoch drei nicht-kommutative Quantenfeldtheorien nicht-perturbativ, indem wir die Wirkungsfunktionale in eine äquivalente Matrixformulierung übersetzen. In der Matrixdarstellung kann die jeweilige Theorie dann numerisch behandelt werden. Als erstes betrachten wir ein regularisiertes skalares Modell auf der nicht-kommutativen Ebene und untersuchen den Kontinuumslimes bei festgehaltener Nicht-Kommutativität. Dies wird auch als Doppelskalierungslimes bezeichnet. Insbesondere untersuchen wir das Verhalten der gestreiften Phase. Wir finden keinerlei Hinweise auf die Existenz dieser Phase im Doppelskalierungslimes. Im Anschluss daran betrachten wir eine vier-dimensionale U(1) Eichtheorie. Hierbei sind zwei der räumlichen Richtungen nicht-kommutativ. Wir untersuchen sowohl die Phasenstruktur als auch den Doppelskalierungslimes. Es stellt sich heraus, dass neben den Phasen starker und schwacher Kopplung eine weitere Phase existiert, die gebrochene Phase. Dann bestätigen wir die Existenz eines endlichen Doppelskalierungslimes, und damit die Renormierbarkeit der Theorie. Weiterhin untersuchen wir die Dispersionsrelation des Photons. In der Phase mit schwacher Kopplung stimmen unsere Ergebnisse mit störungstheoretischen Berechnungen überein, die eine Infrarot-Instabilität vorhersagen. Andererseits finden wir in der gebrochenen Phase die Dispersionsrelation, die einem masselosen Teilchen entspricht. Als dritte Theorie betrachten wir ein einfaches, in seiner Kontinuumsform supersymmetrisches Modell, welches auf der "Fuzzy Sphere" formuliert wird. Hier wechselwirken neutrale skalare Bosonen mit Majorana-Fermionen. Wir untersuchen die Phasenstruktur dieses Modells, wobei wir drei unterschiedliche Phasen finden.
This work deals with three quantum field theories on spaces with noncommuting position operators. Noncommutative models occur in the study of string theories and quantum gravity. They usually elude treatment beyond the perturbative level. Due to the technique of dimensional reduction, however, we are able to investigate these theories nonperturbatively. This entails translating the action functionals into a matrix language, which is suitable for numerical simulations. First we explore a scalar model on a noncommutative plane. We investigate the continuum limit at fixed noncommutativity, which is known as the double scaling limit. Here we focus especially on the fate of the striped phase, a phase peculiar to the noncommutative version of the regularized scalar model. We find no evidence for its existence in the double scaling limit. Next we examine the U(1) gauge theory on a four-dimensional spacetime, where two spatial directions are noncommutative. We examine the phase structure and find a new phase with a spontaneously broken translation symmetry. In addition we demonstrate the existence of a finite double scaling limit which confirms the renormalizability of the theory. Furthermore we investigate the dispersion relation of the photon. In the weak coupling phase our results are consistent with an infrared instability predicted by perturbation theory. If the translational symmetry is broken, however, we find a dispersion relation corresponding to a massless particle. Finally, we investigate a supersymmetric theory on the fuzzy sphere, which features scalar neutral bosons and Majorana fermions. The supersymmetry is exact in the limit of infinitely large matrices. We investigate the phase structure of the model and find three distinct phases. Summarizing, we study noncommutative field theories beyond perturbation theory. Moreover, we simulate a supersymmetric theory on the fuzzy sphere, which might provide an alternative to attempted lattice formulations.

Der Band fasst die Ergebnisse einer 2010 an der Universität Tübingen unter dem Titel „Literarisches Übersetzen: Texte, Autoren, Räume, Medien“ veranstalteten Ringvorlesung zusammen. Handelt es sich bei Claudia Dathe, Renata Makarska und Schamma Schahadat um dem slavischen Raum verbundene Herausgeberinnen, so verwundert nicht, dass Beiträgen aus dem Bereich der Slavistik der meiste Platz gewährt wird. Auf sie folgen die Romanistik, die Anglistik sowie die Sinologie und Rechtswissenschaft. Das Verhältnis von Theorie und Praxis ist ausgewogen. Sechs der zwölf Autoren sind selbst als Übersetzer tätig und widmen sich Fallbeispielen bzw. praktischen Problemen des Übersetzens.

