Knight, D.J. 2010. The Ear of Dionysius: Caravaggio's Representations of Hearing and Acoustic Space.

HummingbirdQuality in e-learning systems: Myths or facts?

Giving substance to aspirational law.

Are repetition and learning by heart ‘outlaws’ in second language learning? – Voices from super learners.

Corporate social responsibility: What role for human resources?

The good, the bad and the healthy: The transforming body and narratives of health and beauty in reality TV.

Peeling the body.

Beyond deep and surface acting: Perceived emotional effort in customer service roles.

Organ shortage in Malaysia.

The Ear of Dionysius: Caravaggio’s representations of hearing and acoustic space.

Capturing humanity: The implicated biography and validity in a narrative world.

Editors-in-chief: Charanjit Singh-LandaPeri Bradley

Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences Doctoral Research Journal Issue 1 | April 2010

Hummingbird, University of Southampton’s Doctoral Research Journal ©. Issue 1 April 2010 ©.

Online ISSN: 2043-7838

Paper Print ISSN: 2043-782X

Copyright © 2010 University of Southampton. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, transmitted, or disseminated, in any form, or by any means, without prior permission from the author, to whom all requests to reproduce copyright material should be directed, in writing.

You can reference work from this Journal as: SOTONHDRJ, Issue1, 2010, pp.[add the relevant page reference here].

i

Welcome to this first issue of the University of Southampton’s Doctoral Research Journal. The Journal was an original idea conceived by the University’s Law, Arts and Social Sciences Graduate School. It is designed to celebrate the wealth of doctoral research produced within the University and will be an annual academic research publication in the form of a collection of short papers and graphic images aimed at broad-base circulation thereby appealing to a more extensive readership across the University and beyond; helping make research more accessible. The journal is available in print and online via the University’s website at www.soton.ac.uk/gradshools.

As Editors-in-Chief we have been involved in an exciting and sometimes exhausting process, which has tested our present skills and added many new ones to the list. We are grateful for the guidance and expertise provided by Professor Sally Brailsford, Dr Traute Meyer, Dr Suba Subramaniam, Professor Roger Clarke, Dr Gill Clarke, Mr Michael Erben, Dr Beth Harland, Professor Steven Saxby, Dr Jane Seale, Professor Tony Kelly and other much valued academics who may have missed mention.

We have had the opportunity to work with ambitious people who make up the editorial board and to experience the varied and innovative research of the many gifted scholars present in each school. The overall concept of the Doctoral Research Journal is not only original but also pioneering in its intention to bring together the diverse research taking place in the different disciplines across the school, in one cohesive and unique publication. Each article in the journal represents an inimitable glimpse into the rich and varied theses emerging from discrete fields of study across the Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences.

Preface

ii © Hummingbird, University of Southampton's Doctoral Research Journal. Issue 1 April 2010

The Journal is intended to be the first of many and epitomizes the spirit, commitment and academic rigour of the University of Southampton in its entirety. It will be the location where many doctoral students will publish their first articles and gain the experience and confidence to write for other publications. It will also give others the chance to acquire the editorial and reviewing skills required in contemporary academia. All-in-all the Journal represents an exceptional opportunity for research students that should be praised for its unique purpose and intention.

Editors-in-Chief

Peri Bradley (Associate Lecturer in Humanities) at the Southampton Solent University and University of Southampton.

Mr Charanjit Singh-Landa (MSc – Barrister) Field Leader Law and Criminology Undergraduate Programmes, Senior Lecturer in Law and Programme Leader Qualifying Law Degrees at the Thames Valley University (London).

Supervising: Professor Sally Brailsford.

Administrative: Samantha Cottee.

Board Members

Adetoun Amubode Winchester School of Art

Shah Bano School of Management

Peri Bradley School of Humanities (editor in chief )

Ali El Dirani School of Management

Hilke Engfer School of Humanities

Patricia Murrieta Flores School of Humanities

Marcus Green School of Social Sciences

Johanna Halmarsson School of Law (technical editor)

David Knight School of Humanities

Charlotte Knox-Williams Winchester School of Art

Charanjit Singh-Landa School of Education (editor in chief )

Lynda Pidgeon School of Humanities

Walter Van Rijn Winchester School of Art (web editor)

Clare Woodford School of Social Sciences

For further details about this publication please see: www.soton.ac.uk/gradschools

Copyright © 2010 University of Southampton. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, transmitted, or disseminated, in any form, or by any means, without prior permission from the author, to whom all requests to reproduce copyright material should be directed, in writing.

iii© Hummingbird, University of Southampton's Doctoral Research Journal. Issue 1 April 2010

Quality in e-learning systems: Myths or facts? Author: Tamer Sameer AbdEl-Badea AbdEl-Gawad, PhD Supervisor: John Woollard – School of Education.

Giving substance to aspirational law. Author: A Harrison, PhD Supervisor: Dr Oren Ben Dor – School of Law.

Are repetition and learning by heart ‘outlaws’ in second language learning? – Voices from super learners. Author: Xia Yu, PhD Supervisor: Professor Rosamond Mitchell – School of Humanities.

Corporate social responsibility: what role for human resources? Author: Ali Dirani, PhD Supervisors: Dr Melanie Ashleigh and Dr Dima Jamali – School of Management.

The good, the bad and the healthy: The transforming body and narratives of health and beauty in reality TV. Author: Ms Peri Bradley, PhD Supervisor - Professor Linda Ruth Williams – School of Humanities.

Peeling the body. Author: Yvonne Jones, PhD Supervisor: Dr Beth Harland – Winchester School of Art.

Beyond deep and surface acting: Perceived emotional effort in customer service roles. Author: Cristina Quiñones-García, PhD Supervisor: Dr Raquel Rodríguez-Carvajal and Dr Nicholas Clarke – School of Management.

Organ shortage in Malaysia. Author: Farah Salwani Muda@Ismail, PhD Supervisor: Dr Remigius Nwabueze – School of Law.

The Ear of Dionysius: Caravaggio’s representations of hearing and acoustic space. Author: David J. Knight, PhD Supervisor: Professor Simon Keay – School of Humanities.

Capturing humanity: The implicated biography and validity in a narrative world. Author: Charanjit Singh-Landa, PhD Supervisor: Dr Gill Clarke – School of Education.

Contents

iv © Hummingbird, University of Southampton's Doctoral Research Journal. Issue 1 April 2010

1© Hummingbird, University of Southampton's Doctoral Research Journal. Issue 1 April 2010

Tamer Sameer AbdEl-Badea AbdEl-Gawad Supervisor John Woollard School of Education

AbstractThis research aims to find out whether quality in higher education e-learning systems exists or not and the requirements for quality in e-learning systems? Thus, this paper represents the journey of quality in e-learning systems from a myth into a fact.

Higher Education uses e-learning systems because of the challenges institutions face such as: the rapid developments in information and communication technology (ICT); a shift in learners’ expectations; changing demographics of learners; the rapid development of subject knowledge and decreasing financial support.

Through examination of the literature, a model for designing and evaluating quality in e-learning systems is proposed based on the motivations arising from the challenges: improving the quality of learning, improving access to teaching and reducing the costs for providers. It incorporates: (1) Stakeholders’ satisfaction; (2) Learning outcome; (3) Environment facilities; (4) Evaluation during development.

Introduction “Excellence, by definition, is a state only the few rather than the many can attain”

Logan Wilson’s foreword to Cartter’s report (Cartter, 1964)

Quality in education is a multidimensional concept involving not only fitness-for-use or fitness-for-purpose but also reliability and durability of the educational system. More generally, it means the quest for excellence in the educational process.

Quality in education is an issue of great debates – for quite a while already (Ehlers 2004). The constant search for quality in face-to-face (FTF) learning without reaching a solid framework to accomplish the desired quality in the learning environment might have generated a state of disbelief in the existence of such terms in the field of education.

Similarly, in the field of e-learning, many attempts have been made to reach the desired framework for conceptualising and structuring quality in e-learning systems. This research attempts to establish a framework (model) for identifying quality in e-learning systems and discover whether quality is a myth or will become a fact.

Defining the term “quality in e-learning systems”

The cause for the argument regarding “Quality in e-learning systems” as a term in modern education could be the competition between universities all over the world. Inglis (2005: p. 2) stated “Universities have wanted to ensure that the standard of the educational products that they have been offering matches the standard of what they are offering onshore.”

