This thesis explores how locally-constructed agency, based on what we really care about, can be developed within and thence beyond localities. At issue is the need for new forms of connectedness and belonging in the globally-based network society. Globally-based communications and media technologies create new networks and mobilities that stretch and fragment existing socio-economic, administrative and ecological systems and with this, older, local and national forms of sociality. Such social upheavals are apt to drive people into defensive and divisive "us" against "them" forms of belonging. Local communities are then called on almost daily to fix these problems, but scarcely exist as connected effective agents on their own account. The thesis examines how official institutions (policy and academic) can help undo one-way global-local flows, by supporting new forms of local-local and local-through-to-global agency. A transdisciplinary methodology, developed in this thesis, performatively demonstrates productive, new local-academic-policy connections. Research included a fully participatory process that blends theoretical concepts (social, aesthetic, literary and film), with film and interactive technologies. A microcosm or simulation of locality was created through DVD film and an interactive research website. Through the shared use of screen interfaces, over one hundred co-detectives or co-researchers from hugely diverse backgrounds collaborated to search for, help reveal, and test out ways that local inhabitants could more effectively connect and co-create a filmed narrative of the kind of place that all would like to inhabit. A "network locality" development narrative is here piloted as a counterpoint to the global network society. Based on inclusive co-construction of locally grounded technology - and aesthetic-based communities - new possibilities of belonging around engagement in locally grounded civic-cosmopolitan projects are demonstrated.

This thesis explores how locally-constructed agency, based on what we really care about, can be developed within and thence beyond localities. At issue is the need for new forms of connectedness and belonging in the globally-based network society. Globally-based communications and media technologies create new networks and mobilities that stretch and fragment existing socio-economic, administrative and ecological systems and with this, older, local and national forms of sociality. Such social upheavals are apt to drive people into defensive and divisive "us" against "them" forms of belonging. Local communities are then called on almost daily to fix these problems, but scarcely exist as connected effective agents on their own account. The thesis examines how official institutions (policy and academic) can help undo one-way global-local flows, by supporting new forms of local-local and local-through-to-global agency. A transdisciplinary methodology, developed in this thesis, performatively demonstrates productive, new local-academic-policy connections. Research included a fully participatory process that blends theoretical concepts (social, aesthetic, literary and film), with film and interactive technologies. A microcosm or simulation of locality was created through DVD film and an interactive research website. Through the shared use of screen interfaces, over one hundred co-detectives or co-researchers from hugely diverse backgrounds collaborated to search for, help reveal, and test out ways that local inhabitants could more effectively connect and co-create a filmed narrative of the kind of place that all would like to inhabit. A "network locality" development narrative is here piloted as a counterpoint to the global network society. Based on inclusive co-construction of locally grounded technology - and aesthetic-based communities - new possibilities of belonging around engagement in locally grounded civic-cosmopolitan projects are demonstrated.

<p>U tezi je istražena potreba za integrisanim znanjem u održivom razvoju fizičke strukture grada u 21. vijeku. Zatim je na teorijskom nivou predložen novi model-univerzalna transdisciplinarna istraživačka paradigma, koja treba da doprinese uspješnom rešavanju kompleksnih problema u procesu održivog razvoja fizičke strukture grada.Eksperimentalne studije slučaja sprovedene na Arhitektonskom fakultetu u Podgorici, potvrđuju mogućnost praktične primjene novog modela, a empirijsko istraživanje je poslužilo kao potvrda o potrebi za transdisciplinarnom metodologijom. Komparativna analiza vrijednosti projekata dobijenih kroz različite metodološke pristupe, potvrdila je validnost predloženog metodološkog modela.</p> / <p>The thesis explores the need for integrated knowledge in the sustainable<br />development of the physical structure of the city in the 21st century.Then, on the<br />theoretical level, the new model was proposed -universal transdisciplinary research<br />paradigm, which should contribute to the successful resolution of complex problems<br />in the process of the sustainable development of the physical structure of the<br />city.The experimental case studies conducted at the Faculty of Architecture in<br />Podgorica, confirm the possibility of practical application of the new model, and the<br />empirical research has served as a confirmation of the need for transdisciplinary<br />methodology. Comparative analysis of the value of projects obtained through<br />different methodological approaches, confirmed the validity of the proposed<br />methodological model.</p>

abstract: As many modern scholars have warned, the complexity of Tang narratives is far beyond the reach of Lu Xun’s twentieth-century generic labels. Therefore, we should have an acute awareness of the earlier limiting view of these categorizations, and our research should transcend the limitations of these views in regard to this extensive corpus or to being confined to rigid and meager reading of the richness of the stories. This dissertation will use a transdisciplinary methodology that incorporates both history and literature in close reading of seven Tang tales composed in the mid-to-late Tang eras (780s–early 900s), to break the boundaries between the two generic labels, chuanqi and zhiguai, and unearth significant configurations within these literary texts that become apparent only through stepping across genre. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation East Asian Languages and Civilizations 2017