Thesis (Ph.D. (Communication Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / This thesis explored the narratives of Soviet survivors of the Soviet-Afghanistan War that lasted from 1979 to 1989. The purpose of this exploration was to gain an understanding of the individual arguments that these survivors were making in a published work by Belarussian literary journalist Svetlana Alexievich, in her book Zinky Boys: Soviet voices from the Afghanistan War, that was originally published in 1989, and translated into English in 1992. The thesis purpose was to determine the central public moral argument that the published work is making at the close of the Soviet-Afghan War. The body of literature reviewed and discussed in Chapter 3 helped frame the interpretative context for the study. The themes that emerged and captured there are all external in origin to the core text of Zinky Boys, and served a triangulatory purpose to some of the emic data that emerged in the process of analysis of the core text. One of the major influencers of the study is JC Behrends (2015b) who associated the concept of the Gewaltraum with the Soviet-Afghan War. The notion of agency that was advanced by Giddens in 1984 is equally of importance, as well as Milgram’s (1984) ideas of the agentic state and Obedience to Authority Theory. As theorists, Habermas’ (1991) advancement of the Theory of the Public Sphere and Fisher’s (1984) Narrative Paradigm, contribute to and influence the theoretical grounding of the study. The study followed the methodology of a textual analysis within the narrative turn, and utilised Fisher’s fidelity and probability tests as proposed within his narrative paradigm to construct a set of thematic intertexts, which provided compelling good reasons to accept the narratives of the survivors. In addition, Fisher’s (1984) differentiating features that set the public moral argument aside from reasoned discourse of the type used in more formal settings were applied to ensure that the public moral argument as derived from the text of Zinky Boys meets the requirements of a public moral argument. As a published work, the public moral argument emerging from Zinky Boys is a matter for the public sphere as Habermas (1991) envisages the sphere as a public space for public reasoned discourse in conflict with the political state. In this instance, it is specifically the Soviet public sphere, which is historically important as the Soviet-Afghan War concluded shortly before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. This thesis positions Zinky Boys as portraying the public moral argument of the Soviet survivors in the public sphere. The major findings of the thesis indicate that the Soviet Limited Contingent in Afghanistan were exposed to extreme levels of violence which is portrayed as a Gewaltraum (violent space). Secondly, the thesis finds that the agency of the Soviets in Afghanistan was often of a violent and abusive nature. A third finding indicates that participants in the war and their immediate family members, notably mothers, become victims of the psychological and physical impact of war. Finally, the finding is presented that the matter of the Soviet engagement in Afghanistan had become a matter for discussion in the public sphere. The resulting public moral argument positions the survivors of the Soviet-Afghan War as victims of the Soviet State due to their agentic state and psychological changes that they underwent in the Gewaltraum of Afghanistan, as well as the Soviet media campaign of disinformation and victimisation, and its effect on their standing as Soviet citizens and their inability to reintegrate successfully back into society. Key words Textual analysis; Intertextuality; Narrative journalism; Narrative paradigm; Phenomenology; Public Moral Argument; Public Sphere.

Since the turn of the millennium an extensive digitalisation of the European cultural heritage has been underway. The aim is to make the common cultural heritage accessible to everyone and promote developments in education, tourism and the creative industry, among others. Historically, archival documents and works of art have been closely related as archival documents has served as a proof of an artworks history and autheticity, its’ provinance. Since the turn of the millennium the archive has become a recurring theme in contemporary art. Informed by post structuralist theories of the archive as both a material place and a structure for power and history. In this paper the relation between archival documents and artworks are being examined. By studying the digitalisation project of Thielska Galleriet in Stockholm the aim is to answer how documents of Richard Bergh’s letter archive, preserved at Thielska Galleriet, are being affected when made digitally available together with the museum’s art collection. The study is framed by the archive science theory the accessparadigm. Occuring at the turn of the 21st century the paradigm correlated with the change from paper to digital information storage, changing the focus of the archive from custody to access. The analysis is taking an interdisciplinary approach in relation to the concepts provenance and authenticity, established in both archive science and art history and is further framed by the art historical dissertation The Archive Art Phenomenon: History and Critique at the turn of the Twenty-First Century by Sarah Callahan (Stockholm University 2018). The case study shows that the relation between archival documents and artworks at Thielska Galleriet has been blurred in different ways historically. Though faithful to concepts of provenance and authenticity, the digitalisation project faced some challenges regarding how the status of some archival documents changed when registered in correlation with the art collection in the database. Seen through the lens of the Archive Art Phenomenon, archival documents might be considered artworks if they are conceptualised as such. Access to the digitalised archives and art collection of Thielska Galleriet opens up for considering the archival documents in new ways. The use of Richard Berghs letter archive in artistic work and processes is one such potential.

