近年政府推廣政策的過程中不斷借重創新思維，嘗試抓住民眾的注意力，政府必須將人民視為顧客，盡力提供服務使民眾滿意，換言之，企業型政府治理模式必然包含「治理」甚至是「政策推廣」相關概念，在公部門推廣政策的同時，我們時常看到政府向企業學習行銷手法推廣公共政策。本研究嘗試向企業行銷學習，藉由文獻回顧以及檢視公共政策行銷實例，從「移情作用、自我指涉、自我認同」三個面向，探討虛擬代言（avatar endorsement）如何應用在公共服務推廣，及促使民眾了解政府政策並使用公共服務的意願為何。 本研究以高雄都會大眾捷運系統目前執行的虛擬代言為討論主題，研究方法採用準實驗設計，由於過去研究指出高雄捷運旅運目的多半為觀光旅遊，因此受試者招募以年輕族群為調查對象，以了解當前虛擬代言能否提高年輕族群的喜好程度、使用捷運系統意願、購買相關商品意願、以及對捷運品牌的吸引程度，招募受試者後，採用配對分派方法進行實驗，以利進行實驗組與控制組態度變化比較。研究發現不同學歷的受試者對於虛擬代言的想法有顯著差異，而虛擬代言能有效提升外縣市的受試者對於該公共服務的吸引程度，只是對於既有的客群掌握則有待加強。 / In recent years, governments start to emphasize the importance of policy promotion and policy marketing. Under the belief of treating people as customers, the ultimate goal is to draw people’s attention and to increase their satisfaction on public services. Normally, the entrepreneurial-oriented governments would spend more time and efforts on “good governance” and “policy promotion”. As a result, when the governments want to promote certain policies, they often try to learn from the private sector on their marketing strategies. This study aims at applying the policy marketing strategies to promote public policies, particularly the effects of avatar endorsement strategy. Using the case of Kaohsiung metro system, this study focuses on three different aspects, the transference, self-reference, and self-identity, to explore how avatar endorsement worked with regard to public policy promotion, as well as to understand how it performed on increasing people’s willingness to receive more public services. This research adopts a quasi-experimental design to understand how the current avatar endorsement strategy affect younger generations on four different attitudes and behaviors, such as brand attitude, purchase intention, brand association, and attraction to the Kaohsiung metro. Results show that people with different educational levels have significantly different attitudes toward avatar endorsement strategy. In addition, the avatar endorsement strategy may effectively enhance the attractiveness of public transportation service toward the younger generation. Policy and managerial implications for the governments are discussed in the thesis.

This thesis concerns the question of what it is for a subject to act. It answers this question in three steps. The first step is taken by arguing that any satisfactory answer must build on the idea that an action is something predicable of the acting subject. The second step is taken by arguing in support of an answer which does build on this idea, and does so by introducing the idea that acting is doing something which is an exercise of a particular kind of disposition on the part of the acting subject. The third step is taken by arguing that the disposition in question must be of a kind which is exercised in conditions in which the acting subject thinks they are acting. From this vantage point the thesis develops many further commitments: That action is constitutively subject to a mode of explanation that mentions the kind of disposition just mentioned; that any case of acting requires a veridical representation of a means by which the action is performed; and that a problem about the underspecified nature of desire ascriptions can be solved by appeal to the conceptual materials made available by these investigations. The thesis finally develops several objections to the account it gives, both substantive and methodological, and explains why these objections ought to be rejected.