Ordinary face to face (FTF) higher education institutions are increasingly making use of e-learning to support the delivery of their courses and in particular, expanding their e-learning provision through the use of web-based technologies for delivering online and blended courses (Jara 2009). As a result of the increasing demand for e-learning universities, governments, accreditation bodies are becoming increasingly interested in identifying the appropriate strategies to assure the quality of e-learning (Parker 2008).

The definitional challenge associated with the concept of quality, along with its associated concepts (such as quality assurance (QA), quality control, quality management, and quality enhancement), stems from the multidimensional criteria of the quality of learning in higher education.

Quality in e-learning systems: Myths or facts?

2 © Hummingbird, University of Southampton's Doctoral Research Journal. Issue 1 April 2010

Challenges to traditional perspective of quality assurance arise. As Green (1994: p. 3) argued “Since the mid-1980s, public interest in and concern about quality and standards has been intensified by the increasing attention given by successive governments to reforming higher education”. The existing quality assurance processes have significant limitations when it turns to deal with e-learning systems. The Quality Assurance procedures in Higher Education Institutions were designed to assure and enhance the quality of ordinary FTF courses and it is not clear to what extent they remain useful for e-learning courses.

Presenting the quality in e-learning models

The literature on evaluating the quality in e-learning systems shows that almost all of the evaluation process depended on measuring the students’ learning as the only criteria to measure the quality of teaching. Hay et al. (2008: p. 1038) state “all evaluation depends on measures of ‘fitness for purpose’, and because teaching has purpose only where it supports learning, learning is the only authentic measure of teaching.” But evaluating quality according to learning outcomes only is a misunderstanding of the definition of quality as a mixture of satisfaction:

− Stakeholders’ satisfaction with the e-learning system;

− Authority’s satisfaction with the e-learning outcomes;

− Communities’ satisfaction with regard to the sociological impact of e-learning on students;

− Working market’s satisfaction with regard to the abilities of the graduated students from e-learning systems.

Hay et al. (2008) contends that measuring quality of teaching depending on learning as the only authentic measure is attributable to two important issues. The first is that the learning process is commonly deemed too complex for empirical measurement; the second issue depends on the obvious truism that while teaching can lead to learning, learning is not a necessary consequence of teaching. Indeed there is a persistent strand of literature that suggests that learning is ultimately a consequence of student behaviour (rather than any direct consequence of the teaching they experience).

Despite e-learning being a method of delivery whose efficacy many researchers advocate, there are no guarantees that learning by e-learning can overcome all the problems that FTF learning suffers from. This could be because the provision is not clear enough when it comes to conduct a learning process using e-learning as a delivery method. “Models of learning under E-learning are not as well understood nor accepted as those for traditional higher education learning.” (Connolly, 2005: p. 61)

As a result of this misunderstanding regarding the criteria that should be addressed in order to implement and evaluate the quality in e-learning systems, many challenges still have to be overcome. Many items need to be addressed in order to achieve quality in e-learning systems.

The main goal of this paper is to present a systematic and practical model capable of enabling institutions of HE to integrate quality into their e-learning systems and to share lessons learned from a trial implementation of this model. This model for implementing and evaluating quality in e-learning systems was originally made to host all the possible elements that influence the quality of e-learning systems.

The model was first proposed by the researchers Abd El-Gawad & Woollard (2009). The model was proposed as a framework for clarifying the purposes of various methods and techniques used to capture the multidimensional aspects of quality in e-learning systems.

Figure 1 quality in e-learning systems model


Quality, amongst other aspects, is the driving element in assuring the satisfaction of learners with their style differences. In other words, a quality e-learning delivery method is one where any learner with any learning style can find satisfaction.

Measurements (metrics and procedures) need to be designed in order to guarantee the effectiveness and enduring satisfaction of e-learning systems. It is important to clarify any misunderstanding regarding the criteria that should be addressed in order to guarantee the implementation and evaluation of quality in e-learning systems. This can then enable institutions of Higher Education to integrate quality into their e-learning systems in order to achieve their perspectives of learning.

ConclusionQuality in e-learning systems is not a myth or an illusion or an imagination of one researcher or another. It is a fact, explored by many respected researchers in the field of education. The reason for argument around its existence comes from the difficulty to implement it in e-learning systems.

In order to capture the multidimensional nature of an online professional quality system, designers and evaluators need to follow the guidelines from a number of conceptual frameworks to design a plan that will collect vital information about whether or not system objectives were met and whether best practices were implemented. As a reflection to this challenge, the author proposes a model for designing and evaluating quality in e-learning systems incorporating: (1) Stakeholder satisfaction; (2) Learning outcome; (3) Environment facilities; (4) Evaluation during development.

ReferencesAbd El-Gawad, T., & Woollard, J. (2009). Developing an e-learning quality model for higher education. Paper presented at the INSPIRE 2009.

Cartter, A. (1964). An Assessment of Quality in Graduate Education Washington, D. C.: American Council on Education.

Connolly, M., Jones, N., and O’shea, J. (2005). Quality Assurance and E-learning: reflections from the front line. Quality in Higher Education, 11(1), 59-67.

Ehlers, U. (2004). Quality in e-learning from a learner’s perspective. European Journal of Open, Distance and E-learning (EURODL).

Green, D. (1994). What is Quality in Higher Education? Buckingham: SRHE and Open University.

Hay, D. B., Kehoe, C., Miquel, M. E., Hatzipanagos, S., Kinchin, I. M., Keevil, S. F., and Baker, S. L. (2008). Measuring the quality of e-learning. British Journal of Educational Technology, 39(6), 1037-1056.

Inglis, A. (2005). Quality improvement, quality assurance, and benchmarking: Comparing two frameworks for managing quality processes in open and distance learning International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning 6(1).

Jara, M., and Meller, H (2009). Factors affecting quality enhancement procedures for e-learning courses. Quality Assurance in Education, 17(3), 220-232.

Parker, N. K. (2008). The quality dilemma in online education revisited. In T. Anderson, and Elloumi, F., (Ed.), Theory and Practice of Online Learning (2nd ed., pp. 385-409): Athabasca University.

Author biographyTamer Sameer Abdel-Badea Abdel-Gawad is PhD student at the University of Southampton, UK. He received a BSc in instructional technology from the University of Tanta, and MSc in Instructional Technology from the University of Tanta. His research interests include e-learning, quality in learning, Programming, VLEs.

Email: [email protected]


Giving substance to aspirational law

Alice Harrison Supervisor Dr Oren Ben Dor School of Law

AbstractMore than sixty years ago, in a humanitarian reaction to two world wars, the United Nations (UN) agreed, in the Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (‘the Declaration’) that the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world was the recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family. Why then do we, Britain, a staunch supporter of the UN and a member of the drafting committee of ‘the Declaration’, and the (so called) developed World continue to ride, and allow others to ride, roughshod over the dignity of members of the human family? Why do we continue to pursue law with the same ignorant arrogance of colonisation, retaining a protectionist bias toward powerful, not always responsible, nations and companies? Why don’t we learn from the history of Western law that the de-stabilising tension caused by imposed law, which shifted power from Sovereign to State, from State to other States, and more recently from State to groups and individuals; continues to niggle in the wider World, where Western countries still attempt to impose Westernised law? Demanding the world accept our way is the right way, while we fail to live up to the promise of equality, is an imposition that encourages negative reaction. Why don’t we learn from our own Western history, that the tensions of inequality recognised in the Declaration, will continue to aggravate and that this demands we reconsider our world view, take responsibility for our actions; live our law and live our aspirations?

This short paper glimpses at the destabilising tension created by imposing law. The paper uses my survey of dignity through law, but it does not seek to define or substantiate dignity, rather to show its use in the arbitrary nature of the development of law in Britain and how it evolved with law, through reaction to tension, to become something more inclusive and equally just. The paper will introduce a further example, of law imposed through colonisation and suggest how this too suffered and still suffers the destabilising tension of being unjust. The paper will then suggest two destabilising tensions apparent in the globalising scheme of public international law, which threaten to undermine the stability of that law. The first, is the drive for freedom to open up markets, which by financial incentives, prioritises the lust of the global market over national needs, stripping assets and resources, while denying responsibility for these actions. The second, ‘the Declaration’, which could by the words in its preamble mitigate this kind of market exploitation, but which through its manipulation may actually support and perpetuate an un-equal global legal order. The paper will ask how, in a world where we can no longer simply eliminate opposition, we are going to address these tensions, suggesting that one way might be to take responsibility for our own actions and aspirations and seek the way to equality through equal treatment.

