Search results for: French cinema
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 530

Search results for: French cinema

350 Impact of Sufism on Indian Cinema: A New Cultural Construct for Mediating Conflict

Authors: Ravi Chaturvedi, Ghanshyam Beniwal

Abstract:

Without going much into the detail of long history of Sufism in the world and the etymological definition of the word ‘Sufi’, it will be sufficient to underline that the concept of Sufism was to focus the mystic power on the spiritual dimension of Islam with a view-shielding the believers from the outwardly and unrealistic dogma of the faith. Sufis adopted rather a liberal view in propagating the religious order of Islam suitable to the cultural and social environment of the land. It is, in fact, a mission of higher religious order of any faith, which disdains strife and conflict in any form. The joy of self-realization being the essence of religion is experienced after a long spiritual practice. India had Sufi and Bhakti (devotion) traditions in Islam and Hinduism, respectively. Both Sufism and Bhakti traditions were based on respect for different religions. The poorer and lower caste Hindus and Muslims were greatly influenced by these traditions. Unlike Ulemas and Brahmans, the Sufi and Bhakti saints were highly tolerant and open to the truth in other faiths. They never adopted sectarian attitudes and were never involved in power struggles. They kept away from power structures. Sufism is integrated with the Indian cinema since its initial days. In the earliest Bollywood movies, Sufism was represented in the form of qawwali which made its way from dargahs (shrines). Mixing it with pop influences, Hindi movies began using Sufi music in a big way only in the current decade. However, of late, songs with Sufi influences have become de rigueur in almost every film being released these days, irrespective of the genre, whether it is a romantic Gangster or a cerebral Corporate. 'Sufi is in the DNA of the Indian sub-continent', according to several contemporary filmmakers, critics, and spectators.The inherent theatricality motivates the performer of the 'Sufi' rituals for a dramatic behavior. The theatrical force of these stages of Sufi practice is so powerful that even the spectator cannot resist himself from being moved. In a multi-cultural country like India, the mediating streams have acquired a multi-layered importance in recent history. The second half of Indian post-colonial era has witnessed a regular chain of some conflicting religio-political waves arising from various sectarian camps in the country, which have compelled the counter forces to activate for keeping the spirit of composite cultural ethos alive. The study has revealed that the Sufi practice methodology is also being adapted for inclusion of spirituality in life at par to Yoga practice. This paper, a part of research study, is an attempt to establish that the Sufism in Indian cinema is one such mediating voice which is very active and alive throughout the length and width of the country continuously bridging the gap between various religious and social factions, and have a significant role to play in future as well.

Keywords: Indian cinema, mediating voice, Sufi, yoga practice

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349 When Worlds Collide: Clashes of Communication between Italian and Anglophone Cultures in Movies Set in Venice

Authors: Angela Fabris, Joerg Helbig

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Our paper deals with feature films set in Venice which focus on the influence of Italian life style on anglophone characters. Usually, these films emphasize the different cultures and mentalities of Italian and British (or American) people. More often than not, these encounters result in a profound change of the anglophone characters' attitude towards romance and sensuality. A case in point is David Lean's Summer Madness (UK 1955). This film recounts the love affair between the American tourist Jane Hudson (Katherine Hepburn) and the Venetian antique shop owner Renato de Rossi (Rossano Brazzi). Jane is a spinster in her mid-forties who longs for love and romance. The chance arrives when she meets Renato who feels attracted to her. Jane's immediate reaction, however, is to reject Renato's advances. What follows is a struggle between the strict morality of a puritan upbringing and the irresitable charm of Mediterranean temptations. Similar conflicts can be found in many other movies. Apart from Summer Madness we will discuss Aldo Lado's Chi l'ha vista morire? (It 1972), Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now (UK/It 1973) and Paul Schrader's The Comfort of Strangers (It/UK/USA 1990). Our paper raises the question whether or not these and other films present false stereotypes and chlichés. The paper is part of our large-scale research project which explores the history of erotic cinema in Italy and England.

Keywords: culture clash, erotic cinema, film, Venice

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348 25 Years of the Neurolinguistic Approach: Origin, Outcomes, Expansion and Current Experiments

Authors: Steeve Mercier, Joan Netten, Olivier Massé

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The traditional lack of success of most Canadian students in the regular French program in attaining the ability to communicate spontaneously led to the conceptualization of a modified program. This program, called Intensive French, introduced and evaluated as an experiment in several school districts, formed the basis for the creation of a more effective approach for the development of skills in a second/foreign language and literacy: the Neurolinguistic Approach (NLA).The NLA expresses the major change in the understanding of how communication skills are developed: learning to communicate spontaneously in a second language depends on the reuse of structures in a variety of cognitive situations to express authentic messages rather than on knowledge of the way a language functions. Put differently, it prioritises the acquisition of implicit competence over the learning of grammatical knowledge. This is achieved by the adoption of a literacy-based approach and an increase in intensity of instruction.Besides having strong support empirically from numerous experiments, the NLA has sound theoretical foundation, as it conforms to research in neurolinguistics. The five pedagogical principles that define the approach will be explained, as well as the differences between the NLA and the paradigm on which most current resources and teaching strategies are based. It is now 25 years since the original research occurred. The use of the NLA, as it will be shown, has expanded widely. With some adaptations, it is used for other languages and in other milieus. In Canada, classes are offered in mandarin, Ukrainian, Spanish and Arabic, amongst others. It has also been used in several indigenous communities, such as to restore the use of Mohawk, Cri and Dene. Its use has expanded throughout the world, as in China, Japan, France, Germany, Belgium, Poland, Russia, as well as Mexico. The Intensive French program originally focussed on students in grades 5 or 6 (ages 10 -12); nowadays, the programs based on the approach include adults, particularly immigrants entering new countries. With the increasing interest in inclusion and cultural diversity, there is a demand for language learning amongst pre-school and primary children that can be successfully addressed by the NLA. Other current experiments target trilingual schools and work with Inuit communities of Nunavik in the province of Quebec.