Le premier objectif de cette thèse était d’explorer l’effet de référence à soi (ERS) sur la mémoire dans le vieillissement, l’amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) et la maladie d’Alzheimer (MA) à un stade précoce de l’évolution. Le second fut de revisiter les théories actuelles pour expliquer ce bénéfice mnésique, puis de tenter d’élucider ses mécanismes. Nous avons montré que l’ERS sur les représentations sémantiques de ses propres traits de personnalité (qui est une composante de notre identité) était préservé dans le vieillissement. Par ailleurs, nous avons montré que la profondeur de traitement, longtemps considérée comme le processus sous-tendant l’ERS, n’intervenait pas dans ce dernier. A contrario, l’interaction de l’âge et de l’estime de soi, ainsi que les expériences de vie des individus modulaient l’ERS. Nous avons montré que l’ERS pouvait résulter de deux processus : celui de la consistance des traits de caractère et celui de l’élaboration automatique des traits de caractère avec l’identité des individus. Nous avons par ailleurs rapporté pour la première fois que ce bénéfice mnésique s’opérait chez des patients atteints d’aMCI, un stade symptomatique et pré-démentiel de la MA, et qu’il pouvait s’observer dans une moindre mesure chez des patients MA. En outre, l’ERS agit comme mécanisme de self-défense chez les patients aMCI et MA, en les protégeant d’informations menaçantes pour l’intégrité de leur soi. Nous suggérons en dernier lieu que la référence à soi pourrait servir d’outil de réhabilitation sociale ou clinique pour augmenter l’estime de soi de certains individus et préserver leur mémoire et leur bien-être. / The first aim of this thesis was to examine the self-reference effect (SRE) on memory in aging, amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and early-stage of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The second aim was to review the whole literature on the SRE and to attempt understanding its mechanisms. We showed that the SRE on semantic summary representations of one’s traits (which is a component of identity) was preserved in aging. Besides, we showed that depth of processing, which was hitherto regarded as the mechanism responsible for the SRE, did not actually play a role in the latter. By contrast, the interaction of age and self-esteem, as well as individuals’ life experiences modulated the SRE. We showed that the SRE resulted from two processes: the congruency of traits as well as the elaboration of traits with individuals’ identity. We also reported for the first time that aMCI patients benefited from the SRE, as well as AD patients in the early stage of the disease to a lesser extent. Furthermore, the SRE acted as a self-defense mechanism in patients with aMCI and AD by protecting them from negative feedback that constituted a threat to the integrity of their selves. Finally, we suggest that referencing the self could serve as a tool for social or clinical rehabilitation programs, by increasing the self-esteem of some individuals and preserving their memory and well-being.

[pt] A pesquisa de doutorado apresentada a seguir pretende construir uma reflexão, em perspectiva comparada, sobre a metaficção em experimentos artísticos em curso no Brasil e em Portugal. Consideramos como obras metaficcionais aquelas que destacam e enfatizam a artificialidade de suas construções, desnudamse diante do leitor, provocando a ilusão da suposta espontaneidade da criação artística. Desejamos, por meio do corpus bibliográfico da pesquisa, auscultar a respiração contemporânea do recurso metaficcional que, consagrado durante o modernismo, frequenta ainda com assiduidade obras literárias e artísticas contemporâneas de diferentes nacionalidades. Em meio a abundância de discursos autorreferentes, selecionamos três vozes que apresentam de maneira singular e original a questão metaficcional. O corpus selecionado contempla o romance O inventário das coisas ausentes (2014), da escritora brasileira Carola Saavedra, a exposição pictórica In Situ: Carta de Intenções (2014), do artista plástico português Rui Macedo e uma seleção de crônicas do escritor português António Lobo Antunes (Livro de crónicas, 1998, Segundo livro de crónicas, 2002, Terceiro livro de crónicas, 2006, Quarto livro de crónicas, 2011, e Quinto livro de crónicas, 2013). A primeira seção, introdutória, aponta os objetivos e hipóteses de trabalho que frequentam e norteiam a produção da tese de doutorado e endereça brevemente a discussão teórica em torno da metaficção. Em termos de formato, a tese investigará três grandes eixos em cada produção artística selecionada: o primeiro aspecto será perceber de que modo os investimentos metaficcionais produzem a impressão de uma espontaneidade forjada; o segundo aspecto será uma reflexão sobre o pacto de leitura (de que forma as obras selecionadas abalam a relação estabelecida entre artista, obra e público); e o terceiro aspecto será analisar como o corpus escolhido propõe um movimento de retorno a(s) origem(ns). Tendo como fio condutor da escrita da tese os três eixos acima listados pretendemos investigar de que maneira as obras artísticas reagem a essas indagações. Exploramos a hipótese de que o exame comparado dos dispositivos metaficcionais singulares mobilizados nessas obras fornece elementos valiosos para pensar o estatuto contemporâneo da metaficção, de um modo geral e nos contextos particulares enfocados, o português e o brasileiro. / [en] The present doctoral research aims to contemplate, in compared perspective, metafiction on current artistic experiments in Brazil and Portugal. It is considered a metafictional work those which highlight and emphasize the artificiality of its own constructions, unmasking themselves to the reader and inciting the illusion of the supposed spontaneity of the artistic creation. By way of the bibliographic corpus of the present research, it is aimed to auscultate the contemporary breath of the metafictional resource which, hallowed during modernism, is frequently present on recent literary and artistic works from different nationalities. Among a number of self-referential expressions, three voices were selected which present the metafictional issue in an unique and authentic manner. The selected corpus considers the novel O inventário das coisas ausentes (2014) by the Brazilian writer Carola Saavedra, the pictorial exhibition In Situ: Carta de Intenções (2014) by the Portuguese plastic artist Rui Macedo and a collection of chronicles by the Portuguese writer António Lobo Antunes (Livro de crónicas, 1998, Segundo livro de crónicas, 2002, Terceiro livro de crónicas, 2006, Quarto livro de crónicas, 2011 and Quinto livro de crónicas, 2013). The introductory first section indicates the work s objectives and assumptions that are exposed and which guide the doctoral thesis construction and briefly refers to the theoretical discussion regarding metafiction. In terms of the structure, the thesis examines three major aspects in each artistic production selected: the first one relates to the observation of the ways in which the metafictional approach produces an impression of a forged spontaneity; the second aspect is a contemplation regarding the reader s pact (in which ways the selected works affect the relation established between artist, work and public); and the third one is an analysis on how the chosen corpus proposes a return to the origin(s). Considering the three aspects outlined above as guidelines to the writing, it is intended to investigate how the artistic works react to this interrogations. An assumption is proposed concerning the fact that the compared examination of the singular metafictional features employed on these works provide valuable elements to think about the contemporary metafictional statute in general and also in the particular Portuguese and Brazilian contexts focused herein.

