Este estudo, oriundo do PPGEDU/UFRGS, na Linha de Pesquisa Arte, Linguagem e Currículo, aborda a pesquisa realizada com professores, de áreas distintas, de duas universidades públicas e duas privadas em cada país – Brasil e Itália – para responderem a uma entrevista semiestruturada, a fim de identificar como os professores de cursos de nível superior consideram o uso pedagógico das mídias sociais na docência. A motivação surgiu a partir de questionamentos como: neste mundo, no qual as mídias sociais fazem parte do cotidiano da grande maioria das pessoas, onde a Educação se insere? Redes sociais e Educação poderão conviver e apoiarem-se mutuamente? As abordagens metodológicas utilizadas foram a qualitativa e a quantitativa, empregando-se a pesquisa do tipo exploratória. Para inferir os dados produzidos, a análise considerou tanto o conteúdo, quanto o enunciado. Para tanto, foram aplicadas a Análise de Enunciado na perspectiva dialógica, utilizando-se uma concepção bakhtiniana e freireana, e a Análise de Conteúdo, que ofereceu elementos para subsidiar a pesquisa quantitativa, instrumentada pelo software NVivo. Com esta pesquisa, propomos uma reflexão sobre as possibilidades de usos dos recursos oferecidos nas mídias sociais, afirmados e explanados pelos próprios professores, seja com aqueles que delas fazem uso, seja com aqueles que não as utilizam em seu cotidiano docente. Mediante perguntas específicas, buscamos conhecer um pouco mais sobre quem é este professor frente às tecnologias questionadas. O percentual médio de professores que faz um uso efetivo das mídias sociais na Educação, nas universidades italianas, foi de 13%. Já na universidade pública brasileira, este percentual sobe para 42%. Os professores entrevistados da universidade privada brasileira não fazem uso das Social Networking Sites (SNS) na docência. Das entrevistas analisadas, 81% dos professores dizem considerar importante o uso das SNS no Ensino/Aprendizagem, e 68% acreditam que seja possível construir comunidades de aprendizagem nos ambientes oferecidos pelas mídias sociais. Assim, as entrevistas mostraram que este é um movimento sem volta e que é estabelecendo relações dialógicas com os estudantes, é se permitindo experimentar, é buscando alternativas diversas, e é da práxis dos professores pesquisados que vem a apropriação das mídias sociais em seu fazer docente. Diante de tudo isso, pode-se concluir que é fundamental que o uso das redes sociais no meio acadêmico seja estimulado pelas universidades, uma vez que seu uso tem contribuído para uma maior qualidade do processo de ensino/aprendizagem; afinal a presença das redes sociais na Educação está incontestável. / This study, derived from PPGEDU/UFRGS, in the search line of Educational Psychology, Educational Systems/Learning and Education in Health, approaches a research conducted with teachers, from different areas, from two public and two private universities in each country – Brazil and Italy – in order to them to answer to a semi structured interview, so that the considerations of Higher Education teachers about the pedagogical use of social media in teaching could be identified. The motivation came from questions like: in this world where social networks are part of the daily lives of most people, where is education included? Can social network and education coexist and support each other? The methodological approaches used were qualitative and quantitative, with a basis in the research of the exploratory type. To infer the produced data, the analysis considered both the content and the statement. Therefore, Statement Analysis in the dialogical perspective, considering Bakhtin and Freire’s conceptions, and Content Analysis, that offered elements to support the quantitative research, instrumented by NVivo software, were applied. With this research, it’s proposed a reflection on the use of possibilities of the resources available in social media, affirmed and explained by teachers themselves, either with those who make use of them or those who do not use them in their teaching routine. After analyzing the data produced It was detected that 81% said they realize the importance of using some social media in their teaching routine. Through specific questions, there is the attempt to know a little more about who is this teacher facing the approached technologies. The average percentage of teachers which effectively use social media in education, in Italian universities, was 13%. In the Brazilian public university, this percentage rises to 42%. The interviewed teachers from the Brazilian Private University do not use Social Networking Site (SNS) in teaching. From the analyzed interviews, we conclude that 81% of teachers say it is important to consider the use of the SNS in Teaching / Learning, and 68% believe it’s possible to build learning communities in the environment offered by social media. So , the interviews shown that this is an impossible to turn back movement, and that it is establishing dialogical relations with students, and allowing yourself to experience, from seeking several alternatives, and from the praxis of the surveyed teachers comes the appropriation of social media in the teaching practice. As a result, we can conclude that it’s fundamental that the use of social networks in the academic environment be stimulated by universities, since its use has contributed to a higher quality of the process of Teaching/Learning; after all the presence of social networks in contemporary education is incontestable.