Keywords: neuroeducation, neurolinguistic approach, literacy, second language acquisition, plurilingualism, foreign language teaching and learning

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347 Improving Collective Health and Social Care through a Better Consideration of Sex and Gender: Analytical Report by the French National Authority for Health

Authors: Thomas Suarez, Anne-Sophie Grenouilleau, Erwan Autin, Alexandre Biosse-Duplan, Emmanuelle Blondet, Laurence Chazalette, Marie Coniel, Agnes Dessaigne, Sylvie Lascols, Andrea Lasserre, Candice Legris, Pierre Liot, Aline Metais, Karine Petitprez, Christophe Varlet, Christian Saout

Abstract:

Background: The role of biological sex and gender identity -whether assigned or chosen- as health determinants are far from a recent discovery: several reports have stressed out how being a woman or a man could affect health on various scales. However, taking it into consideration beyond stereotypes and rigid binary assumptions still seems to be a work in progress. Method: The report is a synthesis on a variety of specific topics, each of which was studied by a specialist from the French National Authority for Health (HAS), through an analysis of existing literature on both healthcare policy construction process and instruments (norms, data analysis, clinical trials, guidelines, and professional practices). This work also implied a policy analysis of French recent public health laws and a retrospective study of guidelines with a gender mainstreaming approach. Results: The analysis showed that though sex and gender were well-known determinants of health, their consideration by both public policy and health operators was often incomplete, as it does not incorporate how sex and gender interact, as well as how they interact with other factors. As a result, the health and social care systems and their professionals tend to reproduce some stereotypical and inadequate habits. Though the data available often allows to take sex and gender into consideration, such data is often underused in practice guidelines and policy formulation. Another consequence is a lack of inclusiveness towards transgender or intersex persons. Conclusions: This report first urges for raising awareness of all the actors of health, in its broadest definition, that sex and gender matter beyond first-look conclusions. It makes a series of recommendations in order to reshape policy construction in the health sector on the one hand and to design public health instruments to make them more inclusive regarding sex and gender on the other hand. The HAS finally committed to integrate sex and gender preoccupations in its workings methods, to be a driving force in the spread of these concerns.

Keywords: biological sex, determinants of health, gender, healthcare policy instruments, social accompaniment

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346 Exchanges between Literature and Cinema: Scripted Writing in the Novel "Miguel e os Demônios", by Lourenço Mutarelli

Authors: Marilia Correa Parecis De Oliveira

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This research looks at the novel Miguel e os demônios (2009), by the contemporary Brazilian author Lourenço Mutarelli. In it, the presence of film language resources is remarkable, creating thus a kind of scripted writing. We intend to analyze the presence of film language in work under study, in which there is a mixture of the characteristics of the novel and screenplay genres, trying to explore which aesthetic and meaning effects of the ownership of a visual language for the creation of a literary text create in the novel. The objective of this research is to identify and analyze the formal and thematic aspects that characterize the hybridity of literature and film in the novel by Lourenço Mutarelli. The method employed comprises reading and production cataloging of theoretical and critical texts, literary and film theory, historical review about the author, and also the realization of an analytical and interpretative reading of novel. In Miguel e os demônios there is a range of formal and thematic elements of popular narrative genres such as the detective story and action film, with a predominance of verb forms in the present and NPs - features that tend to make present the narrated scenes, as in the cinema. The novel, in this sense, is located in an intermediate position between the literary text and the pre-film text, as though filled with proper elements of the language of film, you can not fit it categorically in the genre script, since it does not reduce the script because aspires to be read as a novel. Therefore, the difficulty of fitting the work in a single gender also refused to be extra-textual factors - such as your publication as novel - but, rather, by the binary classifications serve solely to imprison the work on a label, which impoverish not only reading the text, as also the possibility of recognizing literature as a constant dialogue space and interaction with other media. We can say, therefore, that frame the work Miguel e os demônios in one of the two genres (novel or screenplay) proves not enough, since the text is revealed a hybrid narrative, consisting in a kind of scripted writing. In this sense, it is like a text that is born in a society saturated by audiovisual in their daily lives in order to be consumed by readers who, in ascending scale, exchange books by visual narratives. However, the novel uses film's resources without giving up its constitution as literature; on the contrary, it enriches the visual and linguistically, dialoguing with the complex contemporary horizon marked by the cultural industry.

Keywords: Brazilian literature, cinema, Lourenço Mutarelli, screenplay

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345 From Research to Practice: Upcycling Cinema Icons

Authors: Mercedes Rodriguez Sanchez, Laura Luceño Casals

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With the rise of social media, creative people and brands everywhere are constantly generating content. The students with Bachelor's Degrees in Fashion Design use platforms such as Instagram or TikTok to look for inspiration and entertainment, as well as a way to develop their own ideas and share them with a wide audience. Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) have become a central aspect of higher education, virtually affecting every aspect of the student experience. Following the current trend, during the first semester of the second year, a collaborative project across two subjects –Design Management and History of Fashion Design– was implemented. After an introductory class focused on the relationship between fashion and cinema, as well as a brief history of 20th-century fashion, the students freely chose a work team and an iconic look from a movie costume. They researched the selected movie and its sociocultural context, analyzed the costume and the work of the designer, and studied the style, fashion magazines and most popular films of the time. Students then redesigned and recreated the costume, for which they were compelled to recycle the materials they had available at home as an unavoidable requirement of the activity. Once completed the garment, students delivered in-class, team-based presentations supported by the final design, a project summary poster and a making-of video, which served as a documentation tool of the costume design process. The methodologies used include Challenge-Based Learning (CBL), debates, Internet research, application of Information and Communications Technologies, and viewing clips of classic films, among others. After finishing the projects, students were asked to complete two electronic surveys to measure the acquisition of transversal and specific competencies of each subject. Results reveal that this activity helped the students' knowledge acquisition, a deeper understanding of both subjects and their skills development. The classroom dynamic changed. The multidisciplinary approach encouraged students to collaborate with their peers, while educators were better able to keep students' interest and promote an engaging learning process. As a result, the activity discussed in this paper confirmed the research hypothesis: it is positive to propose innovative teaching projects that combine academic research with playful learning environments.

Keywords: cinema, cooperative learning, fashion design, higher education, upcycling

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344 The Impact of Biodiversity and Urban Ecosystem Services in Real Estate

Authors: Carmen Cantuarias-Villessuzanne, Jeffrey Blain, Radmila Pineau

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Our research project aims at analyzing the sensitiveness of French households to urban biodiversity and urban ecosystem services (UES). Opinion surveys show that the French population is sensitive to biodiversity and ecosystem services loss, but the value given to these issues within urban fabric and real estate market lacks evidence. Using GIS data and economic evaluation, by hedonic price methods, weassess the isolated contribution of the explanatory variables of biodiversityand UES on the price of residential real estate. We analyze the variation of the valuefor three urban ecosystem services - flood control, proximity to green spaces, and refreshment - on the price of real estate whena property changes ownership. Our modeling and mapping focus on the price at theIRIS scale (statistical information unit) from 2014 to 2019. The main variables are internal characteristics of housing (area, kind of housing, heating), external characteristics(accessibility and infrastructure, economic, social, and physical environmentsuch as air pollution, noise), and biodiversity indicators and urban ecosystemservices for the Ile-de-France region. Moreover, we compare environmental values on the enhancement of greenspaces and their impact on residential choices. These studies are very useful for real estate developers because they enable them to promote green spaces, and municipalities to become more attractive.

