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Article
Publication date: 28 September 2017

Johanna Drucker

A Recent work in information studies re-engages with theories of subject enunciation first developed in the work of twentieth century structuralist and post-structuralist critics…

Abstract

Purpose

A Recent work in information studies re-engages with theories of subject enunciation first developed in the work of twentieth century structuralist and post-structuralist critics. To date this work has not been extended to the analysis of data visualizations. The purpose of this paper is to assert that information visualizations embody specific dynamics of positionality for which linguist Emile Benveniste’s formulation of a speaking and spoken subject provides a critical analytic framework. In particular, enunciative theory can be used to explicitly address the mechanisms of power formation in information graphics “spreadsheets, charts and interfaces” that are frequently seen as mere presentations of quantitative or statistical information. This approach is based on attention to the performative aspects of graphic expression and the ways familiar features such as frontality framing and scale can be read critically.

Design/methodology/approach

A theoretical argument that applies literature in enunciation as developed in linguistics, film theory, and psychoanalysis to information visualizations. The paper makes specific analyses of the graphical features of spreadsheets, common charts and graphs, and interfaces to show how they create speaking and spoken subject positions.

Findings

The theory of enunciation is useful in understanding the ways information representations, particularly visualizations of data, work to produce power relations.

Research limitations/implications

The topic may seem to draw on theoretical positions that are associated with structural and post-structural theory popular three decades ago, but since the study of enunciation was never applied to information visualizations, the work feels timely. Recent work in information studies has re-engaged with these theoretical issues, but not applied them to charts, graphs, and other visual forms. Information visualizations are so prevalent that any critical insight into their operations feels timely, even urgent.

Originality/value

The concept of information as enunciation in recent work in information studies has not been applied to visualizations. Analysis of the production of subject positions as commonly understood in other fields (linguistics, textual studies, film studies, visual studies, and psychoanalysis across a broad range of cultural studies fields) can be usefully applied to information graphics.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 73 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 14 July 2004

Steven R Beckman, John P Formby and W James Smith

Income redistribution and its consequences have been the subject of intense debate over the last three decades. This is nowhere better evidenced than in the motivations which are…

Abstract

Income redistribution and its consequences have been the subject of intense debate over the last three decades. This is nowhere better evidenced than in the motivations which are variously ascribed to such redistributions. The social welfare approach, for example, starts from the premise that redistribution of income from the rich to the poor enhances social welfare, a fact from which redistribution derives its motivation. In contrast Tullock (1983, p. 2) argues that the major impetus for income redistribution is simply that the beneficiaries of transfer programs want larger incomes and greater wealth and have the political power to realize their goals. Buchanan (1984, p. 187) finds a constitutional basis for redistribution arguing that, if the voting franchise is universal and the constitution allows collective decisions concerning income transfers, then the basic property right to income in a society inheres in the voting franchise.

Details

Inequality, Welfare and Income Distribution: Experimental Approaches
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-113-2

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2002

Lashawnda Mckinnon and Cynthia L. Istook

Describes research designed to examine the effects of subject positioning on the accuracy of body scan data. A body measurement system developed by the Textile Clothing Technology…

1483

Abstract

Describes research designed to examine the effects of subject positioning on the accuracy of body scan data. A body measurement system developed by the Textile Clothing Technology Corporation was used to acquire two scans from each of 72 subjects. The subjects were instructed to continue to breathe normally and stand with their feet shoulder‐width apart. The two scans were compared and statistical analysis was performed to determine the precision of the results and whether this lack of standardization affected the data. Physical measurements were also obtained from each subject and served as a basis for comparison to the scanned measurements. Since physical measurements are the current accepted “true value”, these measurements determined the level of accuracy of scanned data. Three separate scans of 72 different subjects were taken at various levels of breathing and at various foot positions to determine the effect of the variables. This study certainly indicates that respiration and foot placement has a significant effect on body scan data. It was established that the scan data rendered by the software does have precision, but lacks accuracy when compared against physical measurements. This may be owing to the inaccuracies of the physical measurement process or to differences in measurement location between the anthropometrist and the 3D measurement extraction software. Information detailing the level of accuracy and precision that can be obtained with scanning software and how respiration and subject positioning can affect the data are included.

Details

Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, vol. 6 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1361-2026

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 December 2018

Eystein Gullbekk and Katriina Byström

The purpose of this paper is to analyse scholarly subjectivity in the context of citation practices in interdisciplinary PhD research.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyse scholarly subjectivity in the context of citation practices in interdisciplinary PhD research.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper provides an analysis of longitudinal series of qualitative interviews with PhD students who write scholarly articles as dissertation components. Conceptualizations of subjectivity within practice theories form the basis for the analysis.