Stabilising lawAlthough history exposes a multiplicity of roots of law, including custom, inequality, subjugation and occupation and the impact this had on national laws, by the time it was recorded in written statutes and the discipline of reasoned law reports, British law had become the sacred right of the Sovereign, through the doctrine of the ‘divine right of kings’. Observing law using dignity allows us to witness the transition of governance from its embodiment in the dignity of the Sovereign, declaring law supported by their chosen advisors and loyal courts; through the Glorious Revolution, where power shifted to the dignity of a very limited Parliament, which in turn eventually expanded to almost universal franchise; to today where dignity is emphasised for individual rights. Dignity can also guide us through law and the transition of men and women from being slaves and chattels; subject to sexual, racial and religious persecution and intolerance of their diversity to individual protection in discrimination legislation. The law was not always fair, painless, bloodless or just, it was hard fought every step of the way. It was people outraged by the injustice of law, who destabilised and reacted with the law and with the widening of franchise a mechanism of law developed that ensured the law became more stable and just. The exaggerated dignity of Sovereign, State, State organs and individuals became untenable, prompting rebellion against the unjust law. Modern law has evolved to become a stabilising feature in British governance, but only by being subject to challenge and to continual review and revision.


Law is always an imposition and exclusion too, but it is a discipline we are schooled to accept, its longevity relying on that acceptance. Lack of acceptance can ultimately result in rebellion, which successful or not, may introduce a (re)declaration of base law, in an attempt to draw a line under the past and start anew. Where law has evolved through centuries many laws are deemed to be understood, but they are never absolute, and it is a necessary imperfection of law that it is always incomplete and subject to review. Long and overlapping histories and the written tradition of European nations, evidence a level of, not always welcome influence, between these nations. It also provides an understanding of the influence of Western thought in forming notions of federal, supra-national and international law (e.g. in the writings of ‘the enlightenment’ philosophers).

After centuries, British law, and many other laws, including some international law, are finally working towards something more equally just. As already suggested part of law’s success is in its longevity, but it is also in its independence from its originator. This means it enjoys power beyond the life of a Sovereign, Nation or Parliament and is free to evolve with a free-floating locus and no loyalty. The mechanism works and a new government can wield its power and only time will tell whether changes, good, bad and indifferent, will stand the test of law. Law has proven a useful tool, its evolution and use means it has gained a global relevance, beyond the early decreed proclamations of law created, supported and enforced. International law now drawing influence from multiple jurisdictions could provide a balance for justice, a dynamic law, which where necessary will reinterpret or reinvent the law. This evolved law could be the tool to support the UN’s latest aspiration of “Dignity and Justice for All”, the subject of a year-long campaign to celebrate 60 years of ‘the Declaration’.

Destabilising law Law observed through dignity reveals the need for the aspiration in the preamble to ‘the Declaration’, which translated into 370 languages is the most internationally recognised example of aspirational law, that is the “recognition of inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family”, because we are not all equal, either within or without the law. Birth is an arbitrary and increasingly legal designation of nation, social status, race, sex, and often religion, outlining opportunities for development, education and personal autonomy, much of which is then further shaped through law. Examples recognised in dignity through law include: Sovereign/State immunity in customary international law; international humanitarian conventions, including refugee and torture conventions, concretised in UN law; social and anti-discrimination laws at national and supra-national, e.g. European level; and nationally evolved protection of those judged worthy, e.g. privacy and libel actions; and through recognition in aggravated and/or exemplary damages. People identified through dignity without law are more truthfully described as having no ability to engage with law. They may not be recognised by State law, or be unwilling or unable to engage with it. This includes: people born into slavery, subservience, war, starvation; those who are vulnerable or less able, and those who fall victim to disaster or action; either natural or manmade. Examples in UK law include disregard for indigenous peoples’ property rights during and post colonisation, non-status refugees and victims of assault.

The preamble to the Declaration, although not exclusively, was a recantation of Western sins and a chance to ‘draw a line under the past and start anew’. It may have been directed at the Holocaust, but colonisation had shown a similar blatant “disregard and contempt for human rights” resulting in “barbarous acts which outraged the conscience of mankind”; limited “freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear” and had been responsible “for tyranny and oppression”. Indeed subsequent human rights law, cites the Declaration to try to recognise and make amends for some of the injustices caused by colonisation, albeit belatedly and somewhat incrementally (e.g. in Canada and Australia). But part of the problem with the Declaration is that even as it was negotiated and declared it was unrepresentative; most African and Asian states were absent from the UN because they were European colonies and for the same colonial reason many indigenous peoples across the world were denied franchise and therefore a voice in the law making politics of their own country (again e.g. Canada and Australia). The UN may have come a long way since those days and it has certainly been a source of much equalising law for many nations, but the law based on notions of human and property rights is still too one-sided an imposition, which does not recognise a diversity of laws and can be completely alien to community-based systems of governance.

The elevation of the notion of Sovereigns and States, within fixed boundaries arbitrarily designated by history and now concretised by Westernised law, falsifies their position and creates a further tension. We have bound people within their geographic birth location, effectively denying them any guaranteed rights beyond it. For example, while refugee law offers asylum to those able to escape and to argue their plight before a sympathetic host, it denies free movement to anyone else. In the case of colonisation we went even further, effectively alienating First Nations or Aboriginal people, both inside and outside their own countries by subjecting them to elimination (corroborated accounts of goods delivered in smallpox infected blankets in Canada and America, which decimated the ‘Indian’ population; and stories of “Abbo” hunts in Australia and South Africa, which in today’s language would surely be genocide); undermining them with dehumanising and debasing cultural slurs (stereotyping ‘Indians’ as socially impoverished and savage or sub-human); imposed assimilation (with children physically removed from their families and forced to adopt European culture), with no franchise (which was finally achieved in Canada and Australia in the 1960’s, thanks to international human rights law) and subordinating their law to European law.


How can we ignore the destabilising effects of colonisation? The colonised world reacted against our barbarism and fought back to gain/regain independence. While we claimed aboriginal peoples were “uncivilised, ignorant, barbarous” and “savage”, could our behaviour towards them have been anymore so? In places where we needed a local workforce we subordinated, oppressed and degraded the people, while we forced them to aid us to strip their assets and degrade their environment. In places where we did not need local help, we simply eliminated them. Our current behaviour could help to mitigate this memory, but only if we stop dominating and show some humanity and respect (we need look no further than the Britain to remind ourselves of heritage longevity).

Empowering aspirational lawThis paper does not suggest that we can re-write or right history, but can we at least learn from it? We are in a fortunate position that most of the world will still engage with us despite our abuses and certainly observed through dignity law can be seen to have helped facilitate transference of power away from dominating European nations. This may be a good thing, but the destabilising tension that drove us to equalise our own society, to introduce health, safety and environmental legislation and to protect the vulnerable in Britain and Europe is going to gain a global voice. Almost 10 years ago the House of Lords in Lubbe and others v Cape plc - [2000] 4 All ER 268 held that a UK company was liable in UK courts for African workers’ continued exposure to asbestos after the ill health effects were established and where no other effective forum was available.

Taking this idea a step further, our market has decided it does not want goods to be produced in socially and environmentally degrading conditions in Britain. If we truly believe in international equality, then buying goods known to be produced in socially and environmentally degrading conditions sends out a ‘destabilisingly unjust’ message, it suggests that far from being equal, we will stand by and knowingly permit environmentally and socially degrading abuses to continue in production of goods for our markets providing it is not in our country. With an eye to history and a recognition that destabilising factors need to be resolved this paper suggests that instead of transferring abuses of production to other fora and denying responsibility for it, for a short term financial advantage, we could take responsibility for production for our market and only support production that recognises the importance of social and environmental protection. This would be learning from history, leading by example and encouraging ethical standards, rather than racing for the cheapest and possibly least ethical market. An example of this sort of pro-active step that has been recently mooted within the European Union is to deny illegally felled timber a market in Europe.