Keywords: urban ecosystem services, sustainable real estate, urban biodiversity perception, hedonic price, environmental values

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343 Created Duration and Stillness: Chinese Director Zhang Ming Images to Matrophobia Dreamland in Films

Authors: Sicheng Liu

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Zhang Ming is a never-A-listed writer-director in China who is famous for his poetic art-house filmmaking in mainland China, and his complex to spectacles of tiny places in south China. Entirely, Zhang’s works concentrate on the interconnection amongst settlement images, desirable fictional storytelling, and the dilemma of alienated interpersonal relationships. Zhang uses his pendulous camerawork to reconstruct the spectacles of his hometown and detached places in northern China, such as hometown Wushan county, lower-tier cities or remote areas that close to nature, where the old spectacles are experiencing great transformation and vanishment. Under his camera, the cities' geo-cultural and geopolitical implications which are not only a symbolic meaning that these places are not only settlements for residents to live but also representations to the abstraction of time-lapse, dimensional disorientation and revealment to people’s innerness. Zhang Ming is good at creating the essay-like expression, poetic atmosphere and vague metaphors in films, so as to show the sensitivity, aimlessness and slight anxiety of Chinese wenren (intellectuals), whose unique and objective experiences to a few aspects inside or outside their the living circumstance, typically for example, transformation of the environment, obscure expression to inner desire and aspirations, personal loneliness because of being isolated, slight anxiety to the uncertainty of life, and other mental dilemma brought by maladjustment. Also, Zhang’s works impressed the audience as slow cinemas, via creating stillness, complicity and fluidity of images and sound, by decompressing liner time passing and wandering within the enclosed loopback-space with his camera, so as to produce poeticized depiction and mysterious dimensions in films. This paper aims to summarize these mentioned features of Zhang’s films, by analyzing filmic texts and film-making styles, in order to prove an outcome that as a wenren-turned-filmmaker, Zhang Ming is good at use metaphor to create an artistic situation to depict the poetry in films and portray characteristics. In addition to this, Zhang Ming’s style relatively reflects some aesthetic features of Chinese wenren cinema.

Keywords: Chinese wenren cinema, intellectuals’ awareness, slow cinema,  slowness and dampness, people and environment

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342 Women Retelling the Iranian Revolution: A Comparative Study of Novelists Maryam Madjidi and Negar Djavadi

Authors: Alessandro Giardino

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The Iranian Revolution has been the object of numberless historical and semi-fictional accounts, often providing a monolithic perspective on the events, due to the westerner positioning of those recounting them. Against this tradition, two contemporary French-Iranian novels "Disoriental" (2016) by Negar Djavadi and "Marx and The Doll" (2017) by Maryam Madjidi have offered readers a female-oriented and interestingly layered representation of the Iranian Revolution, hence addressing the responsibilities and misconceptions of Western countries. Furthermore, these two women writers have shed light on the disenchantment of the Iranian intellectual class vis-à-vis the foundation of the Islamic Republic, by particularly focusing on the deterioration of women’s rights, as well as the repression of political, ethnical, religious and sexual minorities. By a psycholinguistic and semasiological analysis of the two novels by Djavadi and Madjidi, this essay will focus on alternative accounts of the revolution in order to reflect upon the role of intersectional literature to the understanding of history. More specifically, as both women, refugees, and bi-cultural writers, Djavadi and Madjidi unearthed moments and figures of the revolution which had disappeared from the prevalent narrative. In doing so, however, these two writers resorted to entirely opposite styles of writing that, it will be argued, stem from different types of female resistance. In defining these two approaches as a "narrative resistance" and a "photographic resistance," the essay will elucidate the dependence of these writers’ language on generational and psychological factors, but it will also stir a reflection on their different communicative strategies.

Keywords: Iranian revolution, French-Iranian, intersectionality, literature, women writers

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341 Perceiving Casual Speech: A Gating Experiment with French Listeners of L2 English

Authors: Naouel Zoghlami

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Spoken-word recognition involves the simultaneous activation of potential word candidates which compete with each other for final correct recognition. In continuous speech, the activation-competition process gets more complicated due to speech reductions existing at word boundaries. Lexical processing is more difficult in L2 than in L1 because L2 listeners often lack phonetic, lexico-semantic, syntactic, and prosodic knowledge in the target language. In this study, we investigate the on-line lexical segmentation hypotheses that French listeners of L2 English form and then revise as subsequent perceptual evidence is revealed. Our purpose is to shed further light on the processes of L2 spoken-word recognition in context and better understand L2 listening difficulties through a comparison of skilled and unskilled reactions at the point where their working hypothesis is rejected. We use a variant of the gating experiment in which subjects transcribe an English sentence presented in increments of progressively greater duration. The spoken sentence was “And this amazing athlete has just broken another world record”, chosen mainly because it included common reductions and phonetic features in English, such as elision and assimilation. Our preliminary results show that there is an important difference in the manner in which proficient and less-proficient L2 listeners handle connected speech. Less-proficient listeners delay recognition of words as they wait for lexical and syntactic evidence to appear in the gates. Further statistical results are currently being undertaken.

Keywords: gating paradigm, spoken word recognition, online lexical segmentation, L2 listening

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340 In vitro and in vivo Infectivity of Coxiella burnetii Strains from French Livestock

Authors: Joulié Aurélien, Jourdain Elsa, Bailly Xavier, Gasqui Patrick, Yang Elise, Leblond Agnès, Rousset Elodie, Sidi-Boumedine Karim

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Q fever is a worldwide zoonosis caused by the gram-negative obligate intracellular bacterium Coxiella burnetii. Following the recent outbreaks in the Netherlands, a hyper virulent clone was found to be the cause of severe human cases of Q fever. In livestock, Q fever clinical manifestations are mainly abortions. Although the abortion rates differ between ruminant species, C. burnetii’s virulence remains understudied, especially in enzootic areas. In this study, the infectious potential of three C. burnetii isolates collected from French farms of small ruminants were compared to the reference strain Nine Mile (in phase II and in an intermediate phase) using an in vivo (CD1 mice) model. Mice were challenged with 105 live bacteria discriminated by propidium monoazide-qPCR targeting the icd-gene. After footpad inoculation, spleen and popliteal lymph node were harvested at 10 days post-inoculation (p.i). The strain invasiveness in spleen and popliteal nodes was assessed by qPCR assays targeting the icd-gene. Preliminary results showed that the avirulent strains (in phase 2) failed to pass the popliteal barrier and then to colonize the spleen. This model allowed a significant differentiation between strain’s invasiveness on biological host and therefore identifying distinct virulence profiles. In view of these results, we plan to go further by testing fifteen additional C. burnetii isolates from French farms of sheep, goat and cattle by using the above-mentioned in vivo model. All 15 strains display distant MLVA (multiple-locus variable-number of tandem repeat analysis) genotypic profiles. Five of the fifteen isolates will bee also tested in vitro on ovine and bovine macrophage cells. Cells and supernatants will be harvested at day1, day2, day3 and day6 p.i to assess in vitro multiplication kinetics of strains. In conclusion, our findings might help the implementation of surveillance of virulent strains and ultimately allow adapting prophylaxis measures in livestock farms.

