<p>The purpose of this qualitative study has been; how social bonds are interlaced between the social worlds contained within the analytical division of “outside Internet” and “within Internet”. What happens with the social bond as the individual oscillate between this analytic bisection? This purpose raises important questions of the use of Internet in everyday life.</p><p>A new stance is taken toward studying the Internets integration into everyday life. The focus is adjusted to the importance of emotions. Emotions of pride and shame will be treated as the signals of social bonds state and will indicate the resistance or openness of this integration. Goffmans theory on face-work will be used as a complement. A cognitive approach on social bonds will assist the emotional approach. This is interwoven with a perspective for understanding Internet as a medium in form rather than only to focus on the “content”.</p><p>The conclusion consists of a required consistency between the quality of the social bond on the Internet and outside the Internet. The fear of inconsistency had to do with a threat of loss of face, not to come in conflict with established norms from outside the Internet. Development of close and intimate social bonds on the Internet that didn’t have a counterpart or was in inconsistency with the social bond outside Internet, lead to shame that threatened the social bond. The integration of Internet in everyday life is therefore not accomplished. Still, a new generation with instant access to the Internet is to be primary socialized under new conditions.</p>

The purpose of this qualitative study has been; how social bonds are interlaced between the social worlds contained within the analytical division of “outside Internet” and “within Internet”. What happens with the social bond as the individual oscillate between this analytic bisection? This purpose raises important questions of the use of Internet in everyday life. A new stance is taken toward studying the Internets integration into everyday life. The focus is adjusted to the importance of emotions. Emotions of pride and shame will be treated as the signals of social bonds state and will indicate the resistance or openness of this integration. Goffmans theory on face-work will be used as a complement. A cognitive approach on social bonds will assist the emotional approach. This is interwoven with a perspective for understanding Internet as a medium in form rather than only to focus on the “content”. The conclusion consists of a required consistency between the quality of the social bond on the Internet and outside the Internet. The fear of inconsistency had to do with a threat of loss of face, not to come in conflict with established norms from outside the Internet. Development of close and intimate social bonds on the Internet that didn’t have a counterpart or was in inconsistency with the social bond outside Internet, lead to shame that threatened the social bond. The integration of Internet in everyday life is therefore not accomplished. Still, a new generation with instant access to the Internet is to be primary socialized under new conditions.

The purpose of this qualitative study has been; how social bonds are interlaced between thesocial worlds contained within the analytical division of “outside Internet” and “withinInternet”. What happens with the social bond as the individual oscillate between this analyticbisection? This purpose raises important questions of the use of Internet in everyday life. A new stance is taken toward studying the Internets integration into everyday life. The focusis adjusted to the importance of emotions. Emotions of pride and shame will be treated as thesignals of social bonds state and will indicate the resistance or openness of this integration.Goffmans theory on face-work will be used as a complement. A cognitive approach on socialbonds will assist the emotional approach. This is interwoven with a perspective forunderstanding Internet as a medium in form rather than only to focus on the “content”. The conclusion consists of a required consistency between the quality of the social bond onthe Internet and outside the Internet. The fear of inconsistency had to do with a threat of lossof face, not to come in conflict with established norms from outside the Internet.Development of close and intimate social bonds on the Internet that didn’t have a counterpartor was in inconsistency with the social bond outside Internet, lead to shame that threatenedthe social bond. The integration of Internet in everyday life is therefore not accomplished.Still, a new generation with instant access to the Internet is to be primary socialized undernew conditions.

This thesis analyzes the direction of time problem in the framework of philosophy of science. The radiation arrow, Newtonian arrow, thermodynamical arrow and quantum mechanical arrow have been studied in detail. The importance of the structure of space-time concerning direction of time is emphasized.

This thesis is a comparison of the philosophical systems of Zen Buddhism, which is an Eastern Philosophy, with Ludwig Wittgenstein&rsquo / s philosophical studies, who is an extraordinary name of the Western Philosophy in the 20th century. The history and sources of Zen Buddhism were given with its adoption in the use of language and arts. Besides, this study exemplifies the philosophy of Zen Buddhism with the examples from the life story of Wittgenstein. The thesis is written with a full awareness of the sensitivity of comparing different systems which always embody counterexamples and speculations. This is the reason why speculative ideas and resources were deliberately ignored. The aim is to contribute the cultural life of Turkey by taking such a subject to the academic milieu. Moreover, Turkey is the passage of the East and the West both geographically and culturally. There are resemblances between Zen and Wittgenstein by means of method and the useof language. Furthermore, it was given the names of the books that Wittgenstein read and the philosophers who influenced Wittgenstein. The parallels between Zen and Wittgenstein are justified.

The dynamic development of new technologies influences consumers in many different ways reaching far beyond the shift in consumption patterns, challenging the way consumers live their lives. The role of new information technologies is continually growing in our daily lives changing the way we see the self and the world around us. Consequently, the advent of the computer culture incites a radical rethinking of who we are and the nature of being human, which clearly illustrates the postmodern age. As a result, over the past decades consumer research has moved away from simply viewing consumers as information processors to consumers as socially conceptualized beings. This Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) movement views consumers and consumer behaviour as articulations of meanings and materiality within the productive of complex cultural milieu. This ethnographic thesis focuses on the three-dimensional virtual world of Second Life, which is a 'Real Life' simulation and where the residents represent themselves through 'avatars', creating a kind of virtual materiality. This raises interesting questions for consumer researchers, not just about how consumption is enacted, produced and articulated within this environment, but also in relation to theoretical and methodological issues. More specifically, this thesis critically examines the development of interpretive consumer research and the emergence of the Consumer Culture Theory framework in the context of the juxtaposition of reality and hyperreality and takes a position which goes beyond the 'body in the net/physical body' binary. Therefore, this thesis places the 'avatar-as-consumer' at the centre of the research focus. The current thesis develops a theoretical framework which examines the role of consumption in resolving key paradoxes. Moreover, it extends the netnography framework from mainly text based research to the visual characteristics of virtual worlds so that it can be useful for the study of complex online environments and as a result, how the role of the researcher goes beyond netnography to virtualography is discussed.