Globalization need not be premised on exploitation, it would still happen even if the drive for it were more socially and environmentally responsible. The fact that governmental and non governmental organisations have caused some global social and environmental protective initiatives to be introduced recognises the tension caused by poor social and environmental practices, but the niggle remains, un-equal, un-resolved inequality, destabilised, until these initiatives are vastly improved. Instead of large corporations manipulating the law with ‘super injunctions’ (another destabilising tension in itself ) to deny compromising information the opportunity to be heard, buyers from initial to end purchaser, should be made aware and allowed to recognise and understand the actions being taken or permitted on their behalf. In a democracy the government should be answerable to its people. It is in this light the paper accuses States of attempting to disengage responsibility by hiding behind Statehood and using law to deny responsibility for any abuses it encourages or allows. It is the British market that is buying the goods, the British market which could be informed, the British government that should control it. As a country Britain decided long ago that people should not suffer or die in production of our food, clothes and other goods and surely even the poorest people in Britain do not need to take that risk. For any nation, including Britain, where this is not true, they should stop the pretence of equality in the Declaration, for they are undermining the portent of the aspiration and will surely be seen and judged by history as the liars they are.

It is time for the aspiration posited in the preamble to the Declaration to bring the responsibility of equality home, at the very least to the nations that penned it, and that those nations should work to support the idea that “the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world is the recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family”. For sixty years we have praised the Declaration and sold its ideals to others, now is the time to give substance to its aspiration by bringing it home and living it in our own markets and necessarily supporting work at every level to promote and support its promised ideals.


ReferencesBan Ki-Moon UN Secretary-General at the launch of the campaign, “Dignity and justice for all of us,” to celebrate 60 years of the Declaration http://www.un.org/events/humanrights/udhr60/ (accessed 31 October 2009)

The Charter to the United Nations http://www.un.org/en/documents/charter/ (accessed 31 October 2009)

The Glorious Revolution http://www.thegloriousrevolution.org/ (accessed 31 October 2009)

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/ (accessed 31 October 2009)

Author biographyAlice Harrison is reading for a PhD considering how ‘Dignity’ works in law. This builds on previous research in Human Dignity and Human Rights; and Legal Remedy and Corporate Responsibility in the ‘Global Marketplace’. Alice returned to academia as a mature student obtaining a BSc (Hons) Environmental Science, 2001, Post-graduate Diplomas in Law (2002) and Legal Practice (2003), and an LLM in International Business Law (2004). In a previous life Alice ran an international road haulage company delivering goods throughout the UK and Europe. Between work and study Alice enjoyed an extended ‘gap-year’ where she worked to travel, whilst also obtaining the necessary schooling to return to academia. Alice visited many fascinating and beautiful places around the world, which inspire and influence her passion in law.


Are repetition and learning by heart ‘outlaws’ in second language learning?: Voices from super learners

Xia Yu Supervisor Professor Rosamond Mitchell School of Humanities

AbstractThis article is concerned with the role of learning text by heart in language learning. General literature does not recommend the practice which has not yet gained legitimate status among Second Language Acquisition (SLA) researchers. However, recent research and specialist literature on learning strategies show extensive use of this method by successful learners especially in China. Based on two typical cases of this practice, this paper aims to speculate on the possible rationale behind this phenomenon from both cultural and language acquisition perspectives. It is suggested that the role of learning by heart in language learning should now be reappraised.

IntroductionI was greatly shocked when I learned that verbatim repetition and learning by heart are considered two ‘outlaws’ and ‘condemned by pedagogic and acquisition theorists’ (Cook, 1994) because they are ‘respectable citizens’ in China, especially in the eyes of some beneficiaries of this practice. In the book Speaking for Success (Huang & Qi 2005), nine of a dozen achievers partially attributed their success in English learning to learning texts by heart. Some researchers (e.g. Ding 1987; Parry 1998) have documented the use of text memorization by Chinese students as an important method of Chinese and English literacy acquisition and associated this traditional literacy practice with learning achievement; however, the rationale behind this seemingly obsolete practice has remained an enigma for the general Western public as well as the academia.

A misconception from culture differencesThe superior capacity for rote learning among Asian students is seen as a clear example of culture-based learning strategies because they have had more experience with teaching methods that involve memorization (Saville-Troike, 2006: 128). If it is true to a degree, the other side of the coin is that ‘Chinese learners are commonly misunderstood by Westerners’ (Watkins & Biggs 2001: 3). While CHC (Confucian-Heritage Cultures) students are perceived as passive rote learners, they do show high levels of understanding (ibid). Some western scholars (e.g. Pennycook 1996; Sowden 2005) have realized that memorization strategy can lead to high levels of understanding if applied appropriately. A particular aspect of the so-called ‘paradox of the Chinese learner’ is the relationship between memorizing and understanding. Cultural differences may be responsible for this Western misconception:

…many [Western educators] have failed to draw a distinction between rote learning, that is, memorizing ‘without thought of understanding’ (Oxford English Dictionary), and repetitive learning, that is learning in order to enhance future recall alongside understanding. Memorizing without understanding undoubtedly leads to very limited learning outcomes, but many Western teachers mistakenly assume that when Chinese students memorise, they are learning at the expense of understanding. (Watkins & Biggs 2001: 6)

Studies reported in The Chinese Learner (Watkins & Biggs, 1996) and elsewhere (e.g., Marton, Wen & Wong 2005) reported that ‘many of the teachers and better students do not see memorizing and understanding as separate but rather interlocking processes, and that high quality learning outcomes usually require both processes, as complementary to each other’. In the study by Dahlin & Watkins (2000: 6), students are found to use repetition for two different purposes: First, to create a ‘deep impression’ and thence commit to memorization; Second, to deepen or develop understanding by discovering new meaning. The Western students on the other hand tend to use repetition only to check that they had really remembered something. Whereas Western students see understanding as usually a process of sudden insight, Chinese students typically think of understanding as usually a process that requires considerable mental effort.


Voices from two super learnersThe following are two episodes in which two successful language learners (from East and West respectively) displayed their perceptions of the practice of learning by heart.

Victor learning English

Victor, a Chinese teenager brought up in the countryside, reflected on his learning experience in an article titled ‘My history of studying English’ (Zhang 2007). He began learning English at the age of 11 when he attended junior high school, but the subject ‘turned out to be my biggest headache and trouble maker’. He attributed his failure in English learning at that point to ‘the teacher’s quality’ (she dropped out from a high school and never went to a college) and ‘the terribly wrong methods and poor environment’. Is his attribution fair? Did he work hard enough? My answer is ‘yes’. What Victor described characterises a typical picture of English teaching in Chinese countryside. And as he wrote, – ‘I graduated from middle school as one of the top students of our county, with nearly perfect score of every subject except English (62/100 points)’ – he was hard-working and excellent at other courses. As a result, ‘English became the subject which I invested the most yet harvested the least, which, in turn, breeds my strong resentment against this language’. The embarrassing situation did not change a bit during the first three years of his studying in a Normal school later. ‘My English was among the poorest in my class’ and ‘I barely passed the English examination at the end of every semester’. The turning point came in 2002 when he heard that some of his former classmates who, though inferior to him in academic performance three years ago, attended senior high school ‘were admitted to some upscale universities’. Motivated by the desire for being excellent again, he chose to study English on his own following his teacher’s suggestion. How did he learn? He said, ‘At first I concentrated on grammar and tried my best to study some cut-and-dried college English textbooks by myself ’. Did he make any progress? Yes, ‘Progress was made but only a little bit’. It is far from being satisfactory for an ambitious young man who needs quick success to prove himself. ‘I felt I was trudging the deserted road of English’. He was looking for an alternative because ‘I believed there should be a better way of learning English’. ‘One year later, the dawn of hope popped up when I began to know about the Internet’, for with the help of internet he was equipped with ‘the best tools possible: 1. Recite as many English passages as possible! 2. Imitate as vividly as possible! 3. Do dictation for 1000 hours!’

How was he convinced that they are effective? He wrote, ‘Actually, each of these methods stems from three successful English learner’s experiences’. What did he do next in reality? ‘For nearly seven hundreds days, I have been remembering new words, imitating the tapes, reciting numerous English passages, in the belief that one day I will be amply rewarded’. Was his effort this time rewarded as he expected? The answer is not only ‘yes’ but beyond his expectation – ‘and now, I have really blossomed, I aced the CET4 (College English Test Band 4) with 90 points (quite awesome in other people’s eyes – the full score is 100) and won the top prize of the National English Contest for college students in 2004. To be frank, I think it would take me longer to reach that point.’