Keywords: Q fever, invasiveness, ruminant, virulence

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339 Analyzing the Commentator Network Within the French YouTube Environment

Authors: Kurt Maxwell Kusterer, Sylvain Mignot, Annick Vignes

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To our best knowledge YouTube is the largest video hosting platform in the world. A high number of creators, viewers, subscribers and commentators act in this specific eco-system which generates huge sums of money. Views, subscribers, and comments help to increase the popularity of content creators. The most popular creators are sponsored by brands and participate in marketing campaigns. For a few of them, this becomes a financially rewarding profession. This is made possible through the YouTube Partner Program, which shares revenue among creators based on their popularity. We believe that the role of comments in increasing the popularity is to be emphasized. In what follows, YouTube is considered as a bilateral network between the videos and the commentators. Analyzing a detailed data set focused on French YouTubers, we consider each comment as a link between a commentator and a video. Our research question asks what are the predominant features of a video which give it the highest probability to be commented on. Following on from this question, how can we use these features to predict the action of the agent in commenting one video instead of another, considering the characteristics of the commentators, videos, topics, channels, and recommendations. We expect to see that the videos of more popular channels generate higher viewer engagement and thus are more frequently commented. The interest lies in discovering features which have not classically been considered as markers for popularity on the platform. A quick view of our data set shows that 96% of the commentators comment only once on a certain video. Thus, we study a non-weighted bipartite network between commentators and videos built on the sub-sample of 96% of unique comments. A link exists between two nodes when a commentator makes a comment on a video. We run an Exponential Random Graph Model (ERGM) approach to evaluate which characteristics influence the probability of commenting a video. The creation of a link will be explained in terms of common video features, such as duration, quality, number of likes, number of views, etc. Our data is relevant for the period of 2020-2021 and focuses on the French YouTube environment. From this set of 391 588 videos, we extract the channels which can be monetized according to YouTube regulations (channels with at least 1000 subscribers and more than 4000 hours of viewing time during the last twelve months).In the end, we have a data set of 128 462 videos which consist of 4093 channels. Based on these videos, we have a data set of 1 032 771 unique commentators, with a mean of 2 comments per a commentator, a minimum of 1 comment each, and a maximum of 584 comments.

Keywords: YouTube, social networks, economics, consumer behaviour

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338 Theatrical Architecture in Bologna at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century: The Renaissance of Modernissimo Cinema

Authors: Giorgia Predari, Riccardo Gulli

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The paper describes the history and the stylistic choices adopted in the construction of Palazzo Ronzani in Bologna, which was the first building to rise after the heavy demolitions carried out in the historical center of the city at the beginning of the twentieth century. In 1910, the local administration adopted a detailed plan to change the aspect of the city, as it was already happening in the main European capitals. In this context, starting from 1911, the architect and scenographer Gualtiero Pontoni designed for Alessandro Ronzani -the owner of a well-known Bolognese beer company- his Palazzo, which is listed among the first multifunctional buildings in Bologna, containing offices, commercial activities, and entertainment spaces. In an area of about 2000 m², the architect was able to propose a theatre with a capacity of 2000 seats at the basement, shops, a cafè-chantant and a restaurant on the ground floor, clubs, studios and commercial stores on the mezzanine and the first plan, and a hotel on the upper floors. The whole core of the building, at the underground levels, consisted of a reinforced concrete frame (one of the first examples of this type of construction in the city), which allowed the hall to have a free span of 11 x 12 meters, and a height of about 9 meters. Used until 2007 as a cinema, the hall has remained then in disuse for almost 10 years, but now an important functional restoration project with a strong architectural and scenographic value is taking place. It will bring the spaces back to the original geometries, in a historical and artistic condition inspired by the styles of the early Twentieth century.

Keywords: Modernissimo, Palazzo Ronzani, liberty, Bologna

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337 Reading the Interior Furnishings of the Houses through Turkish Films in the 1980's

Authors: Dicle Aydın, Tuba Bulbul Bahtiyar, Esra Yaldız

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Housing offers a confirmed space for individuals. In the sense of interior decoration design, housing is a kind of typology in which user’s profile and individual preferences are considered as primary determinants. In Turkish society, the transition from traditional residences to apartment buildings brings the change in interior fittings depending upon the location of houses in its wake. The social status of the users in the residence and the differences of their everyday life can be represented more evident in these interior fittings. Hence, space becomes a tool to carry the information of users and the act. From this aspect, space as a concrete tool also enables a multidirectional communication with the cinema which reflects the social, cultural and economic changes of the society. While space takes a virtual or real part of the cinema, architecture discipline has also been influenced by cinematic phenomenas in its own practice. The subject of the movie and its content commune with the space, therefore, the design of the space is formed to support the subject. The purpose of this study is to analyze the space through motion pictures that convey the information of social life with an objective perspective. In addition, this study aims to determine the space, fittings and the use of fittings with respect to the social status of users. Morever, three films in 1980s in which Kemal Sunal, protagonist of the scripts that reflect society in many ways, performed are examined in this study. Movie sets are considered in many ways. For instance, in one of these movies, different houses from an apartment are analyzed vis a vis the perspective of the study.

Keywords: housing, interior, furniture, furnishing, user

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336 Understanding the Multilingualism of the Mauritian Multilingual Primary School Learner and Translanguaging: A Linguistic Ethnographic Study

Authors: Yesha Devi Mahadeo-Doorgakant

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The Mauritian landscape is well-known for its multilingualism with the daily interaction of the number of languages that are used in the island; namely Kreol Morisien, the European languages (English and French) and the Oriental/Asian languages (Hindi, Arabic/Urdu, Tamil, Telegu, Marathi, Mandarin, etc.). However, within Mauritius’ multilingual educational system, English is the official medium of instruction while French is taught as compulsory subject till upper secondary and oriental languages are offered as optional languages at primary level. Usually, Mauritians choose one oriental language based on their ethnic/religious identity, when they start their primary schooling as an additional language to learn. In January 2012, Kreol Morisien, which is the considered the language of daily interaction of the majority of Mauritians, was introduced as an optional subject at primary level, taught at the same time as the oriental languages. The introduction of Kreol Morisien has spurred linguistic debates about the issue of multilingualism within the curriculum. Taking this into account, researchers have started pondering on the multilingual educational system of the country and questioning whether the current language curriculum caters for the complex everyday linguistic reality of the multilingual Mauritian learner, given most learners are embedded within an environment where the different languages interact with each other daily. This paper, therefore, proposes translanguaging as being a more befitting theoretical lens through which the multilingualism and the linguistic repertoire of Mauritian learners’ can best be understood.