Network Direct Selling Organisations (NDSOs) exist in more than 50 countries and have more than 74 million members. The most recent statistical information reveals that the vast majority of members do not earn significant income. Criticism of these organisations revolves around the ethicality of consumption, the commercialisation of personal relationships, and the exploitation of unrealistic expectations. This study aims to explore how communication creates networks that sustain an industry of this kind despite the improbability of its existence. The study commences with a description of NDSOs from historical, operational, tactical, and strategic perspectives. Given the broader context created by the global presence of this industry, cybernetics has been selected as a meta-theoretical perspective for the study of communication. The more recent development of second-order cybernetics and social autopoiesis are introduced to communication theory as a field. Niklas Luhmann‟s new social theory of communication is assessed and applied in relation to existing communication theory. New conceptual models are developed to explore communication as the unity of the synthesis of information, utterance, understanding, and expectations as selections that occur both consciously and unconsciously, intentionally and unintentionally. These models indicate the multiplexity of individual and social operationally closed, yet informationally open systems, and they are used here to provide a systemic and coherent alternative to orthodox communication approaches to the study of organisations. The study adopts a constructivist epistemological stance and propounds throughout the necessity of further interdisciplinary collaboration. The study concludes that individuals are composite unities of self-creating systems, and they co-create social systems by self-creating and co-creating meaning. Meaning is described as the continuous virtualisation and actualisation of potentialities that in turn coordinate individual and social systems‟ actions. A communication process flow model is created to provide a theoretical explanation for the existence of NDSOs as self-creating systems. The study aims to show that communication has arguably become the most pervasive discipline as a result of the globally interactive era. It is shown that second-order cybernetics and social autopoiesis raise several further questions to be explored within communication theory as a field. / Communication, first-order cybernetics, second-order cybernetics, Complexity and complex systems, autopoiesis, self-reference, recursivity, operational closure, system boundaries, Network Direct Selling Organisations / Communication / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)