Bert learning Chinese

I had never expected that I could happen to find from the Western culture a language learner who turned out to be a successful practitioner of text memorization. Bert, according to (Stevick, 1989: 21), is a ‘very successful learner’. He was ‘a young diplomat who had reached an extraordinarily high level of competence both in speaking and in reading Chinese’. The following is the transcript of Stevick’s (1989: 29-30) interview with Bert:

‘What about memorizing connected texts in a foreign language, such as dialogues or little stories or the like?’ I asked. ‘Is that something you thrive on, or something you can do but don’t care for, something you detest?’

‘Well, this is essentially what we were required to do in Chinese. Within reason, of course. I mean, one doesn’t sit down and memorize these pages of text—of narrative, but there is something to be…’

‘Memorization wasn’t something that particularly bothered you?’

‘No. No, within reason. By that I mean that one had to have assurance that this was what people really said. If I was going to spend the time on it, I wanted to be sure it was going to be worth the effort.’

‘But memorizing twenty or twenty-five lines, or something like that…’

‘No, that didn’t bother me.’

‘You’d go home and do it, and bring it back the next day, and …’

‘Yes, and I stress that because, with the text we’re using in this language, I think all of us have a feeling that the language in the book is rather stilted and artificial, and not necessarily what we’d be saying.’

‘That feature of the Chinese course was what gave you an instinct for what is actually said in the language—for how sentences are put together.’

‘Yes. In this language I feel that I just have countless patterns sort of swimming around in my head.’


The apparent avoidance of discussion on this learning strategy in the comments by the author may reflect the prevalent negative attitude toward learning by heart among most Western researchers. ‘It is as though there is no case to argue’, for it is certainly ‘neither authentic nor communicative’ (Cook, 1994). This conception is clearly reflected in the researcher’s talk – ‘the language in the book is rather stilted and artificial, and not necessarily what we’d be saying’.

Tentative explanations for the paradoxThe above two cases may typically serve as evidence for a paradox summarized by Saville-Troike (2006: 116): ‘Some individuals are able to achieve a relatively advanced level of L2 proficiency without the benefit of any interpersonal communication or opportunity to negotiate meaning in the language with others’, namely, ‘acquisition without interaction’. They finally, however, manage to communicate in real situations and achieve a relatively high level of L2 proficiency. We need to address the paradox from the point of view of the learner. According to Victor, he wrote on the front page of New Concept English (NCE, a popular set of UK-imported textbooks in China): ‘to read a book, we usually need to recite repetitively to make sure that the words written are truly ‘coming out of my mouth’ (spoken by myself ); and then think intensively to the extent that the meanings contained in the words seem to be ‘coming out of my own heart’ (internalized in my thought). Only in this way can we truly gain something.’ (This is a sentence by a famous ancient Chinese scholar; my translation) He claims it as ‘the theoretical origin of his decision to learn all the articles in NCE (Book 2 &3) by heart’. Victor also believes what a traditional Chinese saying says, shu du bai bian, qi yi zi xian, i.e. the meaning in a book shows itself after one reads one hundred times. It is apparent that while form is consciously attended to, meaning is still at the core when the learner is trying to string words in the text into meaningful units by rehearsal. Echoing this position, Cook (1994) speculates, ‘as the known-by-heart is repeated many times, it may begin to make sense’. The Western learner Bert believes, on the one hand, that this practice gives him assurance that ‘this was what people really said’ or gives him ‘an instinct for what is actually said in the language—for how sentences are put together’; on the other hand, he has ‘countless patterns sort of swimming around’ in his head. According to Cook (1994:139), ‘its [discourse which is known by heart] native-like structures and vocabulary, analyzed and separated out, become available for creative and original use’.

ReferencesCook, G. (1994). Repetition and learning by heart: An aspect of intimate discourse, and its implications. ELT Journal 48(2), 133-141.

Dahlin, B., & Watkins, D. A. (2000). The role of repetition in the processes of memorising and understanding: A comparison of the views of German and Chinese secondary school students in Hong Kong. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 70, 65-84.

Ding, Y.-R. (1987). Foreign language teaching in China: Problems and perspectives. Canadian and International Education, 16, 48-61.

Huang, Q., & Qi, Q. (Eds.). (2005). Speaking for Success. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

Marton, F., Wen, Q., & Wong, K. C. (2005). ‘Read a hundred times and the meaning will appear... ‘ Chinese University students’ view of temporal structure of learning. Higher Education, 49, 291-318.

Parry, K. (Ed.). (1998). Culture, literacy, and learning English: Voices from the Chinese classroom. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Pennycook, A. (1996). Borrowing others’ words: Text, ownership, memory, and plagiarism. TESOL Quarterly, 30(2), 201-230.

Saville-Troike, M. (2006). Introducing second language acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sowden, C. (2005). Plagiarism and the culture of multilingual students in higher education abroad. ELT Journal, 59(3), 226-233

Stevick, E. (1989). Success with Foreign Languages: Seven Who Achieved It and What Worked for Them. Hemel Hempstead, UK: Prentice Hall International.

Watkins, D., & Biggs, J. B. (1996). The Chinese learner : Cultural, psychological, and contextual influences. Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong. Comparative Education Research Centre, Australian Council for Educational Research.

Watkins, D., & Biggs, J. B. (Eds.). (2001). Teaching the Chinese learner: Psychological and Pedagogical Perspectives. Hong Kong: CERC and ACER.

Zhang, X.-D. (2007, My English learning history. http://blog.163.com/victor_2007/blog/.


Author biographyXia Yu is a PhD candidate working with Professor Rosamond Mitchell from Modern Languages, School of Humanities. Xia had been teaching in China at both secondary and tertiary level for nearly a decade before starting her PhD programme in Southampton . She also published widely in prestigious journals in China and recently in peer-reviewed international journals. Her research interest includes second language acquisition, foreign language teaching and cross-culture communication.



Corporate social responsibility: What role for human resources?

Ali Dirani Supervisors Dr Melanie Ashleigh and Dr Dima R. Jamali School of Management

AbstractCorporations across the world are under immense pressure from different stakeholders in home and host countries to show that their business activities and operations stand for more than maximizing the corporate shareholders’ profits and private welfare. The main challenge in this context is how corporations integrate the principles of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with their business strategies and practices and work for the general societal welfare, with the credibility of CSR depending primarily on actual implementation and deliverables. This paper argues that the Human Resource (HR) function can play a critical role in embedding CSR within corporations through employee communication and engagement, diversity management and community relationships. The paper highlights the growing important interfaces between HR and CSR, and captures the roles that HR can assume in implementing CSR.

Why HR?The role of corporations is changing as the societal context where they operate is becoming more complex and rapidly evolving. Corporations have to take into account core social issues that go beyond their profit making scope and legal compliance and therefore act in response to the growing pressures, demands and expectations of different stakeholder groups or individuals. They are increasingly required to take account of the impact of their activities on the society and environment, and thus foster the notion of CSR and align its initiatives with their business objectives (Andriof and Waddock 2002; Dawkins and Lewis 2003; Porter and Kramer 2006). This quest implies that corporations need to behave and act according to social, environmental and ethical standards and show profound commitment and dedication to develop and implement CSR-related strategies and programmes. Nevertheless, an important issue that corporations need to be aware of is that CSR is no more simply an activity practiced solely for public relation and marketing objectives, or a peripheral commitment by corporations towards the society, environment and stakeholders’ needs as disclosed in reports or stakeholder statements. Instead, CSR is a change to actions and attitudes and the success of CSR depends on process, people, coordination, communication and change management (Hopkins 2004). The central underlying notion is that CSR needs to be embedded in business practices and actions, or it risks being constrained and defined by purely financial performance indicators and communication purposes.

Parallel to the development in the field of CSR, HR is already involved in communicating organizational objectives, implementing managerial policies and managing changes and stakeholder relations. HR is increasingly being responsible for many of the key management systems, approaches and processes in departmental and stakeholder context (change management, health and safety, recruitment, training and development, communications) upon which the effective delivery of organizational strategies and objectives depends (Ulrich 1997; Redington 2005). Also, mandatory HR attention is given to social, environmental and ethical concerns and responsibilities (Paauwe 2004; Schoemaker, Nijhof, and Jonker 2006). Under this umbrella, HR is expected to show strong commitment to individual and organizational development and high concern with ethics, sustainability and environmental concerns (soft model) (Fenwick and Bierema 2008; Legge 2005; Ehnert 2009). HR as a function is dedicated to implement the vision and mission of the organization, and HR people have the relevant knowledge and skills in relation to organisational learning, communication and engagement, knowledge and culture change.