Racial Queer is a qualitative study of Multiracial college students with a critical ethnographic component. The design methods, grounded in Critical Race Methodology and Feminist Thought (both theories that inform Critical Ethnography), include: 1) 25 semi-structured interviews of Multiracial students, 2) of which 5 were expanded into case studies, 3) 3 focus groups, 4) observations of the sole registered student organization for Multiracial students on Central University’s campus, 5) field notes and 6) document analysis. The dissertation examines the following question: How do Multiracial students understand and experience their racialized identities within a large, public, tier-one research university in Texas? In addition, it addresses the following sub-questions: How do Multiracial students experience their racialized identities in their everyday interactions with others, in relation to their own self-perceptions and in response to the way others perceive them to be? How do Multiracial students’ positionalities, as they relate to power, privilege, phenotype and status, guide their behavior in different contexts and situations? Using Holland et al.’s (1998) social practice theory of self and identity, Chicana Feminist Theory, and tenets of Queer Theory, this study illustrates how Multiracial college students utilize agency as racial queers to construct and negotiate their identities within a context where identity is both self-constructed and produced for them. I introduce the term, racial queer, to frame the unconventional space of the Multiracial individual. I use this term not to convey sexuality, but to convey the parallels of queerness (both as a term of empowerment and derogation) as they pertain to being Multiracial. In other words, queerness denotes a unique individuality as well as a deviation from the norm (Sullivan, 2003; Warner, 1993; Gamson, 2000). The primary purpose of this study is to illustrate the agentic ways in which Multiracial college students come to understand and experience the complexity of their racialized identity production. Preliminary findings suggest the need to expand the scope of racial discourses to include Multiracial experiences and for further study of Multiracial students. Their counter-narratives access an otherwise invisible student population, providing an opportunity to broaden critical discourses around education and race. / text

This paper seeks to investigate leading global brands‘ social media presence. The analysis of the Interbrand’s 100 Best Global Brands (2010) social media pages was conducted in the current study. Based on Kaplan & Haenlein‘s classification of social media, seven social media application cases were examined. The findings suggest that there are differences in global brands‘ social media presence by brand categories and social media applications. The findings also suggest that there are different levels of global brands‘ social media control. Managerial implications and guidelines for social media marketing are also provided. / text

For the past few decades, researchers have increased our understanding of how sound functions within various audio–visual media formats. With a different focus in mind, this study aims to identify the roles and functions of sound in relation to the game form Audio Games, in order to explore the potential of sound when acting as an autonomous narrative form. Because this is still a relatively unexplored research field, the main purpose of this study is to help establish a theoretical ground and stimulate further research within the field of audio games. By adopting an interdisciplinary approach to the topic, this research relies on theoretical studies, examinations of audio games and contact with the audio game community. In order to reveal the roles of sound, the gathered data is analyzed according to both a contextual and a functional perspective. The research shows that a distinction between the terms ‘function’ and ‘role’ is important when analyzing sound in digital games. The analysis therefore results in the identification of two analytical levels that help define the functions and roles of an entity within a social context, named the Functional and the Interfunctional levels. In addition to successfully identifying three main roles of sound within audio games—each describing the relationship between sound and the entities game system, player and virtual environment—many other issues are also addressed. Consequently, and in accordance with its purpose, this study provides a broad foundation for further research of sound in both audio games and video games.

This research has as its objective to make a historical reconstruction of memory aspects, identity construction and working conditions of the miners and engineers of the Camaquã mines between 1970 and 1996. Many companies built facilities aiming at making economically possible the ore copper exploration in the region. In the 1940‟s, the state investment gave support for the creation of the Companhia Brasileira de Cobre, pressing a certain regularity for this economic activity. Transiting in the public and private sphere, the enterprise kept itself active until 1996. In this context, this research brings contributions not only for the local history construction, but also for a complimentary analysis of the mining activity in a national level. The identity formation in common of the miners and their working relations inside the galleries are analyzed, as a bibliographical review and reflections about the class concept and its existence among the workers are carried out. Thus, it was possible, supported in the Oral History methodology, the memory and culture reconstruction of the workers of the Camaquã Mines, located in Caçapava do Sul/RS/Brazil, through a daily life analysis of the involved in the historical process in question. / Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo fazer uma reconstrução histórica de aspectos da memória, construção de identidade e condições de trabalho dos mineiros e engenheiros das Minas do Camaquã entre 1970 e 1996. Várias empresas construíram instalações, tentando viabilizar economicamente a exploração do minério de cobre na região. Na década de 1940, o investimento estatal deu suporte para a criação da Companhia Brasileira do Cobre, imprimindo certa regularidade para essa atividade econômica. Transitando entre a esfera pública e a privada, o empreendimento conseguiu manter-se ativo até 1996. Nesse contexto, esta pesquisa traz contribuições não apenas para a construção da história local, mas também para uma análise complementar da atividade mineradora a em nível nacional. Analisa-se a formação das identidades em comum dos mineiros e suas relações de trabalho no interior das galerias, como também se realiza uma revisão bibliográfica e reflexões sobre a conceituação de classe e a existência da mesma entre os trabalhadores. Dessa forma, foi possível, apoiado na metodologia da História Oral, a reconstrução da memória e da cultura dos trabalhadores das Minas do Camaquã, localizada em Caçapava do Sul/RS/Brasil, através de uma análise da vida cotidiana dos envolvidos no processo histórico em questão.