Studien undersöker användningen av Goyas etsning När förnuftet sover kommer monstren och Fuselis oljemålning Nattmaran som förekommer i slasherfilmen Terror på Elm Street (2010). Konstverken är placerade i en scen där konstverken bland annat får en självrefererande roll eftersom det som sker i konstverken även sker i filmen. Syftet med studien är att undersöka vad konstverken fyller för funktion i filmen och att undersöka om det finns stilistiska och tematiska likheter mellan konstverken och filmen trots att det skiljer ungefär 200 år mellan dem. De båda konstverken analyseras semiotiskt och filmen analyseras främst utifrån studiens teoretiska perspektiv: intermedialitet, transmediering och intertextualitet.   Resultatet visar att slasherfilmer och skräckfilmer är väldigt flitiga med användandet av intertextuella referenser och självrefererande uttryck men att det är svårt att veta exakt vad konstverken har för betydelse. Tidigare forskning visar att tidig skräckfilm inspirerades av gotiska romaner och romantiska konstverk vilka transmedierades till filmmediet när det var tekniskt möjligt. Mellan konstverken och filmen går det att hitta flera stilmässiga och tematiska likheter som är typiska för det som började framhävas under romantiken. Terror på Elm Street (2010) bär på flera postmoderna drag, bland annat eftersom filmen kombinerar uttryck från det förflutna och berör gränsen för vad som ses som fin- respektive populärkultur. / This study examines Goya’s etching The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters and Fuseli’s The Nightmare and how they are used in the slasher movie A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010). The purpose of this study is to explore the artworks and their role within the movie and examine if it is possible to distinguish stylistic and thematic similarities between the works despite being separated by approximately 200 years. The artworks are analyzed according to a semiotic method, while the movie is analyzed mainly using the study’s theoretical aspects: intermediality, transmediality and intertextuality. The result shows that intertextual references and self-referential expressions are frequently used in slasher movies. However, the specific role which these artworks play in the movie is often hard to decipher. There are several similarities between the artworks and the movie and previous studies shows that early horror movies were influenced by gothic novels and romantic paintings which were transmediated to fit the film medium. The art works used in A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) have the same motifs as part of the film’s story and are also part of a postmodern trend of mixing between so called high culture and popular culture.

La thèse se propose d’étudier différentes formes de la représentation du passé dans le roman contemporain français. Si la recherche a pu constater, depuis un certain temps déjà, un véritable « retour de l’Histoire » sur la scène littéraire actuelle, force est de constater que chez certains auteurs, ce « retour » s’accompagne d’une méfiance profonde à l’égard de la connaissance de l’Histoire et des formes (culturelles, littéraires) de sa mise en récit. Ainsi Philippe Forest, dans Le Siècle des nuages (2010), raconte-t-il l’histoire de son père tout en se posant la question de savoir comment on peut écrire cette histoire qui constamment se dérobe. Il en sort un roman historique paradoxal et foncièrement autoréférentiel qui se construit et se déconstruit sous les yeux du lecteur. De façon comparable, Jean Rouaud, dans L’Imitation du bonheur (2006), invite son lecteur dans « l’atelier » de l’écrivain afin d’exhiber les sources et les ressources de son travail. Il ne se sert ainsi des techniques de l’illusion réaliste que pour mieux les parodier par la suite. Dans Waltenberg (2005) d’Hédi Kaddour, en revanche, la critique du récit historique se fait à travers la fragmentation de l’intrigue, la multiplication des temps et des lieux ainsi que par l’abandon de la linéarité. Aussi l’auteur nous présente-t-il une histoire éclatée qui se soustrait aux catégories d’unité et de cohérence. Bien que les stratégies de représentation dans ces trois romans soient diverses, elles renvoient pourtant à un concept commun que je propose ici d’appeler le récit historique critique.Dans la partie principale de mon travail, il s’agit d’analyser les trois romans mentionnés ci-dessus en tenant compte, notamment, des outils méthodologiques élaborés par la narratologie (D. Cohn, A. Nünning, W. Wolf) et par la théorie de l’histoire (H. White, P. Ricœur, R. Kosel-leck). Cette partie principale est précédée d’une partie plus « théorique » subdivisée en trois axes de recherche : L’approche systématisante essaie de condenser certaines des caractéristiques les plus importantes du récit historique critique dans une vue d’ensemble, élargissant par ailleurs le propos sur d’autres textes littéraires (contemporains). L’approche historicisante se propose de tisser un lien entre les romans analysés dans la partie principale de la thèse et l’œuvre de Claude Simon, considérée ici comme une sorte de paradigme esthétique pour une nouvelle écriture de l’histoire. L’approche comparative, enfin, tourne le regard vers les historiens professionnels (Ginzburg, Jablonka, Boucheron) qui, à l’instar des romanciers, ont exploré, ces derniers temps, de nouvelles formes de mise en récit du passé. Si ces nouvelles formes se rapprochent du récit littéraire par l’usage qu’elles font de la fiction, elles restent néanmoins sceptiques sur la possibilité même de représenter le passé, devenant de la sorte comme un équivalent en histoire du récit historique critique littéraire. / This PhD thesis offers a study of different forms of representations of the past in the French contemporary novel. Since several years, literary critics agree that there has been something like a “return to history” on the actual literary scene. But we also have to state that some con-temporary authors combine this “return” with a profound suspicion against the knowing of history and the (cultural or literary) forms of telling it. In his Le Siècle des nuages (2010), Philippe Forest tells the story of his father while at the same time questioning himself about how to represent a story which seems to withdraw itself constantly. The result is somewhat paradoxical and may be described as a self-referential historical novel that constructs and deconstructs itself in front of the reader’s eyes. In a similar way, Jean Rouaud’s L’Imitation du bonheur (2006) invites its reader in the artist’s workshop in order to reveal the sources and the resources of the story. Exploiting the techniques of realistic illusion, Rouaud is in fact parodying them. Waltenberg (2005) by Hédi Kaddour acts differently: in this novel, historical narration is undermined by a broken storyline, by a pluralization of times and spaces and by the abandoning of the chronological order. Thus the author confronts us with a history “in pieces” that doesn’t obey the principles of unity and coherence anymore. Even if the strategies of historical representation are quite different in these three novels, they are all based on a common concept which I suggest to call “critical historical narration”.The main part of my work consists of the analysis of the three novels mentioned above, an analysis which is mostly based on methods provided by narratology (D. Cohn, A. Nünning, W. Wolf) or theory of history (H. White, P. Ricœur, R. Koselleck). This main part is preceded by a more general part that is subdivided into three theoretical approaches: the systematizing approach tries to reunite some of the most important features of critical historical narration in a synopsis and thereby takes also account of other (contemporary) literary texts. The historical approach connects the novels analysed in the main part of this thesis to the work of Claude Simon, which will be considered here as an esthetical paradigm for a new kind of historical narration. Finally, the comparative approach focuses on professional historians (Ginzburg, Ja-blonka, Boucheron) who have been exploring new strategies of historical writing in the same way that novelists have done. Indeed, if these new strategies converge with those in literary writing because of the use they make of fiction, they are nevertheless included in a more general reflection on the possibilities of representing the past. Historiography thus may provide something like an equivalent to critical historical narration in literature.