Drawing on this overview, we feel that CSR and HR are strongly connected, and that previous literature has fallen short in capturing the nature and essence of this relationship. HR’s expertise and knowledge in executing organizational strategies, managing the change, maintaining the business efficiency and engaging stakeholders complete the action and operational dimensions of CSR. For instance, the HR function as a strategic partner helps in designing a systematic and practical guidance for implementing CSR strategies. While previous literature fails to capture the valuable roles and contributions of HR to CSR, this paper takes an integrated view of both concepts in an attempt to explore how HR contributes to a successful CSR strategy through employee communication and engagement, diversity management and community relationships (Petrova 2007).


CSR-HR interfacesThe framework presented in Figure 1 summarizes examples of three CSR-HR interfaces: employee communication and engagement, diversity management and community relationships. What is clear in Figure 1 is that HR can play a crucial mediating role in bridging the gap between CSR objectives and plans, and actual implementation and outcomes at the level of employee engagement, diversity management and community development. The quicker HR gets involved and accepts responsibility the easier it will be to achieve aspired goals set out for CSR, which also should in theory complement HR priorities as outlined above. There is little doubt that the involvement of HR is both timely and needed and can make a real difference in terms of enhancing the success of CSR plans and aspirations. It is a real challenge for HR to deal with complexities related to employee management, diversity management and community relationship. However, HR’s leadership and contribution to CSR can help address these complexities and develop creative potential interventions and approaches.

Figure 1- HR-CSR Interfaces

The CSR framework and mediating HR role outlined above correspond closely in turn to the recent characterization of HR as an agent of change within changing HR priorities and agendas (Ulrich 1997). As an agent of change, HR must go beyond designing and delivering HR processes efficiently, to focus on managing employee contribution, fostering employee commitment, managing culture, and increasing strategic fit and integration. These new roles of HR are increasingly advocated in the Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) literature (Schuler and Jackson 2006; Wright and McMahan 1999). HR managers must therefore show genuine leadership, and gain credibility, through creativeness, sensitivity, trustworthiness and equal attention to the needs of internal and external stakeholders in the framework of a holistic approach that is concerned with the total interest of the business (Boxall and Purcell 2000). The three interfaces discussed above become most relevant therefore in the context of a more organic and strategic HR orientation. In the process, HR needs to define what it actually means to be strategic.

A recent pilot study conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in 2007 on the role of HR in CSR in the United States, Australia, India, China, Canada, Mexico and Brazil concludes that HR should be more involved in implementing CSR strategies than in creating them (SHRM 2007). HR managers are able to align CSR strategies with organizational business practices and management systems by communicating the organization’s CSR strategy. HR can engage employees in CSR through enhancing their contributions to socially responsible programs and initiatives inside and outside the organization (employee volunteering programs). As they become more of a strategic partner in organizational business plans, HR managers will play a larger role in CSR from strategy and conception formulation to execution and application.

HR is gaining worldwide value as a business tool and social effort. It is becoming more and more an important part of the corporate brand. Thus, HR managers are invited to become more involved in CSR initiatives (Ehnert 2006; Ehnert 2009; Fenwick and Bierema 2008; Schramm 2006; Zappala 2004). Accordingly, the growing role for HR managers in promoting social behaviour may lead to an expansion of the HR role in promoting at the same time CSR. Therefore, HR managers should determine the limits, responsibility or otherwise, of CSR core values and beliefs. They should especially consider how these limits will affect employees, the organization and the wider community. We believe however as presented above that these limits are gradually expanding, and that accordingly HR will have a more prominent role to assume in different aspects of the organization but also importantly in relation to CSR and the three critical areas of 1) employee contribution, 2) diversity management and 3) community relationships.


ConclusionBased on the review presented in this paper, it is clear therefore that there are important synergies between CSR principles / initiatives and HR. HR is concerned with elaborating, promoting and strengthening the CSR philosophy within the workplace and aligning those in turn with community needs and aspirations. The role, voice and expertise of HR are important in setting the tone for the CSR agenda and putting it in the spotlight. The real challenge for many organizations going forward is to further embed the role of HR in CSR. Findings in this paper suggest that good HR practices facilitate and lubricate effective CSR initiatives. CSR is knocking on the door and it is for HR to answer the call or miss the opportunity.

ReferencesBoxall, P. & Purcell, J. (2000) Strategic human resource management: where have we come from and where should we be going? International Journal of Management Reviews, 2, 183-203.

Ehnert, I. (2006) Sustainability issues in human resource management: Linkages, theoretical approaches, and outlines for an emerging field.

Ehnert, I. (2009) Sustainable human resource management, Physica-Verlag Heidelberg.

Fenwick, T. & Bierema, L. (2008) Corporate social responsibility: issues for human resource development professionals. International Journal of Training and Development, 12, 24-35.

Hopkins, M. (2004) Corporate social responsibility: an issues paper. Geneva, International Labour Organization.

Legge, K. (2005) Human resource management: Rhetoric and realities, Tottenham, Palgrave Macmillan.

Paauwe, J. (2004) HRM and performance, Oxford University Press.

Petrova, V. (2007) UC RUSAL unites cultures through local CSR programs: Corporate Social Responsibility as an HR tool for managing a global organization. Strategic HR Review, 6, 24-27.

Redington, I. (2005) Making CSR Happen: the contribution of people management. IN DEVELOPMENT, C. I. O. P. A. (Ed.) The Virtuous Circle. London, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

Schoemaker, M., Nijhof, A. & Jonker, J. (2006) Human Value Management. The Influence of the Contemporary Developments of Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Capital on HRM. Management Revue, 17, 448-65.

Schramm, J. (2006) SHRM Workplace Forecast. Alexandria, SHRM.

Schuler, R. & Jackson, S. (2006) Strategic human resource management, Wiley-Blackwell.

SHRM (2007) 2007 Corporate Social Responsibility: United States, Australia, India, China, Canada, Mexico and Brazil. A Pilot Study. Alexandria, SHRM.

Ulrich, D. (1997) Human resource champions: The next agenda for adding value and delivering results, Harvard Business School Press.

Wright, P. & McMahan, G. (1999) Theoretical Perspectives for Strategic Human Resource Management. Strategic Human Resource Management.

Zappala, G. (2004) Corporate citizenship and human resource management: A new tool or a missed opportunity? Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 42, 185.

Author biographyAli M. Dirani is a PhD student at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom. He received his MBA and BS degree in business management and administration studies from the Lebanese American University (LAU) of Beirut, Lebanon. His research interest includes social responsibility and human resources, and particularly interested in the role of HR in CSR.


The good, the bad and the healthy: The transforming body and narratives of health and beauty in reality TV

Peri Bradley Supervisor Professor Linda Ruth Williams School of Humanities (Film Studies)

AbstractThis paper will explore the relationship between reality TV and contemporary notions of health and beauty and their impact on the body. Reality TV is now a firmly established and extremely popular TV genre that continues to raise issues around its historical roots in documentary as an objective and observational form and its potential future composition as ever more subjective and influential. Reality TV has recently evolved a particular strand of programmes that engages with how we should look and how we should eat and exercise that is intended to be both prescriptive and authoritarian. These programmes establish a structure that narrativises the ‘real’ in order to engage and convince its audience and as we observe various transgressive and undisciplined bodies go through the transformation process the bodies involved become the site of ethical and moral issues. The binary oppositions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’, ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’, ‘beautiful’ and ‘ugly’ are played out across the transforming body, which is then employed to firmly establish these as social and cultural ideals.

Introduction Initially I will be exploring the notion of the ‘ethical’ body and its association with recent reality TV texts. At the centre of this concept lies the idea of what it is right to be rather than what it is right to do. Simply put, morality becomes a question of how you care for yourself rather than how you care for others. Moral fibre is literally equated with physical fibre where the flesh itself is taken as a measure of integrity. How you maintain your body and thereby fulfil a specific role and take a particular place in society becomes a moral issue. Morality and goodness are now measured by an ideal of physical health and fitness rather than spiritual purity. In some ways this evokes Descartes’ dualism, the Cartesian split of the ethereal mind and the material body and the notion that all that is physical can be controlled. With contemporary technological advancements there has developed a belief that by taking control of the actual material of the body each individual will become a unit of ethical and moral behaviours (attached to the body rather than the mind) that will seep into the fabric of society. With the postmodern decline of meta-narratives and the resultant lack of traditional higher authorities to provide guidance, the question of morals and ethics has become increasingly complex and problematical. The media, it appears, is filling the void left by the disappearing meta-narratives, presenting itself as authoritative, knowledgeable and therefore capable of pronouncing judgement on moral and ethical issues. Scientific and medical discourses are employed to qualify and dignify these pronouncements, lending them a weight and credence that is both convincing and persuasive.