Keywords: multilingualism, translanguaging, multilingual learner, linguistic ethnography

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335 Gendered Experiences of the Urban Space in India as Portrayed by Hindi Cinema: A Quantitative Analysis

Authors: Hugo Ribadeau Dumas

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In India, cities represent intense battlefields where patriarchal norms are simultaneously defied and reinforced. While Indian metropolises have witnessed numerous initiatives where women boldly claimed their right to the city, urban spaces still remain disproportionately unfriendly to female city-dwellers. As a result, the presence of strees (women, in Hindi) in the streets remains a socially and politically potent phenomenon. This paper explores how, in India, women engage with the city as compared to men. Borrowing analytical tools from urban geography, it uses Hindi cinema as a medium to map the extent to which activities, attitudes and experiences in urban spaces are highly gendered. The sample consists of 30 movies, both mainstream and independent, which were released between 2010 and 2020, were set in an urban environment and comprised at least one pivotal female character. The paper adopts a quantitative approach, consisting of the scrutiny of close to 3,000 minutes of footage, the labeling and time count of every scene, and the computation of regressions to identify statistical relationships between characters and the way they navigate the city. According to the analysis, female characters spend half less time in the public space than their male counterparts. When they do step out, women do it mostly for utilitarian reasons; inversely, in private spaces or in pseudo-public commercial places – like malls – they indulge in fun activities. For male characters, the pattern is the exact opposite: fun takes place in public and serious work in private. The characters’ attitudes in the streets are also greatly gendered: men spend a significant amount of time immobile, loitering, while women are usually on the move, displaying some sense of purpose. Likewise, body language and emotional expressiveness betray differentiated gender scripts: while women wander in the streets either smiling – in a charming role – or with a hostile face – in a defensive mode – men are more likely to adopt neutral facial expressions. These trends were observed across all movies, although some nuances were identified depending on the character's age group, social background, and city, highlighting that the urban experience is not the same for all women. The empirical pieces of evidence presented in this study are helpful to reflect on the meaning of public space in the context of contemporary Indian cities. The paper ends with a discussion on the link between universal access to public spaces and women's empowerment.

Keywords: cinema, Indian cities, public space, women empowerment

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334 Developing Oral Communication Competence in a Second Language: The Communicative Approach

Authors: Ikechi Gilbert

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Oral communication is the transmission of ideas or messages through the speech process. Acquiring competence in this area which, by its volatile nature, is prone to errors and inaccuracies would require the adoption of a well-suited teaching methodology. Efficient oral communication facilitates exchange of ideas and easy accomplishment of day-to-day tasks, by means of a demonstrated mastery of oral expression and the making of fine presentations to audiences or individuals while recognizing verbal signals and body language of others and interpreting them correctly. In Anglophone states such as Nigeria, Ghana, etc., the French language, for instance, is studied as a foreign language, being used majorly in teaching learners who have their own mother tongue different from French. The same applies to Francophone states where English is studied as a foreign language by people whose official language or mother tongue is different from English. The ideal approach would be to teach these languages in these environments through a pedagogical approach that properly takes care of the oral perspective for effective understanding and application by the learners. In this article, we are examining the communicative approach as a methodology for teaching oral communication in a foreign language. This method is a direct response to the communicative needs of the learner involving the use of appropriate materials and teaching techniques that meet those needs. It is also a vivid improvement to the traditional grammatical and audio-visual adaptations. Our contribution will focus on the pedagogical component of oral communication improvement, highlighting its merits and also proposing diverse techniques including aspects of information and communication technology that would assist the second language learner communicate better orally.

Keywords: communication, competence, methodology, pedagogical component

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333 Islam in Europe as a Social Movement: The Case of the Islamic Civil Society in France and Its Contribution in the Defense of Muslims’ Cultural Rights

Authors: Enrico Maria la Forgia

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Since the 80ies, in specific situations, France’s Muslims have enacted political actions to reply to attacks on their identity or assimilation attempts, using their religious affiliation as a resource for the organization and expression of collective claims. Indeed, despite Islam's internal sectarian and ethnic differences, religion may be politicized when minorities’ social and cultural rights are under attack. French Civil Society organizations, in this specific case with an Islamic background (ICSO - Islamic Civil Society Organizations), play an essential role in defending Muslims’ social and cultural rights. As a matter of fact, Civil Society organized on an ethnic or religious base is a way to strengthen minoritarian communities and their role as political actors, especially in multicultural contexts. Since the first 1983’s “Marche des Beurs” (slang word referring to French citizens with foreign origins), which involved many Muslims, the development of ICSO contributed to the strenghtening of Islam in France, here meant as a Social Movement aiming to constitute a French version of Islam, defending minorities’ cultural and religious rights, and change the perception of Islam itself in national society. However, since a visible and stigmatized minority, ICSO do not relate only to protests as a strategy to achieve their goals: on several occasions, pressure on authorities through personal networks and connections, or the introduction into public debates of bargaining through the exploitation of national or international crisis, might appear as more successfully - public discourses on minorities and Islam are generally considered favorable conditions to advance requests for cultural legitimation. The proposed abstract, based on a literary review and theoretical/methodological reflection on the state of knowledge on the topic, aims to open a new branch of studies and analysis of Civil Society and Social Movements in Europe, focusing on the French Islamic community as a political actor relating on ICSO to pressure society, local, and national authorities to improve Muslims' rights. The opted methodology relies on a qualitative approach based on ethnography and face-to-face interviews addressing heads and middle-high level activists from ICSO, in an attempt to individuate the strategies enacted by ICSO for mobilizing Muslims and build relations with, on one hand, local and national authorities; into the other, with actors belonging to the Civil Society/political sphere. The theoretical framework, instead, relies on the main Social Movements Theories (resources mobilization, political opportunity structure, and contentious/non-contentious movements), aiming to individuate eventual gaps in the analysis of Islamic Social Movements and Civil Society in minoritarian contexts.

Keywords: Islam, islamophobia, civil society, social movements, sociology, qualitative methodology, Islamic activism in social movement theory, political change, Islam as social movement, religious movements, protest and politics, France, Islamic civil society

Procedia PDF Downloads 55
332 Film Review of 'Heroic Saviours and Survivors': The Representation of Sex Trafficking in Popular Films in India

Authors: Nisha James, Shubha Ranganathan

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One of the most poignant forms of organized crime against women, which has rarely made it to the world of Indian cinema, is that of sex trafficking, i.e. the forcible involvement of women in the sex trade through fraud or coercion (Hughes, 2005). In the space of Indian cinema, much of the spotlight has been on the sensational drug trafficking and gang mafia of Bombay. During our research on sex trafficking, the rehabilitated women interviewed often expressed strong criticism about mass media’s naive portrayal of prostitutes as money-minting, happy and sexually driven women. They argued that this unrealistic portrayal ignored the fact that this was not a reality for the majority of trafficked women. Given the gravity of sex trafficking as a human rights issue, it is, therefore, refreshing to see three recent films on sex trafficking in Indian Languages – Naa Bangaaru Talli (2014, Telugu), Mardaani (2014, Hindi) and Lakshmi (2014, Hindi). This paper reviews these three films to explore the portrayal of the everyday reality of trafficking for women. Film analysis was used to understand the representation of psychological issues in the media. The strength of these movies starts with their inspirations which are of true stories and that they are all aimed at bringing awareness about the issue of sex trafficking, which is a rising social evil in Indian society though none of the three films move to portray the next phase of rehabilitation and reintegration of victims, which is a very complex and important process in the life of a survivor. According to findings, survivors of sex trafficking find the rehabilitation and reintegration into society to be a slow and tough part of their life as they continuously face stigma and social exclusion and have to strive to live against all odds of non-acceptance starting from their family.