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The aim of this paper is to uncover what has changed in the EU security field that caused the EU to decide that their new military treaty, PESCO, should be the first treaty that excludes NATO from its constitution. The purpose for this aim is to understand if a paradigm shift has occurred in EU’s security rhetoric in order to understand the general picture of the EU security research field on the day PESCO was officially welcomed. The European Council will be the main actor and subject of the thesis, where the press statements of select EU members along with the Council President will be analysed as data. The context behind their statements will be brought forth based on the content that they deliver in the statements, which will by default deepen the comprehension of the EU security situation on the day that those statements were made.

L'exemplarité, qui était une valeur rhétorique chez les Anciens, a été convertie en référent littéraire au sein des premiers recueils de nouvelles. Cette transformation, à l'aube de la modernité, demeure peu commentée. Pourtant, elle est à cheval entre l'histoire culturelle et les études littéraires. L’angle d'analyse repose donc sur une approche combinant une perspective poétique, cherchant les tensions au sein des mots, et une perspective historique, insistant davantage sur le processus d'évolution d'un référent littéraire. C'est en cela que la perspective adoptée se distingue : la pensée littéraire s'approfondit au contact d'une attention dédiée à l'histoire des récupérations littéraires. On parvient ainsi retracer le devenir d'une ressource rhétorique, l'exemple, laquelle allait par la suite enfanter divers genres littéraires et se transformer en legs de la tradition narrative. Ce legs serait par la suite récupéré par plusieurs auteurs, parmi lesquels Max Aub. La réflexion sera rythmée par différents étapes. Celles-ci correspondent aux chapitres du mémoire : le premier résumera les origines et évolutions de l'exemplum, tandis que le second se concentrera sur le tournant narratif de l’exemplarité. Suivant l'idée que Cervantes incarne, par ses écrits, une mutation décisive de l’exemplarité littéraire, je commenterai davantage la nature de cette mutation. Le troisième chapitre sera celui consacré à Max Aub et à sa relation aux modèles, en usant du prisme de l'exemplarité. Ce travail est essentiellement d'érudition. La perspective que je travaille me permet de combiner l'histoire littéraire et des réflexions sur certains enjeux intertextuels. Le rapport d'Aub avec Cervantès et la tradition désignée permet de narrer davantage la dérivation des exemples. Une telle dérivation est intéressante, dans la mesure où elle signale le souci renouvelé d’une pensée recyclant le chemin de ses prédécesseurs. Le cas d'Aub n'étant pas isolé, on pourra généraliser certaines de nos analyses, et plonger, finalement, dans une question parallèle aux rapports entretenus par les textes : comment naviguer parmi la lourdeur apparente des textes canoniques? Ainsi les répercussions du canon sur les auteurs et autrices qui entendent dialoguer avec celui-ci et y entrer sont-elles au cœur de cette recherche. / A rhetorical value among the Ancients, exemplarity was converted into a literary referent in the first collections of short stories. This transformation, at the dawn of modernity, remains sparsely commented upon. However, it is caught between cultural history and literary studies. The angle of analysis is therefore based on an approach combining a poetic perspective, looking for tensions within words, and a historical perspective, placing greater emphasis on the evolutionary process of a literary referent. This is where the adopted perspective stands out: literary thought delves deeper when encountering an attention dedicated to the history of literary recuperation. In this manner we can track the transformation of a rhetorical resource, the example, which would later give birth to various literary genres and transform itself into a legacy of the narrative tradition. This legacy would then be recovered by several authors, including Max Aub. This reflection will be punctuated by different stages. These correspond to the chapters of the master’s thesis: the first will summarize the origins and evolutions of the exemplum, while the second will focus on the narrative turn of exemplarity. Following the idea that Cervantes embodies, through his writings, a decisive mutation of literary exemplarity, I will comment further on the nature of this mutation. The third chapter will be devoted to Max Aub and his relationship to models, using the prism of exemplarity. This work is essentially scholarly. The perspective I work with allows me to combine literary history and reflections on certain intertextual issues. Aub's relationship with Cervantes and the designated tradition allows us to narrate more fully the derivation of the examples. Such a derivation is interesting, insofar as it signals the renewed concern of a thought recycling the path of its predecessors. Since Aub's case is not isolated, we can generalize some of our analyses, and finally dive into a question parallel to the relationships maintained by the texts: how to navigate through the apparent heaviness of the canonical texts? Thus, the repercussions of the canon on the authors who intend to dialogue with it and enter it are at the heart of this research.