One particularly insidious strand of the media that has become progressively more popular and pervasive is reality television. This is even more closely bound up with the notion of meta-narratives as it purports to deal with universal ‘truths’ or reality. It has many forms and many functions all of which appear innocuous and harmless and created in the name of info or entertainment. However, I propose an investigation of a specific reality TV programme that deals with somatic issues of morality and ethics, revealing an underlying trend by the media to act in a prescriptively political manner, moving morality and ethics away from their former position as shared and socially cohesive values to that of individual and socially isolating projects, which are confined to and expressed by the body. This investigation is an attempt to demystify and clarify not only the purpose of these programmes but also the consequences.

The high profile of the ethical body has been increasingly elevated by the rising number of reality TV programmes, both in the US and the UK, that use the transforming bodies of the participants as the foundation of their narrative structure. Initially these programmes tended to revolve around the capability of the technology of plastic surgery to transform the body; Extreme Makeover, The Swan and Make Me A Famous Face, in the US and Extreme Makeover UK, Ten Years Younger and Bride and Grooming in the UK. These programmes are concerned with glamorising and perfecting the body to produce an ideal, a type of Vitruvian Man to which ordinary people can aspire. Simultaneously a strand of health programmes has also appeared, The Biggest Loser and Fat March USA in the US and You are What You Eat and


Supersize vs. Superskinny in the UK. These still have the transforming body at their core, but are less about representing the ideal body and more about representing an ideal society expressed and contained by the ethical body. Reality TV is acknowledged to be largely about spectacle and a consideration of how this spectacle is employed and deployed in the programmes is related to the Foucauldian concept of the clinical gaze. The clinical gaze derives from his text The Birth of The Clinic where Foucault analyses the institution of the Clinic itself and how medical discourse influences and manipulates the body. Foucault speculates that the formation of clinics and hospitals signalled an ordering and organization of the treatment of disease and the individual, and

…of a medicine sufficiently bound up with the state for it to be able, with the cooperation of the state, to carry out a constant, general, but differentiated policy of assistance; medicine bec(ame) a task for the nation. (Foucault 1989.19)

This forging of medicine to the nation and thereby the state places the clinic and the doctor as political. The economics of a state are bound up with the wellbeing of its work force which is required to be healthy to be able to function in the work place, earn money and more importantly, spend money. Without this basic strata of fiscal stability the nation itself wanes and ‘sickens’. Therefore the doctor as an agent of the clinic and thereby the nation state, operates in a political manner to ensure that even the lower echelons of society (the poor) remain healthy and able to perform their assigned role in the economic structure. This results in an obligation being placed upon the poor to demonstrate their gratitude in a way that the rich were and are not expected to. As Foucault explains,

The system of obligation and compensation between rich and poor no longer passed through the law of the state, but, by means of a sort of contract, subject to variation in space and suspension in time, it belonged more to the order of free consent. A stranger more hidden contract of the same kind was silently being formed about the same time between the hospital, where the poor were treated and the clinic, in which doctors were trained… The most important moral problem raised by the idea of the clinic was the following: by what right can one transform into an object of clinical observation a patient whose poverty has compelled him to seek assistance at the hospital?...he was now required to be the object of a gaze…what was being deciphered in him was seen to be contributing to a better knowledge of others. (Foucault 1989.83)

So the poor became object rather than subject of the clinical gaze as their poverty rendered them powerless to resist the necessity of treatment. Foucault’s study of the political significance of medicine and the clinic and its use of the poor is illuminating when applied to the transformation texts of reality TV that base their content on modern-day medicine and its methods. When analysing these texts it becomes apparent that the contestants/subjects are picked from particular lower and disadvantaged social groups. It is very much a case that these people are unable to afford the treatment offered by the programmes, just as Foucault’s poor of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries was unable to afford clinical treatment. The moral problem that he identifies is identical, in that the patient becomes the object of the clinical gaze due to their lack of financial capability. In the case of reality TV the subject comes under the voyeuristic gaze of the TV audience as well as the clinical gaze of the doctor. The patient becomes the spectacle. The audience become complicit in the exploitation of the patient and the immorality of exposing their body, their ‘disease’ and its pathology in the name of ‘infotainment’.

These programmes purport to be instructional and cautionary, informing us of what constitutes a healthy life and providing us with models of extreme bodies and how to avoid becoming like them. The structures of medicine are deeply involved in the production of the ideologies of health. It is no longer a matter of passively observing and treating, medicine is now active in preventative methods. These methods necessarily prescribe what a healthy body and lifestyle is comprised of and the media of reality TV is chosen as the most suitable to gain the highest distribution of such ideals. In Foucault’s writing on the clinic he describes the idyllic model of medicine as sought for by post French Revolution society,

Medicine must no longer be confined to a body of techniques for curing ills and of the knowledge that they require; it will also embrace a knowledge of healthy man, that is a study of non-sick man and a definition of the model man. In the ordering of human existence it assumes a normative posture, which authorizes it not only to distribute advice as to healthy life, but also to dictate the standards for physical and moral relations of the individual and of the society in which he lives. (Foucault 1989.34)

As Foucault died in 1984 he was unable to view this model apparently in action on reality TV. How he might have perceived and commented on such media and its content is difficult to guess. However this contemporary model of the idyll is moderated by its exploitation or even abuse of the contestant/patient. Held up as examples in direct opposition to ‘model man’ as a paradigm of health and perfection, the participants of the programmes become a spectacle of suffering. There is a perception of physical traits that do not conform to the ideal, as part of a spectrum of disease that can be treated and controlled that places an onus on the patient to actively seek a ‘cure’; to become ‘well’ (conform to normative images) and therefore function properly as part of society. This aspect combined with the availability of a large and willing body of ‘patients’ seeking that cure and who are unable to finance it, further facilitates the circulation of Foucault’s ‘normative’ images of ‘model man’. The imperfect and extreme bodies of the ‘patients’ are presented in direct contrast to ‘model man’ as a spectacle of ‘suffering’.


In the chosen case-study, Supersize vs Superskinny, this spectacle of suffering is the equivalent of a trial of martyrdom, which has to be endured in order to emerge as a healed and whole ethical body. The basis of the programme relies upon two participants who are chosen for their extreme bodies and their extreme diets. They are brought into what is officially called a ‘feeding clinic’ under the instruction of Dr Christian Jessen to live for a week, without contact with their normal lives or families, and they each have to survive on the other’s unhealthy and excessive regime. The concept being that in a psychological manner seeing someone else eating these meals will affect an epiphany and they will see the error of their ways. The structure of the programme is based upon a biographical narrative of the participant’s lives for purposes of close identification but also to demonstrate the ‘truth’ or reality of the programme. We first meet each of them at home where we are treated to a visual feast of their respective extreme eating habits. In the case of the Supersize, a miniature camera is attached to whichever particular eating implement is being used, and the audience is carried, along with the food, directly into the mouth of the overweight contestant. Here aspects of the abject are being directly engaged with. We are given a privileged view of the internal cavities of a transgressive body. Kristeva identifies one aspect of abjection as ‘exclusion or taboo (dietary or other)’ and another as ‘transgression’, both of which she closely relates to the Christian concept of sin. Seen through Kristeva’s notion of the abject, the bodies in the programme are identified and represented as ‘sinful’ and ‘immoral’. These bodies have pushed at the boundaries that remind us of death. The Supersize body of Keith, consistently and excessively fed with ‘bad’ or sinful foods - fats, sugars, processed foods - literally becomes what it eats. The view inside the mouth reinforces that the food and the body consuming the food are abject, as Kristeva explains,

“subject”(Keith) and “object”(food)...confront each other, collapse, and start again – inseparable, contaminated, condemned, at the boundaries of what is assimilable, thinkable: abject. (Kristeva 1982.18)

Here she is actually speaking of the abject in relation to Christianity and the sacred and how it exists at the level of primal repression, always kept at bay by the rejection and denial of a ‘civilised’ society. In association with the concept of the loss of meta-narratives, such as religion, these texts visually return us to the time of primal repression as they display abject bodies (reminding us of death – Dr Jessen introduces them as being ‘morbidly obese’ and as ‘consuming their own bodies’) which begin a purification process, turning them from abject (or immoral) bodies into ethical bodies.

