Since colonization, Indigenous women in Chiapas have occupied very disadvantaged social positions, characterized by ethnic, gender and class-based oppression. However, during the last thirty five years, important social dynamics have taken place which have driven women to perceive themselves as the main actors of social transformation, and to start participating in planning and development efforts at a household and community level. Building on the ideas of Paulo Freire and Pierre Bourdieu, oppression is understood as a dynamic where the oppressed are also implicated by, among other things, the involuntary body adhesion to oppression, experienced as shame, fear and silence. Therefore, the main focus of this research is the processes by which women achieved to exercise the internal capability to speak out; as well as how this new ability has been critical in order to have transformative agency, by having a meaningful participation in planning, agency and decision-making in the different spheres of their private and public life. The main findings of this thesis arise from six month of field research. With a phenomenological and hermeneutic approach, seventeen Indigenous and ten non-Indigenous women participated through in-depth interviews and focus groups. Participatory observation and a validation workshop were also undertaken. Findings are related, first, to women’s participation in group processes, by which, on the one hand, they achieved to generate critical-reflective awareness, denaturalizing oppression, and, on the other hand, they removed embodied oppressive dispositions by retraining their bodies through dialogue and corporal techniques. Second, praxis of liberation aroused from reflection, with no need of a mechanistic plan informed by efficient and effective predetermined justifications. Praxis of liberation took the form of practical wisdom and wise judgment for the achievement of good life.

Since colonization, Indigenous women in Chiapas have occupied very disadvantaged social positions, characterized by ethnic, gender and class-based oppression. However, during the last thirty five years, important social dynamics have taken place which have driven women to perceive themselves as the main actors of social transformation, and to start participating in planning and development efforts at a household and community level. Building on the ideas of Paulo Freire and Pierre Bourdieu, oppression is understood as a dynamic where the oppressed are also implicated by, among other things, the involuntary body adhesion to oppression, experienced as shame, fear and silence. Therefore, the main focus of this research is the processes by which women achieved to exercise the internal capability to speak out; as well as how this new ability has been critical in order to have transformative agency, by having a meaningful participation in planning, agency and decision-making in the different spheres of their private and public life. The main findings of this thesis arise from six month of field research. With a phenomenological and hermeneutic approach, seventeen Indigenous and ten non-Indigenous women participated through in-depth interviews and focus groups. Participatory observation and a validation workshop were also undertaken. Findings are related, first, to women’s participation in group processes, by which, on the one hand, they achieved to generate critical-reflective awareness, denaturalizing oppression, and, on the other hand, they removed embodied oppressive dispositions by retraining their bodies through dialogue and corporal techniques. Second, praxis of liberation aroused from reflection, with no need of a mechanistic plan informed by efficient and effective predetermined justifications. Praxis of liberation took the form of practical wisdom and wise judgment for the achievement of good life.

Since colonization, Indigenous women in Chiapas have occupied very disadvantaged social positions, characterized by ethnic, gender and class-based oppression. However, during the last thirty five years, important social dynamics have taken place which have driven women to perceive themselves as the main actors of social transformation, and to start participating in planning and development efforts at a household and community level. Building on the ideas of Paulo Freire and Pierre Bourdieu, oppression is understood as a dynamic where the oppressed are also implicated by, among other things, the involuntary body adhesion to oppression, experienced as shame, fear and silence. Therefore, the main focus of this research is the processes by which women achieved to exercise the internal capability to speak out; as well as how this new ability has been critical in order to have transformative agency, by having a meaningful participation in planning, agency and decision-making in the different spheres of their private and public life. The main findings of this thesis arise from six month of field research. With a phenomenological and hermeneutic approach, seventeen Indigenous and ten non-Indigenous women participated through in-depth interviews and focus groups. Participatory observation and a validation workshop were also undertaken. Findings are related, first, to women’s participation in group processes, by which, on the one hand, they achieved to generate critical-reflective awareness, denaturalizing oppression, and, on the other hand, they removed embodied oppressive dispositions by retraining their bodies through dialogue and corporal techniques. Second, praxis of liberation aroused from reflection, with no need of a mechanistic plan informed by efficient and effective predetermined justifications. Praxis of liberation took the form of practical wisdom and wise judgment for the achievement of good life. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Vladimir Nabokov's passion for detail is well-known, central to our very idea of the "Nabokovian." Yet Nabokov's most important claims for detail pose a challenge for the reader who would take them seriously. Startlingly extreme and deliberately counterintuitive -- Nabokov called them his "irrational standards" -- these claims push the very limits of reason and belief. Nabokov's critics have tended to treat his more extravagant claims for detail -- including his assertion that the "capacity to wonder at trifles" is the highest form of consciousness there is -- as just a manner of speaking, a form of italics, a bit of wishful thinking, a mandarin's glib performance, or an aesthete's flight of fancy. This dissertation, by contrast, asserts that Nabokov meant what he said, and sets out to understand what he meant. Nabokov's passion for detail, I argue, represents more than a stylistic preference or prescription for good noticing. Rather, it reflects and advocates for a special way of being in the world, of disposing or orienting oneself to things, and for this reason is best understood as part of a broad program of detailphilic habits, attitudes, practices and attunements Nabokov adhered to throughout his life. In making this argument, I draw on the work of a wide array of thinkers, including Descartes, Heidegger, Richard Rorty, Clifford Geertz, and Philip Fisher, and focus on three of Nabokov's texts in particular: Speak, Memory, Lolita, and "The Art of Literature and Commonsense." Making sense of Nabokov's irrational standards, I argue, helps us to make sense of a number of other critical puzzles as well, from what, exactly, Nabokov means by the word "reality" to what a cruel noticer like Humbert Humbert implies about the moral meaning of passionate attention.