Keywords: film review, Indian films, sex trafficking, survivors

Procedia PDF Downloads 408
331 American Slang: Perception and Connotations – Issues of Translation

Authors: Lison Carlier

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The English language that is taught in school or used in media nowadays is defined as 'standard English,' although unstandardized Englishes, or 'parallel' Englishes, are practiced throughout the world. The existence of these 'parallel' Englishes has challenged standardization by imposing its own specific vocabulary or grammar. These non-standard languages tend to be regarded as inferior and, therefore, pose a problem regarding their translation. In the USA, 'slanguage', or slang, is a good example of a 'parallel' language. It consists of a particular set of vocabulary, used mostly in speech, and rarely in writing. Qualified as vulgar, often reduced to an urban language spoken by young people from lower classes, slanguage – or the language that is often first spoken between youths – is still the most common language used in the English-speaking world. Moreover, it appears that the prime meaning of 'informal' (as in an informal language) – a language that is spoken with persons the speaker knows – has been put aside and replaced in the general mind by the idea of vulgarity and non-appropriateness, when in fact informality is a sign of intimacy, not of vulgarity. When it comes to translating American slang, the main problem a translator encounters is the image and the cultural background usually associated with this 'parallel' language. Indeed, one will have, unwillingly, a predisposition to categorize a speaker of a 'parallel' language as being part of a particular group of people. The way one sees a speaker using it is paramount, and needs to be transposed into the target language. This paper will conduct an analysis of American slang – its use, perception and the image it gives of its speakers – and its translation into French, using the novel Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (and other concerns) by way of example. In her autobiography/personal essay book, comedy writer, actress and author Mindy Kaling speaks with a very familiar English, including slang, which participates in the construction of her own voice and style, and enables a deeper connection with her readers.

Keywords: translation, English, slang, French

Procedia PDF Downloads 293
330 The Interaction of Lay Judges and Professional Judges in French, German and British Labour Courts

Authors: Susan Corby, Pete Burgess, Armin Hoeland, Helene Michel, Laurent Willemez

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In German 1st instance labour courts, lay judges always sit with a professional judge and in British and French 1st instance labour courts, lay judges sometimes sit with a professional judge. The lay judges’ main contribution is their workplace knowledge, but they act in a juridical setting where legal norms prevail. Accordingly, the research question is: does the professional judge dominate the lay judges? The research, funded by the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, is based on over 200 qualitative interviews conducted in France, Germany and Great Britain in 2016-17 with lay and professional judges. Each interview lasted an hour on average, was audio-recorded, transcribed and then analysed using MaxQDA. Status theories, which argue that external sources of (perceived) status are imported into the court, and complementary notions of informational advantage suggest professional judges might exercise domination and control. Furthermore, previous empirical research on British and German labour courts, now some 30 years old, found that professional judges dominated. More recent research on lay judges and professional judges in criminal courts also found professional judge domination. Our findings, however, are more nuanced and distinguish between the hearing and deliberations, and also between the attitudes of judges in the three countries. First, in Germany and Great Britain the professional judge has specialist knowledge and expertise in labour law. In contrast, French professional judges do not study employment law and may only seldom adjudicate on employment law cases. Second, although the professional judge chairs and controls the hearing when he/she sits with lay judges in all three countries, exceptionally in Great Britain lay judges have some latent power as they have to take notes systematically due to the lack of recording technology. Such notes can be material if a party complains of bias, or if there is an appeal. Third, as to labour court deliberations: in France, the professional judge alone determines the outcome of the case, but only if the lay judges have been unable to agree at a previous hearing, which only occurs in 20% of cases. In Great Britain and Germany, although the two lay judges and the professional judge have equal votes, the contribution of British lay judges’ workplace knowledge is less important than that of their German counterparts. British lay judges essentially only sit on discrimination cases where the law, the purview of the professional judge, is complex. They do not sit routinely on unfair dismissal cases where workplace practices are often a key factor in the decision. Also, British professional judges are less reliant on their lay judges than German professional judges. Whereas the latter are career judges, the former only become professional judges after having had several years’ experience in the law and many know, albeit indirectly through their clients, about a wide range of workplace practices. In conclusion, whether or if the professional judge dominates lay judges in labour courts varies by country, although this is mediated by the attitudes of the interactionists.

Keywords: cross-national comparisons, labour courts, professional judges, lay judges

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329 Detonalization of Punjabi: Towards a Loss of Linguistic Indigeneity

Authors: Sukhvinder Singh

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Punjabi language is related to the languages of New Indo-Aryan group that, in turn, is related to the branch of Indo-European language family. Punjabi language covers the areas of Western part (that is in Pakistan) and Eastern part (the Punjab state, Haryana, Delhi Himachal and J&K) and abroad (particularly Canada, USA, U.K. and Arab Emirates), where it is spoken widely. Besides India and Pakistan, Punjabi is the third language spoken in Canada after English, French having more than one hundred millions speakers worldwide. It is the fourth language spoken in Canada after English, French, and Chinese. It is also being taught as second language in most of the community school of British Columbia. The total number of Punjabi speakers is more than one hundred millions including India, Pakistan and abroad. Punjabi has a long tradition of linguistic tradition. A large number of scholars have studied Punjabi at different linguistic levels. Various studies are devoted to its special phonological characteristics, especially the tone, which has now started disappearing in favour of aspiration, a rare example of a language change in progress in its reversal direction. This process of language change in progress in reversal is dealt with in this paper a change towards a loss of linguistic indigeneity. The tone being a distinctive linguistic feature of Punjabi language is getting lost due to the increasing influence of Hindi and English particularly in the speech Urban Punjabi and Punjabi settled abroad. In this paper, an attempt has been made to discuss the sociolinguistics and sociology of Punjabi language and Punjab to trace the initiation and progression of this change towards a loss of Linguistic Indigeneity.

