Every human being applies their acquired knowledge during the interpretation and application of information, but all the humanly acquired knowledge are shaped by the social information processing model as determined by the traditions and values embedded in their culture. Therefore, the transition from information seeking to the application within a person is not completely dependent on cognition but in the current socio-cultural interpretation of that information. The cultural background of every individual often determines the interpretation and the understanding derivable from any information. Human socio-cultural values are the intervening variables during information seeking, and they can be grouped into three, namely psychological, physiological and environmental, but none acts alone during information seeking and application. Hence, culture as a factor must be considered both psychologically and environmentally to understand its impact on IB because culture comprises of both the tangible and the intangible aspects of human life. The aim of this study is to investigate the main reason for the contrasting results of the polio campaign across the north and south of Nigeria. The study adopted a mixed method approach comprising of a semi-structured interview and focus groups for the collection of data that adequately describe cultural variables to determine the aspects of culture directly impacting on IB, such as language, customs, traditions, and religious values which cannot be quantified or counted. The research approach considered IB in its totality and viewed information not only as tools designed by human to enhance communication and conceptualization of realities but also as the means which enabled the achievement of the desired goal for both the providers and the users of information. Therefore, IB was not only viewed from the context or content of the information but from the way people search, receive and utilise information to meet their respective needs. The study considered the how ; the what ; the where and the whom people consult when in need of information or for the explanation about the information received but not understood, to determine the chosen culture group s IB By considering culture from a multi-disciplinary perspective and IB evolutionarily, the study investigates the impact of cultural orientation on IB through the way the people of Nigeria relates with the polio eradication campaign. The study links all the factors of culture, such as language, tradition, and religion to the ways people relate to information, and the findings revealed that culture plays a significant role in the IB of individuals right from the point of the perceived knowledge gap to the point of information application. The language associated with the people s religious belief was also found to be of significant influence on language preference during communication of information, as well as in the process of encoding and decoding of information. Thus, culture did not only impact on IB during information seeking and application but also the language for the communication of information. Cultural orientation significantly impacted on the way people relates to the polio campaign as a consequence of their IB, and this informed their interpretations of the polio campaign and the eventual outcome of the campaign within the north and south of Nigeria.

The Korean church, famous for her rapid growth, has begun to notice a downward trend in her growth rate since the mid-eighties. Although many reputable investigations have recently been carried out with regard to this downward slide, these investigations have overlooked the full meaning of preaching in the interaction between church and culture. In view of this, this study sets the following four aims: (1) to investigate the reasons behind church decline in terms of preaching in the interaction between church and culture in Korea; (2) to interpret preaching in the interaction between church and culture biblically, historically and theologically in order to understand the normative Christian perceptions and practices of preaching; (3) to attempt an integration between the descriptive and the normative; and (4) to propose developmental strategies for the Korean church. To achieve these purposes, two kinds of methods are employed in this study: (a) an analysis of preaching in the interaction between church and culture both in Korea and in the normative Christian sources, with the model advocated by D Browning (1991); and (b) qualitative interviewing as an empirical interpretation with a model based on the findings of Rubin&Rubin (1995). Five claims emerge from this study: (1) How do we reset the context of preaching? (2) How do we revise the present preaching theory of the Korean church? (3) How do we define and defend conversion preaching that is seemingly exclusive in contemporary pluralistic Korean society? (4) How do we rethink and re-establish the ecclesiology of the Korean church? (5) How do we formulate the Christian culture against or in the rage of worldly thoughts and cultures in Korea? This thesis concludes by proposing preaching as interaction and the preacher as an inter-actor between church and culture. Practical strategies are developed to answer the claims. / Thesis (PhD (Practical Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

Questo lavoro mira ad offrire una nuova prospettiva dalla quale leggere la dialettica fra cultura pagano-mitica e cultura cristiana che attraversa tutta la tradizione letteraria italiana. Tema comune alle due visioni del mondo, la trasformazione è figura guida dell’intera ricerca, figura che assume declinazioni differenti e prende il nome di metamorfosi nella cultura mitica e quello di conversione nella cultura cristiana. La novità della prospettiva consiste nel tentativo di una lettura di carattere retorico di questi due fenomeni, con lo scopo di formalizzare due tipi di poetica che corrispondano al tema della metamorfosi e a quello della conversione. Applicando al vasto materiale offerto da Divina Commedia, Gerusalemme liberata, Adone, Promessi sposi, tragedie manzoniane e da alcune poesie tratte dall’Alcyone di d’Annunzio gli strumenti derivati dagli studi antropologici sui sacrifici arcaici di Girard e dalle intuizioni di Bottiroli a proposito della traduzione letteraria di alcuni schemi logici propri alla cultura occidentale si è potuta constatare una corrispondenza costante tra le forme dei contenuti ‘metamorfosi’ e ‘conversione’ e le particolari forme dell’espressione con cui essi sono stati rappresentati. Una volta individuate, le particolari forme dell’espressione sono state codificate in figure retoriche, tanto che si è giunti ad indicare lo schema, in generale, dell’antitesi come marca propria alla poetica della metamorfosi e la figura della correctio come caratteristica della poetica della conversione. / This work aims at offering a new perspective from which it is possible to read the dialectic between the heathen-mythical culture and the Christian culture that runs through the whole literary Italian tradition. Transformation is the theme in common between the two visions of the world, it is the leading figure of the whole research and it assumes different forms. It takes the name of metamorphosis in the mythical culture and of conversion in the Christian culture. The novelty of this perspective consists in the attempt of a rhetorical reading of these two phenomena, in order to formalize two kinds of poetics., that could correspond to the theme of metamorphosis and conversion. Applying to the large materials offered by Divina Commedia, Gerusalemme liberata, Adone, Promessi sposi, tragedies by Manzoni and some poems from Alcyone by d’Annunzio the instruments deriving from the anthropological studies about archaic sacrifices by Girard and from the intuitions of Bottiroli about literary transposition of some logical schemes, which are typical of the Western culture, it was possible to notice a constant correspondence between forms of contents ‘metamorphosis’ and ‘conversion’ and the particular forms of the expression, with which they have been represented. Once they have been pointed out, the particular forms of expression have been codified in figures of speech, so that it was possible to indicate the overall scheme of the antithesis as the proper sing of the poetics of metamorphosis and the figure of correctio as the feature of the poetics of conversion.

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