The main idea of this thesis is to discuss the position of religion in contem-portary society. In system language, that is the relationship between contem-portary religious system and its envirnoment.

While an extensive body of research exploring professional discourse exists, research investigating off-task talk within workplaces has been relatively side-lined. To better understand the possible functions of personal interstices layered between institutional goal-oriented talk, this study examines instances of self-disclosure that emerged from 34 hours of authentic interactions recorded at three Canadian workplaces. Using conversation analysis, 87 self-reference, self-disclosure declaratives were identified. Of those, 21 occurred within reciprocal sequences between two participants. Similar to a second story telling found in ordinary conversation (Sacks, 1992a), the second speaker’s self-disclosure reflects the first speaker’s, both in content and form, and is often an upgraded version of the initial disclosure. This pattern and in-meeting placement suggest that these types of personal interstices may be a mechanism for displaying co-worker empathetic affiliation. Additionally, hierarchical role relations and institution goals may be temporarily suspended or back-grounded during these sequences.

While an extensive body of research exploring professional discourse exists, research investigating off-task talk within workplaces has been relatively side-lined. To better understand the possible functions of personal interstices layered between institutional goal-oriented talk, this study examines instances of self-disclosure that emerged from 34 hours of authentic interactions recorded at three Canadian workplaces. Using conversation analysis, 87 self-reference, self-disclosure declaratives were identified. Of those, 21 occurred within reciprocal sequences between two participants. Similar to a second story telling found in ordinary conversation (Sacks, 1992a), the second speaker’s self-disclosure reflects the first speaker’s, both in content and form, and is often an upgraded version of the initial disclosure. This pattern and in-meeting placement suggest that these types of personal interstices may be a mechanism for displaying co-worker empathetic affiliation. Additionally, hierarchical role relations and institution goals may be temporarily suspended or back-grounded during these sequences.