Findings

Scholarly argumentation entails a rhetorical paradox of “bringing something new” to the communication while at the same time “establishing a common ground” with an audience. By enacting this paradox through citing in an emerging interdisciplinary setting, the informants negotiate subject positions in different modes of identification across the involved disciplines. In an emerging interdisciplinary field, the articulation of scholarly subjectivity is a joint open-ended achievement demanding knowledgeability in multiple disciplinary understandings and conducts. However, identifications that are expressible within the informants’ local site, i.e. interactions with supervisors, other seniors and peers, are not always expressible when negotiating subject positions with journals.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to research on citation practices in emerging interdisciplinary fields. By linking the enactment of citing in scholarly writing to the negotiation of subject positions, the paper provides new insights about the complexities involved in becoming a scholar.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 75 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 February 2022

Max Baker, Jane Andrew and John Roberts

This paper proposes a research method for analysing talk about accounting concepts, systems and numbers. The authors argue that studying accounting talk in situ is a fruitful way…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper proposes a research method for analysing talk about accounting concepts, systems and numbers. The authors argue that studying accounting talk in situ is a fruitful way to understand both the role accounting plays in the framing of relationships between individuals and the associated emotional content of these exchanges. As such, the authors argue that conversation analysis (CA) is a useful complement to interviews in qualitative research.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors introduce a specific approach to CA called positioning theory, which captures the linguistic and emotional subtleties embedded within interpersonal interactions, and the way accounting impacts and mediates these relations through measuring, assessment and control. The authors draw on one particularly animated conversation about accounting in a manufacturing company. The conversation was a largely emotional and animated exchange between individuals where talk about accounting was imbued with metaphors, violence, sex and humour.

Findings

While participants in conversations may appear to draw on similar forms of language and expression, CA allows researchers to see that the meaning of these shared expressions change based on who is saying them, whom they are saying them to and how they are saying them. Dissecting conversations as they unfold, offers a more nuanced and multifaceted understanding of accounting as central to the social fabric of organisational life.

Originality/value

As opposed to interviews, which often suffer from the rationality of hindsight (referred to as retrospective rationality), CA captures the unfolding nature of accounting talk in real-time–not upon reflection.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 35 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 March 2010

José González, Wenwei Yu and Alejandro Hernandez Arieta

It is widely agreed that amputees have to rely on visual input to monitor and control the position of the prosthesis while reaching and grasping because of the lack of…

Abstract

Purpose

It is widely agreed that amputees have to rely on visual input to monitor and control the position of the prosthesis while reaching and grasping because of the lack of proprioceptive feedback. Therefore, visual information has been a prerequisite for prosthetic hand biofeedback studies. This is why, the underlying characteristics of other artificial feedback methods used to this day, such as auditive, electro‐tactile, or vibro‐tactile feedback, has not been clearly explored. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether it is possible to use audio feedback alone to convey more than one independent variable (multichannel) simultaneously, without relying on the vision, to improve the learning of a new perceptions, in this case, to learn and understand the artificial proprioception of a prosthetic hand while reaching.

Design/methodology/approach

Experiments are conducted to determine whether the audio signals could be used as a multi‐variable dynamical sensory substitution in reaching movements without relying on the visual input. Two different groups are tested, the first one uses only audio information and the second one uses only visual information to convey computer‐simulated trajectories of two fingers.

Findings

The results show that it is possible to use auditive feedback to convey artificial proprioceptive information instead of vision as a guide, thus assist users by internalizing new perceptions.

Originality/value

This way, the strong and weak points of auditive feedback can be observed and can be used to improve future feedback systems or schemes, which can integrate different feedback methods to provide more information to the user.

Details

Industrial Robot: An International Journal, vol. 37 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-991X

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 13 July 2022

Abdulkhaliq Alazzawie and Noureldin Mohamed Abdelaal

Adopting the split complementizer phrase (CP) hypothesis, the paper aims at providing an account for object cliticization in Standard Arabic (SA) as an instance of object…

Abstract

Purpose

Adopting the split complementizer phrase (CP) hypothesis, the paper aims at providing an account for object cliticization in Standard Arabic (SA) as an instance of object displacement. Kayne's proposal on cliticization is adopted here to account for the type of displacement in SA that objects clitics in SA, like full determiner phrases (DPs), obligatorily move from their base position as independent complements of the verb to the specifier of Foc first before attaching to the verb under the tense node.