As the popularity of digitally based communication devices increases, so does the propensity for individuals to find clever ways to convey messages in a shorter amount of space and time. Often, individuals use word or phrase shortening techniques known collectively as text-speak. A majority of investigations into the topic of text-speak have only focused on the potential impact text-speak may have on literacy or scholastic achievement (Crystal, 2008; Pinker 1994; Thurlow, 2003). However, there is a void in empirical investigation into how individuals create text-speak and more importantly how they process it (Farrell & Lyddy, 2012). The primary aim of this dissertation is to systematically investigate text-speak using various methodological techniques to gain a better understanding of how people create text-speak and explore how it elicits meaningful comprehension. An additional aim of this dissertation is to determine whether processing text-speak comes at a cognitive cost.

Background: Nearly 45 million adults in the United States live with a mental health disorder and only 43% of them seek treatment. One of the major barriers to seeking treatment is accessibility and can be addressed through telepsychology, or providing services with technology. With technological improvements in written communication, using computer-mediated communication (CMC; e.g. text messaging) has become more regularly used and examined in healthcare. To date, little research has focused on the use of practitioner language in telepsychology. Method: Two samples (university sample and national sample) totaling 396 participants were asked to rate a therapist on attractiveness (i.e. likability and sociability), expertness, and trustworthiness after reading one of four text-message introductions. The messages varied in the language used: Jargon, jargon with layman explanations, layman only, and text speak. Analysis: The participants’ ratings of the therapist were analyzed using analysis of variance to examine differences between the rating means. Results: University participants rated a therapist higher in attractiveness when the text-message used layman language only compared to jargon, jargon with layman, and text speak. Both samples rated the therapist lower in attractiveness, expertness, and likelihood to use services of therapist when the text-message contained text speak.

The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to analyze some aspects of the historical surroundings in which Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak wrote her famous essay ”Can the Subaltern Speak?”. From a historical perspective, inspired by Quentin Skinner, I examine how Spivak in a context of French theory in U.S. academy criticized Michel Foucault and defended Jacques Derrida. In the first part of my analysis I relate Spivak’s essay to the ”Foucault and Derrida debate” of the sixties and seventies. I argue that many aspects of Derrida’s early critique of Foucault, and many of the themes of that debate in general, was rhetorically repeated by Spivak in ”Can the Subaltern Speak?”. In the second part of my analysis, I discuss how Foucault and Derrida in the context of U.S. academy were, rather than empirical persons, turned into common nouns well incorporated into the academic language. In this context, where Spivak appeared, I analyze how the ”notions” Foucault and Derrida was disputed. I argue that Spivak, during several years before she wrote ”Can the Subaltern Speak?”, had been trying to refute anglophone marxist and postcolonial intellectuals who criticized Derrida. These critics, including Terry Eagleton, Perry Anderson and Edward Said, had been blaming Derrida for being unhistorical, politically evasive and merely textualistic. My argument is that Spivak sought to defend Derrida towards these critics in ”Can the Subaltern Speak?”. In this context, her aim was to emphasize the efficiency of Derrida’s deconstruction as a political tool for marxist, feminist and Third world intellectuals.