Anenský dvůr used to be a farm surrounded by fields just a few dozen meters from the Austrian border. It worked even during the fifties before the creation of the Iron Curtain. Agricultural activity slowly subsided, people disappeared. Nature began quietly but ceaselessly, in small portions, getting on its side after the interval division. Buildings and their surroundings started to change. Nature has changed in fifty years place unrecognizable. Clearly defined boundaries are erased, flash greenery spread to the surrounding area and has created a specific single entity defining the surrounding chaos. Such a situation is the basis for the layout of the new cemetery. Current enhanced peripheral borders are strengthened by planting oaks, while the interior is modified. Most of invasive acacia and other shrubs are removed. The original character of the place, floodplain meadow is reinforced by planting new trees, such as birch or cherry.  The new cemetery consists of two main areas - internal groomed lawn under clearly defined square walls, which leads to deposition of ash and vice versa in the outer belt informal grown meadows are individual pavilions cemetery.

Our study investigates how the organizational growth paradox is perceived and managed by incumbent firms from a degrowth perspective. There is a growing critique against the growth paradigm, an increasing support for its abandonment. Scholars are calling for a paradigm shift towards a post-growth economy. The degrowth movement has paid more attention to macroeconomics but it has been insufficiently researched on a micro level. It is viewed as being too abstract and does not provide concrete frameworks that can be applied in a business context. We address this gap by applying two theoretical frameworks, organizational paradox and degrowth theory. Then the degrowth notion is defined on a macro- and a micro-level, including relevant degrowth frameworks such as the Doughnut Economic and the Circular Economy model. Lastly, we define organizational paradoxes and possible managerial responses to them. The degrowth agenda has a variety of perspectives that range from radical to more moderate. We adopt a moderate perspective, influenced by Buch-Hansen and Nesterova (2023) and consequently, we anticipate gradual changes as incumbents adapt to a post- growth economy. We collect empirical data by conducting a case study and performing semi-structured interviews on a cooperative in Sweden’s primary food industry. In addition, we interviewed the CEO of a family-owned company operating in the same industry. Moreover, we analyze the resulting organizational paradoxes, and explore management responses. Two new paradoxes have been discovered. First, the governance paradox shows that a cooperative structure by itself, as advocated by degrowth theory, does not prevent but potentially creates paradoxical tensions. Second, the core business paradox describes a dissent between the business or product and public perception. A justification response approach in this case can endanger the business’ existence. We conclude that profitability in financial terms is key to being able to transition towards degrowth. Moreover, the governance structure of a cooperative can create paradoxical tensions which, when not managed properly, can cause other paradoxes to surface. We highlight the challenges of implementing degrowth thinking at a micro-level, as incumbents are influenced by external factors and face tensions. To achieve widespread diffusion, collaboration and shared values throughout the value chain is essential. When operating in an everchanging dynamic environment, the core business can develop into a source of paradoxical tension. We recommend the paradoxical response approach, described in the Dynamic Equilibrium model (Smith & Lewis, 2011) for managing tensions, but note the risks involved. Shifting priorities without sufficient communication and motivation can harm commitment, trust, transparency, collaboration, and employee alignment. To successfully apply consistent inconsistency, strong management skills to foster employee commitment to changing priorities are required.