Keywords: language change in reversal, reaspiration, detonalization, new Indo-Aryan group

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328 The Basketball Show in the North of France: When the NBA Globalized Culture Meets the Local Carnival Culture

Authors: David Sudre

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Today, the National Basketball Association (NBA) is the cultural model of reference for most of the French basketball community stakeholders (players, coaches, team and league managers). In addition to the strong impact it has on how this sport is played and perceived, the NBA also influences the ways professional basketball shows are organized in France (within the Jeep Elite league). The objective of this research is to see how and to what extent the NBA show, as a globalized cultural product, disrupts Jeep Elite's professional basketball cultural codes in the organization of its shows. The article will aim at questioning the intercultural phenomenon at stake in sports cultures in France through the prism of the basketball match. This angle will shed some light on the underlying relationships between local and global elements. The results of this research come from a one-year survey conducted in a small town in northern France, Le Portel, where the Etoile Sportive Saint Michel (ESSM), a Jeep Elite's club, operates. An ethnographic approach was favored. It entailed many participating observations and semi-directive interviews with supporters of the ESSM Le Portel. Through this ethnographic work with the team's fan groups (before the games, during the games and after the games), it was possible for the researchers to understand better all the cultural and identity issues that play out in the "Cauldron," the basketball arena of the ESSM Le Portel. The results demonstrate, at first glance, that many basketball events organized in France are copied from the American model. It seems difficult not to try to imitate the American reference that the NBA represents, whether it be at the French All-Star Game or a Jeep Elite Game at Le Portel. In this case, an acculturation process seems to occur, not only in the way people play but also in the creation of the show (cheerleaders, animations, etc.). However, this American culture of globalized basketball, although re-appropriated, is also being modified by the members of ESSM Le Portel within their locality. Indeed, they juggle between their culture of origin and their culture of reference to build their basketball show within their sociocultural environment. In this way, Le Portel managers and supporters introduce elements that are characteristic of their local culture into the show, such as carnival customs and celebrations, two ingredients that fully contribute to the creation of their identity. Ultimately, in this context of "glocalization," this research will ascertain, on the one hand, that the identity of French basketball becomes harder to outline, and, on the other hand, that the "Cauldron" turns out to be a place to preserve (fantasized) local identities, or even a place of (unconscious) resistance to the dominant model of American basketball culture.

Keywords: basketball, carnival, culture, globalization, identity, show, sport, supporters.

Procedia PDF Downloads 126
327 The Role of Blended Modality in Enhancing Active Learning Strategies in Higher Education: A Case Study of a Hybrid Course of Oral Production and Listening of French

Authors: Tharwat N. Hijjawi

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Learning oral skills in an Arabic speaking environment is challenging. A blended course (material, activities, and individual/ group work tasks …) was implemented in a module of level B1 for undergraduate students of French as a foreign language in order to increase their opportunities to practice listening and speaking skills. This research investigates the influence of this modality on enhancing active learning and examines the effectiveness of provided strategies. Moreover, it aims at discovering how it allows teacher to flip the traditional classroom and create a learner-centered framework. Which approaches were integrated to motivate students and urge them to search, analyze, criticize, create and accomplish projects? What was the perception of students? This paper is based on the qualitative findings of a questionnaire and a focus group interview with learners. Despite the doubled time and effort both “teacher” and “student” needed, results revealed that the NTIC allowed a shift into a learning paradigm where learners were the “chiefs” of the process. Tasks and collaborative projects required higher intellectual capacities from them. Learners appreciated this experience and developed new life-long learning competencies at many levels: social, affective, ethical and cognitive. To conclude, they defined themselves as motivated young researchers, motivators and critical thinkers.

Keywords: active learning, critical thinking, inverted classroom, learning paradigm, problem-based

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326 Understanding Talent Management In French Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises: Towards Multi-Level Modeling

Authors: Abid Kousay

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Appeared and developed essentially in large companies and multinationals, Talent Management (TM) in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) has remained an under-explored subject till today. Although the literature on TM in the Anglo-Saxon context is developing, it remains monopolized in non-European contexts, especially in France. Therefore, this article aims to address these shortcomings through contributing to TM issues by adopting a multilevel approach holding the goal of reaching a global holistic vision of interactions between various levels while applying TM. A qualitative research study carried out within 12 SMEs in France, built on the methodological perspective of grounded theory, will be used in order to go beyond description, to generate or discover a theory or even a unified theoretical explanation. Our theoretical contributions are the results of the grounded theory, the fruit of context considerations and the dynamic of the multilevel approach. We aim firstly to determine the perception of talent and TM in SMEs. Secondly, we formalize TM in SME through the empowerment of all 3 levels in the organization (individual, collective, and organizational). And we generate a multilevel dynamic system model, highlighting the institutionalization dimension in SMEs and the managerial conviction characterized by the domination of the leader’s role. Thirdly, this first study sheds light on the importance of rigorous implementation of TM in SMEs in France by directing CEO and HR and TM managers to focus on elements that upstream TM implementation and influence the system internally. Indeed, our systematic multilevel approach policy reminds them of the importance of strategic alignment while translating TM policy into strategies and practices in SMEs.

Keywords: French context, multilevel approach, talent management, , TM system

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325 A Self Beheld the Eyes of the Other: Reflections on Montesquieu's Persian Letters

Authors: Seyed Majid Alavi Shooshtari

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As a multi-layered prose piece of artistry and craftsmanship Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu’s Persian Letters (1721) is a satirical work which records the experiences of two Persian noblemen, Usbek and Rica, traveling through France in the early eighteenth century. Montesquieu creates Persian Letters as a critique of the French society, a critical explanation of what was considered to be 'the Orient' in the period, and an invaluable historical document which illustrates the ways Europe and the East understood each other in the first half of the eighteenth century. However, Persian Letters is considered today, in part, an Orientalist text because of it presenting the culture of the East using stereotypical images. Although, when Montesquieu published Persian Letters, the term Orientalist was a harmless word for people who studied or took an interest in it, the ways in which this Western intellectual author exerts his critique of French social and political life through the eyes of Persian protagonists by placing the example of the Orient (the Other) at the service of an ongoing Eighteen century discourse does raise some Eastern eyebrows. The fact that Persian side of the novel is considered by some critics as a fanciful decor, and the letters sent home are seen as literary props, yet these Eastern men intelligently question the rationality of religious, state, military and cultural practices and uncover much of the absurdity, irrationality or frivolity of European life. By drawing on the insight that Montesquieu’s text problematizes the assumption that orientalism monolithically constructs the Orient as the Other, the present paper aims to examine how the innocent gaze of two Eastern travelers mirrors the ways Europe’s identity defines its-Self.