Cette recherche questionne ce que les usages des sites de rencontres et de réseaux sociaux sur internet révèlent des évolutions des représentations et des pratiques du conjugal, du genre et des relations sociales dans une société individualisée. L’appareil méthodologique construit est qualitatif, compréhensif et longitudinal. Il permet à la fois d’observer les usages des sites de rencontres et de réseaux sur internet et de questionner les raisons qui poussent les individus à agir et le sens qu’ils ou elles donnent à leurs actions. La thèse défendue est que les usages des sites de rencontres et réseaux sociaux accompagnent et renforcent une forme de socialisation ou resocialisation et une rationalisation des rapports sociaux dans le domaine du conjugal, des rapports de genre et des relations sociales. Les sites étudiés sont de nouveaux outils qui permettent de créer ou maintenir des liens. Ils sont innovants dans le sens où ils permettent une augmentation du nombre de contacts potentiels, une fréquence plus élevée d’échanges d’informations mais surtout dans la mesure où ils créent un espace de socialisation nouveau. Enfin ils amènent une injonction plus forte à rester connecter, à maîtriser non seulement l’outil mais aussi les compétences liées à la gestion d’un portefeuille de relations. Il n’y a donc pas de délitement du lien social mais au contraire la multiplication des formes et du nombre de celui-ci. / This research questions that uses of dating sites and social networking websites reveal changes in the representations and practices of conjugal relationships, gender and social relations in an individualized society. The method is quality, comprehensive and longitudinal. It allows both to observe the customs of dating sites and networks on the internet and questions the motives for individuals to act and the meaning they give to their actions. The thesis is that the use of dating sites and social networks accompany and reinforce a form of socialization and rationalization of social relations in the field of conjugality, gender relations and social relations. These sites are new tools that create or maintain links. They are innovative in the sense that they allow an increased number of potential contacts, a higher frequency of information exchange but also insofar as they create a space for socializing again. Finally they bring a stronger injunction to remain connected, not only to master the tool but also skills related to managing a portfolio of relationships. So there is no disintegration of social ties but rather the proliferation of forms and the number thereof.

This MA thesis presents the results of an investigation about the Hispanic Americans in Prague. Relying on a transnationalist theoretical approach, this research presents an empirical description about the existing ties between the transmigrants and their city of residence, analyzing the migration networks and the transnational practices that arise during the migratory experience. We wish to demonstrate the measure in which the transnational migration is going to foment the exchange of symbolic goods between the country of origin and the country of reception of the transmigrant, and how this exchange is often triggered by the feeling of nostalgia that is frequently associated with the transmigrants experience. To approach these problems in the thesis we focus on the portrait of the migration networks, and on various strategies adopted by migrants from Latin America. Thus we are able to discover the transnational practices of migrants, their integration strategies, and the tools which facilitate to keep the contact with their homeland, and native civilization/culture. The exchange of symbolic goods is one of the very important instruments. We discover them through the testimonies of the transmigrants, which constitute the frame of this investigation, and function as a window on the nature of the...

Nowadays, with the rapid development of GPS-equipped mobile devices, location-based social networks have been emerging to bridge the gap between the physical world and online social networking services. Various types of data, such as personal locations, check-ins, microblogs and social relations, have been available in location-based social networks. Efficiently managing and analyzing such data to meet users' daily query requirements become a challenging task. Among all the existing works in location-based social networks, group query is one of the most important research topics. In this thesis, we investigate query techniques for location-based services in social networking applications. Specifically, considering a location-based social network, we study spatial-aware interest group queries, geo-social {dollar}k{dollar}-cover group queries, and social-aware ridesharing group queries. Firstly, we study the spatial-aware interest group queries in location-based social networks. Recently, most of the location-based social networks release check-in services that allow users to share their visiting locations with their friends. These locations, considered as spatial objects, are usually associated with a few tags that describe the features of those locations. Utilizing such information, we propose a new type of \emph{Spatial-aware Interest Group} (SIG) query that retrieves a user group of size {dollar}k{dollar} where