This thesis examines a specific type of instance that bridges the divide between seeing sacred texts as merely vehicles for content and as objects themselves: self-reference. Doing so yielded a heuristic system of categories of self-reference in sacred texts based on the way the text self-describes: Inlibration, Necessity, and Untranslatability. I provide examples of these self-referential features as found in various sacred texts: the Vedas, Āgamas, Papyrus of Ani, Torah, Quran, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, and the Book of Mormon. I then examine how different theories of sacredness interact with them. What do Durkheim, Otto, Freud, or Levinas say about these? How are their theories changed when confronted with sacred texts as objects as well as containers for content? I conclude by asserting that these self-referential features can be seen as ‘self-sacralizing’ in that they: match understandings of sacredness, speak for themselves, and do not occur in mundane texts.

In this paper we study the pecking order and tradeoff theories of capital structure on a sample of 121 Swedish, non-financial, listed firms over the period between 2000 - 2009. We find that the Swedish firms’ financing behavior appears to have features consistent with the predictions of both theories. The evidence shows a preference for a financing behavior consistent with the tradeoff theory for the whole sample and for a sample of small firms, whereas large firms appear to follow a pecking order on their financing decisions. We show that under sufficient conditions both theories might be seen as “reconciled” and not mutually exclusive, and we find evidence for the large firms of our sample consistent with this notion.

In this dissertation, we present work towards characterizing various conformal and nearly conformal quantum field theories nonperturbatively using a combination of numerical and analytical techniques. A key area of interest is the conformal window of four dimensional gauge theories with Dirac fermions and its potential applicability to beyond the standard model physics.

In the first chapter, we review some of the history of models of composite Higgs scenarios in order to motivate the study of gauge theories near the conformal window. In the second chapter we review lattice studies of a specific theory, SU(3) gauge theory with eight flavors of Dirac fermions in the fundamental representation of the gauge group. We place a particular emphasis on the light flavor-singlet scalar state appearing in the spectrum of this model and its possible role as a composite Higgs boson. We advocate an approach to characterizing nearly conformal gauge theories in which lattice calculations are used to identify the best low energy effective field theory (EFT) description of such nearly conformal gauge theories, and the lattice and EFT are then used as complementary tools to classify the generic features of the low energy physics in these theories. We present new results for maximal isospin ππ → ππ scattering on the lattice computed using Lüscher's finite volume method. This scattering study is intended to provide further data for constraining the possible EFT descriptions of nearly conformal gauge theory. In Chapter 3, we review the historical development of chiral effective theory from current algebra methods up through the chiral Lagrangian and modern effective field theory techniques. We present a new EFT framework based on the linear sigma model for describing the low lying states of nearly conformal gauge theories. We place a particular emphasis on the chiral breaking potential and the power counting of the spurion field.

In Chapter 4, we report on a new formulation of lattice quantum field theory suited for studying conformal field theories (CFTs) nonperturbatively in radial quantization. We demonstrate that this method is not only applicable to CFTs, but more generally to formulating a lattice regularization for quantum field theory on an arbitrary smooth Riemann manifold. The general procedure, which we refer to as quantum finite elements (QFE), is reviewed for scalar fields. Chapter 5 details explicit examples of numerical studies of lattice quantum field theories on curved Riemann manifolds using the QFE method. We discuss the spectral properties of the finite element Laplacian on the 2-sphere. Then we present a study of interacting scalar field theory on the 2-sphere and show that at criticality it is in close agreement with the exact c = 1/2 minimal Ising CFT to high precision. We also investigate interacting scalar field theory on [special characters omitted] x [special characters omitted]², and we report significant progress towards studying the 3D Ising conformal fixed point in radial quantization with the QFE method. In the near future, we hope for the QFE method to be used to characterize the four dimensional conformal fixed points considered in the first half of this dissertation.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Physics, 2015.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-288).
In this thesis, we study strongly interacting superconformal field theories in two and three dimensions. In two dimensions, we investigate N = (0, 2) gauge theories using the gauged linear sigma models (GLSM). In those theories, we identify simple mechanism by which worldsheet description of H-flux satisfying Green-Schwarz Bianchi identity arises. Under the renormalization group flow, we argue that these models flow into superconformal fixed points describing string theory compactifications backgrounds with non-trivial H-flux turned on. By analyzing quantum-consistency of effective theories with such mechanism, we identify conditions under which these theories to become interacting superconformal field theories in the infrared. In three dimensions, we study maximally supersymmetric (N = 8) conformal field theories by conformal bootstrap approach. We focus on studying the four-point function of stress-tensor multiplet. The superconformal blocks for the four-point function are computed by analyzing superconformal Ward identity. Using these blocks, we study crossing symmetry constraints both numerically and analytically. Doing so, we obtain universal bounds and exact relations of N = 8 superconformal field theory data.
by Jaehoon Lee.
Ph. D.