The Ackerman Unit of the Tombigbee National Forest has served as the location of numerous archaeological investigations. Despite all of the work done, there is a question of whether a representative sample of the archaeological record has been saved and subsequently whether the reports and findings from the Ackerman Unit of the Tombigbee National Forest are legitimate and can be applied to a larger body or research at the regional, and even national scale. This thesis will evaluate whether a paradigmatic classification of occupations can be used to assess if a representative sample of the archaeological record has been saved, and consequently whether identifiable bias exists among the practitioners who recorded those occupations.

The work presented in this study is based on the long-term goal of developing a social robot that can be involved in leading a conversation in a language café. In detail, the study has investigated whether it is possible to classify involvement with a conversation participant based on its facial expression and gaze two factors that previous studies have shown to be central to human engagement. To perform the assessment, the software Openface has extracted said parameters from a previous field study which has then been processed with the machine learning model Support Vector Machine. After a lot of hyperparameter tuning, the final model managed to predict engagement on a three-point scale with 54.5% accuracy. Furthermore, the study has also examined the potential of the new technological paradigm that the social robot represents. The potential has been analyzed on the basis of Dosi’s four dimensions: technological possibilities, appropriability of innovation, cumulativeness of technical advances and properties of the knowledge base. The analysis clarifies that the paradigm has the potential to revolutionize a number of industries as a result of its technological opportunities and worldwide stakeholders, but also faces challenges in the form of technical and ethical difficulties. / Arbetet som presenteras i den här studien grundar sig i det långsiktiga målet att utveckla en social robot som kan vara med och leda samtalssessioner på ett språkcafé. I detalj har studien undersökt om det går att klassificera engagemang hos en samtalsdeltagare utifrån dess ansiktsuttryck och blickriktning – två faktorer som tidigare studier visat sig vara centrala för människans engagemang. För att utföra bedömningen har mjukvaran Openface extraherat nämnda parametrar från en tidigare fältstudie vilka sedan har processats med maskininlärningsmodellen Support Vector Machine. Efter gedigna försök att finna optimala värden på hyperparametrar till modellen lyckades den slutligen predicera engagemang på en tregradig skala med 54,5% accuracy. Vidare har studien också undersökt potentialen för det nya teknologiska paradigmet som den sociala roboten utgör. Potentialen har analyserats med utgångspunkt i Dosis fyra dimensioner: teknologiska möjligheter, möjliga vinster från innovation, kumulativ höjd på teknologiska framsteg och egenskaper i kunskapsbasen. Analysen klargör att paradigmet har förutsättningar att revolutionera ett flertal industrier till följd av dess teknologiska möjligheter och världsomfattande intressenter, men står också inför utmaningar i form av tekniska och etiska svårigheter.