each user is interested in the query keywords and the users are close to each other in the Euclidean space. We prove this query problem is NP-complete, and develop two efficient algorithms IOAIR and DOAIR based on the IR-tree for the processing of SIG queries. We also validate the performance efficiency of the proposed query processing algorithms by empirical evaluation. Secondly, we study the problem of geo-social {dollar}k{dollar}-cover group queries for collaborative spatial computing. In this problem, we propose a novel type of geo-social queries, called \emph{Geo-Social K-Cover Group} (GSKCG) query, which is based on spatial containment and a new modeling of social relationships. Intuitively, given a set of spatial query points and an underlying social network, a GSKCG query finds a minimum user group in which the members satisfy certain social relationship and their associated regions can jointly cover all the query points. Albeit its practical usefulness, the GSKCG query problem is NP-complete. We consequently explore a set of effective pruning strategies to derive an efficient algorithm for finding the optimal solution. Moreover, we design a novel index structure tailored to our problem to further accelerate query processing. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our algorithm achieves desirable performance on real-life datasets. Thirdly, we study the problem of social-aware ridesharing group queries. With the deep penetration of smartphones and geo-locating devices, ridesharing is envisioned as a promising solution to transportation-related problems such as congestion and air pollution for metropolitan cities. Despite the potential to provide significant societal and environmental benefits, ridesharing has not so far been as popular as expected. Notable barriers include the social discomfort and safety concerns when traveling with strangers. To overcome these barriers, in this thesis, we propose a new type of \emph{Social-aware Ridesharing Group} (SaRG) query which retrieves a group of riders by taking into account their social connections besides traditional spatial proximities. Because the SaRG query problem is NP-hard, we design an efficient algorithm with a set of powerful pruning techniques to tackle this problem. We also present several incremental strategies to accelerate the search speed by reducing the repeated computations. Moreover, we propose a novel index tailored to the proposed problem to further speed up the query processing. Experimental results on real datasets show that our proposed algorithms achieve desirable performance. The works of this thesis show that the group query processing techniques are effective, which would facilitate the wider deployment of such query services in real applications

Social networks tend to shape our views about the world. Our study conducts an empirical analysis of social network dynamics using Twitter data. We ask whether social networks influence voting decisions, and determine whether or not people make consistent choices based on their tweets or what they believe. We collect Twitter data on a daily basis, with dynamic social network measurements before, during, and after the 2012 Presidential election. We identify how people should believe based on their ideological profiles. We use lexicographical analysis to check if ideological key words are present in a user's tweets, and if the overall sentiment on this issue is positive or negative. We utilize this data to determine how people should have chosen an outcome which may conflict with an individual's observed declaration of political ideology. We are able to determine what percentage of the population made a consistent choices based on their Tweets during the 2012 presidential election. Additionally, we examine the social network structure in Twitter and how it affects voting. We illustrate that an individual's political ideology is influenced by others in their network.\\ Consumer confidence is an economic indicator which measures the degree of optimism that consumers feel about the overall state of the economy as well as their personal financial situation. We will show that consumer sentiment can be measured via analysis of social networks. Specifically, we perform a lexicographic analysis of Twitter data over a three month period. After careful analysis, we find that not only does talk intensity of economic issues cause shifts in the daily stock market prices but has a significant negative affect.\\ The study of religion has enjoyed distinction and legitimacy within sociology, psychology, anthropology, and political science for many years. This paper concerns the extent to which economic opinion is embedded in structure of religious social relations. We hope to enhance the empirical study of homophily and the economics of behavior by showing how beliefs, norms, and values are affected by religion and, by extension, morals, and culture. We utilize a technique called cluster analysis to determine homophilic ties within a single attribute, religiosity. We see that religion affects economic attitudes and activities of individuals, groups, and societies. Further, religion influences how behavior and institutions are affected by social relations and in our case homophily. This influence is one of the classic questions of social theory.

