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Multiple Meanings (multiple + meaning)
Selected AbstractsMultiple meanings of self harm: A critical reviewINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 3 2003Margaret McAllister ABSTRACT: The issue of self harm is a popular inclusion in various contemporary journals focusing on health and in particular women's health. This paper seeks to condense, critically analyse and more simply explain selected literature in order to raise awareness of the multiple ways of understanding self harm. Raised awareness may be a useful strategy in thinking about self harm in novel ways and thus providing alternate pathways for responding to the individual and society. [source] Recapturing the Universal in the UniversityEDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY, Issue 6 2005Ronald Barnett Abstract The idea of ,the university' has stood for universal themes,of knowing, of truthfulness, of learning, of human development, and of critical reason. Through its affirming and sustaining of such themes, the university came itself to stand for universality in at least two senses: the university was neither partial (in its truth criteria) nor local in its significance (at least, the university was an institution of the nation state and even had global significance). Now, this universalism has been shot down: on the one hand, universal themes have been impugned as passé in a postmodern age; in the ,knowledge society', knowledge with a capital ,K' is giving way to multiple and even local knowledges (plural). On the other hand, the very process of globalization has been accused of being a new process of colonization. Global universities, accordingly, may be seen as a vehicle for the imposition of Western modes of reason (often suspected in turn of being no more than Western economic reason at that). Diversity is the new watchword, a term that,we may note,has come to be part of the framing of the contemporary policy agenda for higher education. Accordingly, in such a situation of multiple meanings, both within and across institutions, the university becomes an institutional means for developing the capacities,at both the personal and the societal levels,to live with ,strangeness': perhaps here lies a new universal for the university? But, then, if that is the case, if strangeness is the new universal for the university, some large challenges await those who would claim to lead and manage universities. [source] CLAIMING PLACE: THE PRODUCTION OF YOUNG MEN'S STREET MEETING PLACES IN ACCRA, GHANAGEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 3 2008Thilde Langevang ABSTRACT This article discusses the social significance of the street to young men through a case study of their street meeting places, ,the bases' in Accra, Ghana. Drawing on field research in a suburb of Accra, the paper explores how such meeting places are produced, claimed and defended. The aim is to contribute to discussions of the relationship between the marginalization of young men in Africa, the appropriation of street space and the production of youth identities. The article illuminates how bases are produced in an urban landscape characterized by rapid change, in which young men are excluded from meaningful work and influence, and tend to be represented as a problem. Describing how these meeting places are interpreted both from the outside and from within, the article illustrates the heterogeneous character of such places and the multiple meanings ascribed to them. While hordes of young men hanging out on the street tend to be viewed by the surrounding world as either potentially dangerous or as a sign of marginalization and immobility, the paper stresses that for the young men themselves, these places are also full of motion and serve to orient their lives socially and materially. [source] TENDING CULTURAL LANDSCAPES AND FOOD CITIZENSHIP IN TORONTO'S COMMUNITY GARDENS,GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW, Issue 3 2004LAUREN E. BAKER ABSTRACT. Scattered throughout the city of Toronto are more than no community gardens, sites of place-based politics connected to the community food-security movement. The gardens, spaces where passions for plants and food are shared, reflect the city's shifting cultural landscape and represent an everyday activity that is imbued with multiple meanings. Toronto's community food-security movement uses gardens as one strategy to regenerate the local food system and provide access to healthy, affordable food. Three garden case studies expand on the complexities of "food citizenship," illustrating the importance of that concept to notions of food security. The gardens reveal the role gardeners play in transforming urban spaces, the complex network of organizations working cooperatively and in partnership to implement these projects, and the way in which social and cultural pluralism are shaping the urban landscape. [source] Uncertain about Uncertainty: Understanding the Multiple Meanings of a Crucial Concept in International Relations TheoryINTERNATIONAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Issue 3 2007Brian C. Rathbun The force of uncertainty is central to every major research tradition in the study of international relations. Yet uncertainty has multiple meanings, and each paradigm has a somewhat unique understanding of it. More often than not, these meanings are implicit. I argue that realists define uncertainty as fear induced by anarchy and the possibility of predation; rationalists as ignorance (in a nonpejorative sense) endemic to bargaining games of incomplete information and enforcement; cognitivists as the confusion (again nonpejoratively) of decision making in a complex international environment; and constructivists as the indeterminacy of a largely socially constructed world that lacks meaning without norms and identities. I demonstrate how these different understandings are what provide the necessary microfoundations for the paradigms' definitions of learning, their contrasting expectations about signaling, and the functions provided by international organizations. This has conceptual, methodological, and theoretical payoffs. Understanding uncertainty is necessary for grasping the logic of each paradigm, for distinguishing them from each other, and promoting interparadigmatic communication. [source] Democracy and Conceptual Contestability: Reconsidering Conceptions of Democracy in Democracy PromotionINTERNATIONAL STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 3 2010Milja Kurki Democracy is a deeply contested concept: historically, complex debates have revolved around the meaning of democracy and the plausibility of different ,models of democracy.' However, democracy's conceptual contestability has received diminished attention in the post-Cold War democracy promotion debate as