Keywords: montesquieu, persian letters, ‘the orint’, identity politics, self, the other

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324 Towards a Multilevel System of Talent Management in Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises: French Context Exploration

Authors: Abid Kousay

Abstract:

Appeared and developed essentially in large companies and multinationals, Talent Management (TM) in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) has remained an under-explored subject till today. Although the literature on TM in the Anglo-Saxon context is developing, it remains monopolized in non-European contexts, especially in France. Therefore, this article aims to address these shortcomings through contributing to TM issues, by adopting a multilevel approach holding the goal of reaching a global holistic vision of interactions between various levels, while applying TM. A qualitative research study carried out within 12 SMEs in France, built on the methodological perspective of grounded theory, will be used in order to go beyond description, to generate or discover a theory or even a unified theoretical explanation. Our theoretical contributions are the results of the grounded theory, the fruit of context considerations and the dynamic of the multilevel approach. We aim firstly to determine the perception of talent and TM in SMEs. Secondly, we formalize TM in SME through the empowerment of all 3 levels in the organization (individual, collective, and organizational). And we generate a multilevel dynamic system model, highlighting the institutionalization dimension in SMEs and the managerial conviction characterized by the domination of the leader's role. Thirdly, this first study shed the light on the importance of rigorous implementation of TM in SMEs in France by directing CEO and HR and TM managers to focus on elements that upstream TM implementation and influence the system internally. Indeed, our systematic multilevel approach policy reminds them of the importance of the strategic alignment while translating TM policy into strategies and practices in SMEs.

Keywords: French context, institutionalization, talent, multilevel approach, talent management system

Procedia PDF Downloads 164
323 The Heating Prosumer: Optimal Simultaneous Use of Heat-Pumps and Solar Panels

Authors: Youssef El Makhrout, Aude Pommeret, Tunç Durmaz

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This paper analyses the consequences of a heat pump on the optimal behavior of a prosumer. A theoretical microeconomic model is developed for household heating and electricity consumption to analyze the profitability of installing a solar PV system with a heat pump, battery storage, and grid use. The aim is to present the optimal scenario of investment in renewable energy equipment to cover domestic and heating needs. Simulation data of a French house of 170m² in Chambery are used in this paper. The house is divided into 5 zones with 3 heated zones of 89.4 m² occupied by two people. The analysis is based on hourly data for one year, from 00:00 01/01/2021 to 23:00 31/12/2021. Results indicate that without taking the cost of materials and no financial aid, the most profitable scenario for a household is when he owns solar panels, a heat pump, and battery storage. However, with the costs and financial aid of the French government for energy renovation, the net economic surplus change and the profitability during 20 years are important when the household decides to add a heat pump to existing solar panels. In this scenario, the household can realize 35.84% as a surplus change improvement, but this cannot cover all installation costs. The household can get benefits and cover all installation costs after exploiting financial support in the case of adopting a heat pump. The investment in a battery is still not profitable because of its high cost and the lack of financial aid. Some public policy recommendations are proposed, especially for solar panels and battery storage.

Keywords: household’s heating, prosumer, electricity consumption, renewable energy, welfare gain, comfort, solar PV, heat pumps, storage

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322 Rethinking Gender Roles within the Family: Single Fathers and the Domestic Sphere

Authors: Mohamad Chour

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Nowadays, a record number of households are headed by single fathers in most of the European societies. Our research aims to explore how French single fathers experience the domestic sphere, a traditionally feminized field while accomplishing their role of fathers. We adopt a gender role and a parenting role construction theoretical perspectives. Indeed, the interior domestic sphere has been traditionally considered as related to the role of the mother. Moreover, according to the masculine domination theory of Bourdieu, men avoid caregiving and domestic practices that are economically and culturally undervalued. Hence, mothers are considered as more likely to handle the expressive dimension of duties whereas fathers’ role is represented as instrumental, functional and independent. Long interviews have been conducted with twenty French single fathers in order to investigate how the absence of the mother affects the practices of fatherhood. We combined the long interviews with projective techniques method in order to better understand their conception of the family and their family values. Seeking a qualitative diversity, our respondents are from various ages (between 30 and 60); they are coming from different regions in France; living in rural, semi-rural and urban areas. Based on the analysis of 427 pages of data, we identify three main categories of single fathers depending on their strategies to copy and/or delegate the role of the mother. 1) Nurturing fathers completely assume the role of the absent mother as well as her functions. Their discourse is characterized by abnegation and sacrifices reflecting a nurturing role. 2) Juggling fathers are those who take charge of a part of the household duties and delegate the other part to the market or to 'feminine resources' for lacking skills or time. 3) Resistant fathers are the very few respondents who refuse to assume any activities related to the domestic sphere that they perceive as feminine. For lacking competences and even for ideological reasons, they have tendency to delegate all the tasks that were assumed by their ex-spouses. Generally, the majority of fathers seem to experience the domestic sphere differently, and their domestic involvement has been underestimated and even misunderstood. Household duties such as cooking and housekeeping in addition to the nurturing role are experienced by many of the respondents as constructing elements of their fatherhood. Our respondents do not seem to accomplish house holding duties in a functional way. The domestic sphere is managed by those fathers with a strong dimension of abnegation. Thus, our research contributes to illustrating the evolution of gender roles and shows how being simultaneously 'a father and a mother' seems to be an emerging social norm in a French and European cultural context.

Keywords: fathering, gender roles, gender studies, identity construction, single fathers

Procedia PDF Downloads 113
321 English as a Medium of Instruction in Algerian Higher Business Degree Programmes

Authors: Sidi Ahmed Berrabah

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English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) is expanding rapidly in the world. A growing volume of research has been dedicated to investigating its introduction, with findings that describe a complex picture and suggest that the practicality and effectiveness of EMI are still the subjects of debate. However, considerably less attention has been given to understanding EMI in a context where its introduction has been discussed but not yet put into practice. One such context is Algeria, where discourses about a potential introduction of EMI have been going on for some time. It is likely that the first courses where EMI is introduced are Business degree programmes. This study aims to examine the current discourses and attitudes towards the potential implementation of EMI and the language practices in Business degree programmes in three Algerian universities. The research is conducted in three different universities in three different regions in Algeria with the aim of including both ‘centre’ and ‘periphery’ Algerian universities. In order to achieve the previous aims, a mixed research paradigm is used. Questionnaires, semi structured interviews, and classroom observations are used to gather data from three participant cohorts: university students of Business, lecturers of Business, and lecturers of English for specific purposes. The findings showed that students and lecturers of Business are found in favour of the introduction of English instead of French or standard Arabic as a medium of instruction. The reason is that English is seen as having internationalisation and instrumental benefits, while French was too closely linked to the colonial history of the country. The favourable attitudes towards EMI, however, seem to contrast with the daily classroom practices at the departments of Business studies, where students and lecturers make practical choices of using their language repertoire based on their linguistic background and skills. Classrooms in the three Algerian universities featured fluid and translanguaging practices that cannot be reduced to a monolingual EMI policy.

Keywords: EMI, Algerian universities, business degree programmes, translanguaging

Procedia PDF Downloads 175