This study investigates the role of social support in women coping with divorce in mid­ life. Five women were interviewed and a qualitative analysis undertaken, in order to explore the subjective experience of social support during the period of separation and divorce, and its effect on post-divorce adjustment. In particular, the usefulness of formal support groups was examined. It was found that most of the women derived perceived social support from friends and female family members, as well as from their church membership and work environment. It appeared that social support facilitated adjustment in several ways, but most notably in providing esteem support and emotional support which enabled personal growth. All of the women felt that they had developed a sense of their own identity through the process of divorce. Support groups were found to be potentially effective in providing assistance in dealing with emotional issues such as anger and forgiveness, as well as practical and informational support. Such groups might also provide a temporary community where divorced women can interact with other people who are experiencing the same things, thereby freeing them to grieve. The study illuminated the subjective, often unique experience of separation and divorce; this emphasises the challenge for support groups to offer support which addresses this uniqueness. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-03T12:31:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Elaine Martins Donda.pdf: 834030 bytes, checksum: b490cafa888908411e80ddbf53b51508 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-05-12 / This thesis focused on describing and analyzing Cafés do Brasil network, internet social network, which integrates coffee-growers, agronomists, researchers and other actors who actuate on the coffee agribusiness through the communication between its actors aiming at evaluate the adjustments of this new form of social network to the communication process towards the transfer of technological information to the productive sector (coffeegrowers) and the integration of agents who work at the different sector of the coffee agroindustrial chain. The main methodology used was the Analyze of Social Network (ARS), which allowed - by mathematical analysis and statistics based on socialgrams molding - not only the description of the structural properties of the studied network, but also the interpretation and creation of significance of the social relations identified in the network. The results obtained characterize the Cafés do Brasil network as a little-connected network, this is so not only for its relationships established among its actors by the exchange of e-mail messages, but also for spaces designed for discussions and debates regarding the subject. It can be affirmed that, although Cafes do Brasil network has an open and flexible structure and tools that enable information share, it hasn t been able to satisfactorily integrate the agents of the coffee agroindustrial chain who participate on it. Besides, its present format does not substantially favor the communication process for technology transfer to the productive sector. With this study we present suggestions for the adjustment of the network configuration in a way it can be conformed to the objectives of which it was created.(AU) / Este trabalho teve como objetivo descrever e analisar a rede social Cafés do Brasil rede social na Internet criada para integrar cafeicultores, agrônomos, pesquisadores e demais agentes que atuam no agronegócio café - a partir da comunicação estabelecida entre seus atores, procurando, ainda, avaliar a adequação desta nova formatação de rede social para o processo de comunicação à transferência de informação tecnológica ao setor produtivo e para a interação dos agentes que atuam nos diversos segmentos da cadeia agroindustrial do café. A principal metodologia empregada foi a Análise de Redes Sociais (ARS) que, por meio de análises matemáticas e estatísticas, fundamentadas na modelagem por meio de grafos (sociogramas), permitiu-nos não só descrever as propriedades estruturais da rede estudada, como interpretar e criar significados para as relações sociais identificadas na rede. Os resultados obtidos caracterizam a rede Cafés do Brasil como uma rede pouco conectada tanto no âmbito das relações estabelecidas entre seus atores pela troca de mensagens por e-mail, quanto nos espaços destinados à discussão e debates sobre temas relacionados ao setor. À guisa de conclusões pode-se afirmar que, apesar de possuir estrutura aberta e flexível, e ferramentas que facilitam o compartilhamento de informações, a rede Cafés do Brasil não foi capaz até o momento de integrar de forma satisfatória os agentes da cadeia agroindustrial do café que dela participam, e sua formatação atual não favorece substancialmente o processo de comunicação para a transferência de tecnologia ao setor produtivo. Com base no estudo, apresentamos sugestões para ajustes na configuração da rede de forma a adequá-la aos objetivos para os quais foi construída.(AU)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-03T16:15:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Franklin Portela Correia.pdf: 1110970 bytes, checksum: cc36fe779ea29827cd6b26da54ffc0b0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-09-05 / Given the great technological advancement and use of equipment and several tools in teaching, as well as connectivity anytime, you can see the great growth in the use of social networks by both students and teachers. With this growth there is a more intense communication between student and teacher out of the classroom environment, mainly through social networks, with electronic communication involving emails, chatting, exchanging files, photos, videos etc.. Given this new reality, this research aimed to investigate whether there is an impact of this new form of communication in the teaching profession. In this context, focusing on facebook privileged emerged some questions for analysis: new tool that helps the teacher-student relationship? It can bring some positive and / or negative for the teacher? What is the influence of the use of this social network on labor relations? Their existence and their use can influence the decisions of the coordination / management of the school? The study started from the assumption that social networks exert positive and negative impacts, it can establish itself as tools aiding the pedagogical practice, but when it comes to labor and also to interpersonal relationships, the teacher may be vulnerable in respect to their institutional and professional