the attention of democracy promotion actors and scholars has turned to fine-tuning of policies through which a liberal democratic model can be successfully encouraged. It is argued here that the focus on the extension of the reach of the liberal democratic mode of governance has resulted in a conceptually impoverished appreciation of the multiple meanings that the idea of democracy can take. It is argued that the ,essential contestability' of the idea of democracy is not adequately recognized and tackled, which in turn has important effects for the ability of democracy promotion scholars, as well as practitioners, to take into account the consequences that considering alternative (non- or extra-liberal) models of democracy might have for democracy promotion. To move the debate forward, I explore here, primarily in conceptual and theoretical terms, what serious engagement with the essential contestability of democracy might mean for democracy promotion. I argue that it entails a two-fold move: ,pluralization' and ,contextualization' of the conceptions of democracy. The latter part of the article examines in detail the reasons that might exist for considering such a move in framing the study and the practice of democracy promotion, as well as the potential dangers that might be involved. [source] Understanding the multiple meanings of ,inbreeding' and ,effective size' for genetic management of African rhinoceros populationsAFRICAN JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, Issue 4 2009Stanton Braude Abstract Although some African rhinoceros populations are currently increasing, others are critically endangered. Even healthy populations are extensively managed in the wild and in captivity. While political and demographic considerations are of primary concern, many decisions are made in the name of genetic management. Such decisions should be informed by a full understanding of the multiple meanings of inbreeding and effective population size. In this essay, we examine inbreeding and effective size of wild and captive populations of African rhinoceroses. We conclude by showing how misunderstanding of effective size and Franklin's 50/500 rule can make a crucial difference in informing management decisions. Résumé Bien que certaines populations de rhinocéros africains soient actuellement en augmentation, d'autres sont en danger critique. Même les populations saines sont gérées très activement dans la nature et en captivité. Alors que les considérations politiques et démographiques soient les principaux motifs d'inquiétude, de nombreuses décisions sont prises au nom de la gestion génétique. Ces décisions devraient se faire en pleine connaissance des multiples implications de l'inbreeding et de ce qu'est une taille de population nécessaire. Dans cet essai, nous examinons l'inbreeding et la taille nécessaire des populations sauvages et captives de rhinocéros africains. Nous concluons en montrant comment une mauvaise compréhension de la taille nécessaire et de la règle 50/500 de Franklin peut entraîner une différence cruciale lorsqu'il s'agit de prendre, en connaissance de cause, les décisions opportunes. [source] Stepping out of the box: broadening the dialogue around the organizational implementation of cognitive behavioural psychotherapyJOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC & MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 4 2005J. POOLE ba dip nursing (mh) The dissemination and uptake of cognitive behavioural interventions is central to the evidence-based mental health agenda in Britain. However, some policy and related literature, in and of itself social constructed, tends to display discursive naïvety in assuming a rational basis for the dissemination and organizational integration of cognitive behavioural approaches. Rational constructions fail to acknowledge that the practice settings of key stakeholders in the process are likely to be socially constructed fields of multiple meanings. Within these, the importance of evidence-based interventions may be variously contested or reworked. To illustrate this, a case example from the first author will discuss the hypothetical introduction of a cognitive behavioural group for voice hearers in a forensic mental health unit. This will highlight contradictions and local organizational problems around the effective utilization of postgraduate cognitive behavioural knowledge and skills. A synthesis of social constructionist with organizational theory will be used to make better sense of these actual and anticipated difficulties. From this basis, specific ways in which nurses and supportive stakeholders could move the implementation of cognitive behavioural psychotherapy agenda forward within a postmodern leadership context will be proposed. [source] Parsing the public domainJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 11 2005Terrence A. Maxwell This article explores the use of the term public domain in the American context and finds that the symbol is subject to multiple meanings. Using historical and content analysis, the analysis explores the various uses of the term and provides a preliminary taxonomy for subsequent analysis and theory building. In conclusion, it suggests that more coherent information policies regarding national and international information access, creativity, governance, and private property rights will require a better understanding and delineation of the use of public domain in legislative and common practice. [source] Close friendships among urban, ethnic-minority adolescentsNEW DIRECTIONS FOR CHILD & ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT, Issue 107 2005Niobe Way In-depth interviews with ethnic-minority, low-income, urban adolescents reveal the multiple meanings of trust and closeness in friendships, the intersection of trust and distrust, and the ways in which close friendships are firmly embedded in cultural contexts. [source] An anthropologist underwater: Immersive soundscapes, submarine cyborgs, and transductive ethnographyAMERICAN ETHNOLOGIST, Issue 4 2007STEFAN HELMREICH In this article, I deliver a first-person anthropological report on a dive to the seafloor in the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's three-person submersible, Alvin. I examine multiple meanings of immersion: as a descent into liquid, an absorption in activity, and the all-encompassing entry of an anthropologist into a cultural medium. Tuning in to the rhythms of what I call the "submarine cyborg","doing anthropology in sound," as advocated by Steven Feld and Donald Brenneis (2004),I show how interior and exterior soundscapes create a sense of immersion, and I argue that a transductive ethnography can make explicit the technical structures and social practices of sounding, hearing, and listening that support this sense of sonic presence. [source] | |||||||||||||