The problem investigated in this study is the following: “What is the nature and function of the theme of God’s speech in the book of Hebrews and within the whole of the revelation in Scripture?”. This problem can only be solved if the unfolding nature of God’s speech from the Old to the New Testament is taken into account (cf. Heb 1:1-2), the theme is researched grammatical-historically, and then placed revelational-historically within the whole of Scripture. The introductory questions of the book of Hebrews are investigated for the potential light that answers to these questions can shed on the appearance, function and interpretation of references to God’s speech in the book. Subsequently, the structure of Hebrews is investigated and analysed to determine the position which the theme of God’s speech assumes within the sermon. This goal is achieved through a literature study on suggestions for Hebrews’ structure, followed up by an independent thought structure analysis of Hebrews according to the method of Coetzee (1988a:19-37). From the position of the theme of God’s speech within the structure of the sermon the nature and content of the author of Hebrews’ references to the theme of God’s speech as introductory formulae, and as part of Old Testament quotations themselves, are determined. This is done by examining the 38 introductory formulae in Hebrews in detail on the basis of a literature and independent study. Subsequently, eleven pericopes in Hebrews where keywords of the theme of God’s speech come together as part of the argumentation of the sermon are researched grammatical-historically using a combined method of Coetzee (1997), Tolar (2002), Jordaan (2004a) and Fee (2009). Ultimately it is determined how the theme of God’s speech unfolds in the book of Hebrews regarding manner, nature and content by giving an overview of the collected material by means of analysis, interpretation and synthesis. From this overview it is determined how the author of Hebrews’ theme of God’s speech fits into the whole of God’s revelation in Scripture. This is achieved by doing a cursory revelational-historical study using a combined method of Coetzee (1995) and Jordaan (2003) on six topics that form the overview of the theme of God’s speech in Hebrews. Finally, a general conclusion is reached by answering the problem of this study by way of enumeration: The revelational-historical importance of the theme of God’s speech in Hebrews is that the author shares the presupposition of other biblical authors that the Old Testament is divinely inspired and therefore absolutely authoritative, but then with the explicit emphasis that God is presently still speaking directly and urgently with man through it. The unfolding of God’s revelation also has a specific accentuation in Hebrews by means of the author’s emphasis that God revealed Himself superior and finally in his Son. The author of Hebrews’ emphasis on the greater responsibility of the hearers to listen faithfully and obediently because of God’s superior revelation in his Son, is also unique. For these reasons alone Hebrews has an indispensable role within the Canon. / PhD (New Testament), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

E-commerce has begun to evolve beyond simple web pages to more sophisticated ways of conducting e-business transactions, such as through electronic advertising, negotiation, and delivery. However, to participate in these advances requires the skills of professional programmers, and end-user owners of small businesses often cannot justify this expense. In this thesis, we present FAR, an end-user language to offer and deliver e-services. The novel aspects of FAR are its support of small e-services and its multiparadigm approach to combining ideas from spreadsheets and rule-based programming with drag-and-drop web page layout devices. / Graduation date: 2002

The problem investigated in this study is the following: “What is the nature and function of the theme of God’s speech in the book of Hebrews and within the whole of the revelation in Scripture?”. This problem can only be solved if the unfolding nature of God’s speech from the Old to the New Testament is taken into account (cf. Heb 1:1-2), the theme is researched grammatical-historically, and then placed revelational-historically within the whole of Scripture. The introductory questions of the book of Hebrews are investigated for the potential light that answers to these questions can shed on the appearance, function and interpretation of references to God’s speech in the book. Subsequently, the structure of Hebrews is investigated and analysed to determine the position which the theme of God’s speech assumes within the sermon. This goal is achieved through a literature study on suggestions for Hebrews’ structure, followed up by an independent thought structure analysis of Hebrews according to the method of Coetzee (1988a:19-37). From the position of the theme of God’s speech within the structure of the sermon the nature and content of the author of Hebrews’ references to the theme of God’s speech as introductory formulae, and as part of Old Testament quotations themselves, are determined. This is done by examining the 38 introductory formulae in Hebrews in detail on the basis of a literature and independent study. Subsequently, eleven pericopes in Hebrews where keywords of the theme of God’s speech come together as part of the argumentation of the sermon are researched grammatical-historically using a combined method of Coetzee (1997), Tolar (2002), Jordaan (2004a) and Fee (2009). Ultimately it is determined how the theme of God’s speech unfolds in the book of Hebrews regarding manner, nature and content by giving an overview of the collected material by means of analysis, interpretation and synthesis. From this overview it is determined how the author of Hebrews’ theme of God’s speech fits into the whole of God’s revelation in Scripture. This is achieved by doing a cursory revelational-historical study using a combined method of Coetzee (1995) and Jordaan (2003) on six topics that form the overview of the theme of God’s speech in Hebrews. Finally, a general conclusion is reached by answering the problem of this study by way of enumeration: The revelational-historical importance of the theme of God’s speech in Hebrews is that the author shares the presupposition of other biblical authors that the Old Testament is divinely inspired and therefore absolutely authoritative, but then with the explicit emphasis that God is presently still speaking directly and urgently with man through it. The unfolding of God’s revelation also has a specific accentuation in Hebrews by means of the author’s emphasis that God revealed Himself superior and finally in his Son. The author of Hebrews’ emphasis on the greater responsibility of the hearers to listen faithfully and obediently because of God’s superior revelation in his Son, is also unique. For these reasons alone Hebrews has an indispensable role within the Canon. / PhD (New Testament), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014