<p>The design of vehicle components for crashworthiness is one of the most challenging problems in the automotive industry. The safety of the occupants during a crash event relies on the energy absorption capability of vehicle structures. Therefore, the body components of a vehicle are required to be lightweight and highly integrated structures. Moreover, reducing vehicle weight is another crucial design requirement since fuel economy is directly related to the mass of a vehicle. In order to address these requirements, various design concepts for vehicle bodies have been proposed using high-strength steel and different aluminum alloys. However, the price factor has always been an obstacle to completely replace regular body steels with more advanced alloys. To this end, the integration of numerical simulation and structural optimization techniques has been widely practiced addressing these requirements. Advancements in nonlinear structural design have shown the promising potential to generate innovative, safe, and lightweight vehicle structures. In addition, the implementation of structural optimization techniques has the capability to shorten the design cycle time for new models. A reduced design cycle time can provide the automakers with an opportunity to stay ahead of their competitors. During the last few decades, enormous structural optimization methods were proposed. A vast majority of these methods use mathematical programming for optimization, a method that relies on availability sensitivity analysis of objective functions. Thus, due to the necessity of sensitivity analyses, these methods remain limited to linear (or partially nonlinear) material models under static loading conditions. In other words, these methods are no able to capture all non-linearities involved in multi-body crash simulation. As an alternative solution, heuristic approaches, which do need sensitivity analyses, have been developed to address structural optimization problems for crashworthiness. The Hybrid Cellular Automaton (HCA), as a bio-inspired algorithm, is a well-practiced heuristic method that has shown promising capabilities in the structural design for vehicle components. The HCA has been continuously developed during the last two decades and designated to solve specific structural design applications. Despite all advancements, some fundamental aspects of the algorithm are still not adequately addressed in the literature. For instance, the HCA numerically implemented as a closed-loop control system. The local controllers, which dictate the design variable updates, need parameter tuning to efficiently solve different sets of problems. Previous studies suggest that one can identify some default values for the controllers. However, still, there is no well-organized strategy to tune these parameters, and proper tuning still relies on the designer’s experience.</p> <p> </p> <p> Moreover, structures with multiple materials have now become one of the perceived necessities for the automotive industry to address vehicle design requirements such as weight, safety, and cost. However, structural design methods for crashworthiness, including the HCA, are mainly applied to binary structural design problems. Furthermore, the conventional methods for the design of multi-material structures do not fully utilize the capabilities of premium materials. In other words, the development of a well-established method for the design of multi-material structures and capable of considering the cost of the materials, bonding between different materials (especially categorical materials), and manufacturing considering is still an open problem. Lastly, the HCA algorithm relies only on one hyper-parameter, the mass fraction, to synthesize structures. For a given problem, the HCA only provides one design option directed by the mass constraint. In other words, the HCA cannot tailor the dynamic response of the structure, namely, intrusion and deceleration profiles.</p> <p> </p> <p>The main objective of this dissertation is to develop new methodologies to design structures for crashworthiness applications. These methods are built upon the HCA algorithm. The first contribution is about introducing s self-tuning scheme for the controller of the algorithm. The proposed strategy eliminates the need to manually tune the controller for different problems and improve the computational performance and numerical stability. The second contribution of this dissertation is to develop a systematic approach to design multi-material crashworthy structures. To this end, the HCA algorithm is integrated with an ordered multi-material SIMP (Solid Isotropic Material with Penalization) interpolation. The proposed multi-material HCA (MMHCA) framework is a computationally efficient method since no additional design variables are introduced. The MMHCA can synthesize multi-material structures subjected to volume fraction constraints. In addition, an elemental bonding method is introduced to simulate the laser welding applied to multi-material structures. The effect of the bonding strength on the final topology designs is studied using numerical simulations. In the last step, after obtaining the multi-material designs, the HCA is implemented to remove the desired number of bonding elements and reduce the weld length.</p> <p> </p> <p>The third contribution of this dissertation is to introduce a new Cluster-based Structural Optimization method (CBSO) for the design of multi-material structures. This contribution introduces a new Cluster Validity Index with manufacturing considerations referred to as CVI_m. The proposed index can characterize the quality of the cluster in structural design considering volume fraction, size, interface as a measure of manufacturability. This multi-material structural design approach comprises three main steps: generating the conceptual design using adaptive HCA algorithm, clustering of the design domain using Multi-objective Genetic Algorithm (MOGA) optimization. In the third step, MOGA optimization is used to choose categorical materials in order to optimize the crash indicators (e.g., peak intrusion, peak contact force, load uniformity) or the cost of the raw materials. The effectiveness of the algorithm is investigated using numerical examples.</p>