Design/methodology/approach

This research adopts a qualitative interpretive research design (Creswell, 2007, 2010). The majority of the samples chosen for the study involve dependent pronominal objects obligatorily attached to the verb. The samples were judged to be grammatical based on the author's judgment as an native speaker of Arabic. Moreover, all the examples were checked for grammaticality by two full professors of Arabic grammar who are native speakers.

Findings

The analysis proposed that, like lexical DP's, pronominal objects originate as separate maximal projection (XP) constituents and move from their base position as verbal complements to the focus position [Spec, Foc]. In other words, both are able to move out of VP, targeting the same specifier position of a functional projection. This movement is focus-driven, that is, triggered by the edge feature on Foc. Pronominal objects at a later phase crucially higher than V0 (possibly in phonetic form (PF)) get cliticized to the verb which has adjoined to T.

Originality/value

Unlike displaced lexical DP objects in SA syntax, displaced pronominal objects, however, have received less critical attention especially within Rizzi's (1997, 2004) left periphery theory and, therefore, some areas of these constructions remain poorly understood.

Details

Saudi Journal of Language Studies, vol. 2 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2634-243X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 August 2011

Katarina Lindblad‐Gidlund and Katarina Giritli Nygren

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discussion of the IT‐related public sector transformation by reintroducing the question of employees' organisational power and…

384

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discussion of the IT‐related public sector transformation by reintroducing the question of employees' organisational power and position in technological and technocratic systems.

Design/methodology/approach

To examine how formal organisational positions, together with the way in which employees position themselves in relation to technology, affect how employees interpret their accessible action space (position and action strategy), a survey in a local municipality was conducted.

Findings

As indicated in the hypothesis, the empirical results verify that the techno‐relational action space is two‐dimensional, consisting of both a formal position (how the organisational members are positioned) and a certain amount of action space outside a formal position (i.e. how they are position themselves). Elaborating on these dimensions generates rewarding insights into a micro‐change perspective where technology‐related innovation processes are concerned.

Practical implications

Identifying and acknowledging employees perceived techno‐relational action space is of great importance in understanding organisational members' participation, cooperation and innovative capability in government transformation.

Originality/value

The paper combines analysis of how the organisational members position themselves in relation to technology with how they are positioned organisationally in relation to technology and structures of power. Instead, the authors claim that the techno‐relational space is both a matter of how the organisational members position themselves in relation to technology and a matter of how they are positioned organisationally in relation to technology and structures of power.

Details

Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, vol. 5 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6166

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1998

Winifred Aldrich, Brian Smith and Feng Dong

This paper describes research undertaken at the Nottingham Trent University which investigated body movements and their relationship to garment design. The study identifies the…

Abstract

This paper describes research undertaken at the Nottingham Trent University which investigated body movements and their relationship to garment design. The study identifies the difference between ergonomic measuring positions and the natural postures used by real figures in real activities. A new approach to the identification and coding of upper body postures has been made. A body coding system and a simple piece of equipment was designed that enables extended natural body positions to be recorded, thus achieving repeatability. This work enabled comparisons of aesthetic appearance and the functional comfort of women's tailored jackets to be examined.

Details

Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, vol. 2 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1361-2026

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 30 March 2016

Evren Savcı

Departing from Turkish national debates around Islam, national belonging, and homosexuality during 2008–2011, this paper shows how “LGBT rights” discourses ultimately worked to…

Abstract

Departing from Turkish national debates around Islam, national belonging, and homosexuality during 2008–2011, this paper shows how “LGBT rights” discourses ultimately worked to position Muslim headscarf activists as against LGBT activists by rendering complex positions that do not follow easy “for vs. against” LGBT rights political formulas as “homophobic.” In return, this foreclosed potential solidarities differently injured citizens could have formed against increasing neoliberal state violence. I show that the multitude of Muslim women’s positions on the issue of LGBT rights complicates easy religious/secular binaries and illuminates how it is not only human rights discourses but also their “Western” critiques that travel transnationally. This story also contributes to current debates on postsecularism by illustrating how the same national context can house both liberal rights frameworks that can be used against pious Muslim subjects, and a monopolization of a definition of Islam for state power. Finally, I offer “politics of cruelty” and “right to sin” as alternative frameworks for imagining social justice outside of liberal rights-based politics.

Details

Perverse Politics? Feminism, Anti-Imperialism, Multiplicity
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-074-9

Keywords

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