relationships. Based on the concepts of authors that discuss the use of these networks, and the characteristics of the work front the new demands of capital, field research, exploratory type, is directed towards identifying these factors by analyzing data investigated teachers who use the social network facebook. The results confirm that there are impacts of several natures in teaching. This new tool, while it can help teacher-student relationship, exposes the teacher and is used by educational institutions as an instrument of control and exercise of power that are reflected in labor relations. / Diante do grande avanço tecnológico e utilização de equipamentos e diversas ferramentas no ensino, além da conectividade a qualquer momento, é possível perceber o grande crescimento do uso das redes sociais tanto pelos alunos como pelos professores. Com este crescimento observa-se uma comunicação mais intensa entre aluno e professor fora do ambiente da sala de aula, principalmente por intermédio das redes sociais, com a comunicação eletrônica envolvendo e-mails, conversas online, trocas de arquivos, fotos, vídeos etc. Considerando essa nova realidade esta pesquisa objetivou investigar se existe um impacto dessa nova forma de comunicação na profissão docente. Nesse contexto, tendo como foco privilegiado o facebook, emergiram alguns questionamentos para análise: essa nova ferramenta auxilia na relação professor-aluno? Ela pode trazer algum impacto positivo e/ou negativo para o professor? Qual a influência do uso dessa rede social nas relações trabalhistas? Sua existência e o seu uso podem influenciar nas decisões da coordenação/direção da escola? O estudo partiu do pressuposto de que as redes sociais exercem impactos positivos e negativos, pois podem se constituir como ferramentas que auxiliam a prática pedagógica. No entanto, no que se refere às relações trabalhistas e também, às relações interpessoais, o professor pode estar vulnerável quanto às suas relações institucionais e profissionais. Fundamentada nas concepções de autores que discorrem sobre a utilização dessas redes, e sobre as características do trabalho frente às novas demandas do capital, a pesquisa de campo, do tipo exploratória, direcionou-se no sentido de identificar esses fatores por meio da análise dos dados investigados com professores que utilizam a rede social facebook. Os resultados confirmaram que há impactos de diversas naturezas no trabalho docente. Esta nova ferramenta, ao mesmo tempo em que pode auxiliar na relação professor-aluno, expõe o docente, e é utilizada, pelas instituições de ensino, como instrumento de controle e de exercício de poder que se refletem nas relações trabalhistas.

This thesis examines creativity as manifested in an online and transnational network of musicians who compose chipmusic, a kind of electronic music characteristic of 1980s early home computers and videogame sounds. The primary argument is that creativity in chipmusic worlds is networked, meaning that it is dispersed across various activities that are labelled as creative: chipmusic-making, technology-hacking practices that underpin the music, digital cultural practices such as use of social media, online releases, crowdsourcing, staged and screened performances, and any other activity related to chipmusic. The thesis examines the ways in which networked creativity is mediated in the chipscene from an interdisciplinary methodological viewpoint informed by ethnomusicology, anthropology, and sociology. Although the chipscene is geographically dispersed across more than thirty countries worldwide, the chipscene network is well-connected. Communication and music circulation practices of chipmusicians are enabled by the internet. This thesis primarily discusses chipmusic culture that suggests a rich context where creativity discourse is as intensely diverse as the chipscene itself, in which it is embedded. In looking at the creative process and performance practices, I employ a mixed methods approach based on ethnographic research methods and social network analysis, to examine how intrinsic and extrinsic aspects of chipmusic-making, such as ideology, cultural values, network infrastructure, chiptune poetics and aesthetics, distribution of creative roles, authenticity, differentiation, genre dynamics, and intellectual property issues, shape creativity.

The landscape of world migration involves multiple interacting movements of people at various geographic scales, posing significant challenges to the dyadic-independence assumption underlying standard migration models. To account for emerging patterns of multilateral migration relationships, we represent world migration as a time-evolving, spatial network. The nodes in the World Migration Network (WMN) are countries located in geographic space, and the edges represent migratory movements for each decade from 1960-2000. In the first part of the thesis, we characterise the spatial network structure of the WMN, with a particular focus on detecting and mapping mesoscopic structures called 'communities' (i.e., sets of countries with denser migration connections internally than to the rest of the WMN). We employ a method for community detection that simultaneously accounts for multilateral migration, spatial constraints, time-dependence, and directionality in the WMN. We then introduce an approach for characterising local (intracommunity) and global (intercommunity) connectivity in the WMN. On this basis, we define a threefold typology that distinguishes 'cave', 'bi-regional', and 'bridging' communities. These are characterised with distinct migration patterns, spatial network structures, and temporal dynamics: cave communities are tightly-knit enduring structures that channel local migration between contiguous countries; bi-regional communities merge migration between two distinct geographic regions; bridging communities have hub-and-spoke dynamic structures that emerge from globe-spanning movements. Our results suggest that the WMN is neither a globally interconnected network nor reproducing geographic boundaries but involves heterogeneous patterns of global and local ('glocal') migration connectivity. We examine a set of relational, homophily, and spatial mechanisms that could have possibly generated the 'glocal' structure we observe. We found that communities of different types arise from significantly different mechanisms. Our results suggest that migration communities can have important implications for world migration, as different types of community structure provide distinct opportunities and constraints, thereby distinctively shaping future migration patterns.