After a weigh-in reminiscent of a prize fight, where they are exposed as transgressive, the two contestants are brought together in flesh coloured underwear to affect a visual comparison of the abject bodies. Keith is almost five times the size of Tiffany at 29 stone, but what is really interesting is the method of comparison of their diets. The programme makers set up two ‘food tubes’ which they fill up with the appalling diets of the two contestants. As the food spills into the tubes with the contestants placed closely next to their own, it becomes clear that the tubes are an externalisation of their intestines. Their daily intake of food is poured into the tubes to form a visually abhorrent simulation of the gut. The intention is to present the contestant’s diets as disgusting, as ‘non-human’ as ‘other’ and so as abject, to them and to the audience. As Kristeva states, even in normal circumstances: ‘Food in this instance designates the other (the natural) that is opposed to the social condition of man and penetrates the self ’s clean and proper body’ (Kristeva 1982.75). Obviously the contestant’s ‘clean and proper bodies’ have already been contaminated as their physical appearance offers evidence to the fact that an immoral or unethical use of food will produce an immoral or unethical body. To remedy both the physical and moral ailments they suffer from, Keith and Tiffany swap diets. For both this is a punishment, a ‘rites of passage ‘ordeal that must be endured in order to begin the process of purification. Both are disgusted at their own diets but even more so at each other’s and so the extreme nature of the food they eat renders it even more difficult for them tolerate the swap. We follow them through this daily process but other more psychological aspects are added to simultaneously test them and manipulate them towards a moral regard of food and their own bodies.

In the case of the Superskinny (Tiffany) her rejection of food sees her only eating a tiny amount of the full portion she serves herself. By denying herself what she sees as abject (in this case the food) her body begins to ‘eat’ itself in order to survive, bringing her into close contact with the abject view of pollution by food. Kristeva identifies this as the boundary between ‘nature and culture, between the human and non-human’ (Kristeva 1982.75). Tiffany controls the pollution of her body by keeping the ‘non-human’ consumption to a minimum, but ultimately by rejecting the abject she actually becomes the abject, a skeletal figure that firmly reminds us of the ultimate abject, the corpse. To encourage her to eat healthily Tiffany is taken to a sparse white room resembling a gallery where photos of parts of her body have been enlarged and displayed. Each photo represents a deterioration of her health and her body that Dr Jesson wants to emphasise in order to encourage her to change. The correlation of Tiffany’s body and a corpse are visually reinforced by these photos; her bones are clearly visible through her skin and according to Kristeva,

It is as if the skin, a fragile container, no longer guaranteed the integrity of one’s “own and clean self ” but, scraped or transparent, invisible or taut, gave way before the dejection of its contents. (Kristeva 1982.53)

Tiffany’s internal/external boundaries are becoming so insubstantial that she has become an object of abjection. When this is made apparent to her she moves up a level in the process of her purification as she begins to emotionally engage with her body once more and so begins to view food not as a pollutant or ‘other’ or abject but as part of that process of purification to be able to move closer to the concept of the ethical body.


Keith’s purification is necessarily different to Tiffany’s and involves a visit to see an abject body that is an example of his possible future. Lisa is morbidly obese and is in hospital to have part of her stomach removed in a gastric sleeve operation. Keith is taken to meet her and learns the reasons for her plight and realises he is headed in the same direction. Lisa is used as an object of educational spectacle (much like Foucault’s poor bodies in the clinic) that is a warning to Keith and the nation alike. As we and Keith view her gastric sleeve operation several aspects of the abject are brought into play. Again we experience a breaking down of barriers, between the internal and the external. The effect on the viewer is, as Kristeva states: ‘These body fluids, this defilement, this shit are what life withstands, hardly and with difficulty, on the part of death. There I am at the border of my condition as a living being’ (Kristeva 1982.3). Death is the literal breakdown between subject and object and as part of her stomach is pulled out of a hole in her flesh we confront our own frailty and mortality. What was represented at the beginning of the programme by a large plastic food tube has now become flesh; the internal has truly become external. For Lisa this is a radical part of the purification process and is represented as an extreme aspect of the ‘rites of passage’ technique that is best to avoid. For Keith this close encounter with the abject is a lesson in morality; his ethical behaviour (eating) has to improve in order to avoid the same fate. Kristeva states that when we speak of or confront the abject there ‘takes place a crossing over of the dichotomous categories of Pure and Impure, Prohibition and Sin, Morality and Immorality’ (Kristeva 1982.16). For Keith this crossing over leads to an epiphany that sees his purification process firmly established. The breaking down of these specific binary oppositions finds a meeting place in the obese and contaminated body of Lisa. Her confrontation with the abject is a final attempt to transform her from abject to ethical and engages with Foucault’s notion of ‘model-man’, as its extreme opposite but capable in its impurity and immorality of advising how not to live.

Having finally completed the diet-swap week, the two subjects are sent away to follow a strict and healthy diet regime compiled for them by Dr Jesson. They then return three months later for a final weigh-in and comparison. According to the conventions of make-over programmes there is an understated final reveal, where the two are brought back together to see the results. While they are not drastically transformed, the signs of change can be traced on their faces and bodies. Healthier skin, hair and teeth and no exposed bony joints signal the transition from abject to ethical for Superskinny Tiffany. Her body no longer resembles the corpselike reminder of death that it once did. The layer of flesh and fat she has worked to gain is physical evidence of her healthy/ethical/moral behaviour. The programme has used her transforming body as a narrative myth of morality and change where the actual fabric of her body acts not only as evidence of moral rectitude but also as a register of difference. She is developing into Foucault’s ‘model man’ whose very being is instructional and motivational. Keith has also altered, reducing in size and gaining in confidence. His loss of flesh is also a monitor of his ethical behaviour, charting his journey from undisciplined obesity to controlled weight loss. His body is used as an indicator and paradigm of model behaviour that is also an exemplar of how healthy and moral conduct leads to happiness and success. The abject flesh that is symptomatic of iniquitous and unruly action begins to reduce, demonstrating a moral commitment to self-improvement. Keith’s physical transformation correlates with his narrative transformation, revealing a compelling story of moral and corporeal struggle that serves as an allegorical lesson for society to follow.

What these programmes demonstrate is a need to supply and a corresponding need to find a lifestyle guide. With the lack of meta-narratives to direct us, the media has stepped in and fulfilled the requirement. However, morality and ethics have now become bound to the body, which is required to display and validate the dominant ideology. Able to reach a maximum audience the media operates as a contemporary system of dispersal for these narratives of ideology that is more effective and pervasive than ever before. While the media is supposedly governed by official ‘watch-dogs’, the latter tend to be re-active rather than pro-active and the voice of authority that once belonged to religion or politics is now the fractured and fragmented utterances of a consumer-led ideology that tends to grope its way from one moral crisis to another. Perhaps more than ever, these self-appointed voices of authority need to be interrogated and tested for their validity and, just as important, for their methods.

ReferencesFoucault, M. (1989) The Birth of The Clinic: An Archaeology Of Medical Perception (Routledge)

Kristeva, J, (1982) Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. (New York : Columbia UP )

Supersize vs Superskinny (Channel 4, 2008-2009, CheetahTV)

Author biographyPeri Bradley is an Associate Lecturer in Film and Film and TV at Southampton Solent University and in Film at University of Southampton. She was part of the 1970s British Film project group at University of Portsmouth where she was co-organiser with Professor Sue Harper of the conference British Culture and Society in the 1970s in July 2008. She has chapters included in Dark Reflections, Monstrous Reflections: Essays on the Monster in Culture, Exeter University’s, Don’t Look Now? British Cinema in the 1970s and Portsmouth University’s Culture and Society in 1970s Britain: The Lost Decade. She is also contributing a significant piece of research based on archive investigation, to the 1970s British Cinema book resulting from the AHRC project.


Yvonne Jones Supervisor Dr Beth Harland Winchester School of Fine Art

AbstractThe researcher uses her experience of her medical events undertaken within a western medical environment to investigate the literal posthuman associated with Moravec alongside the non-literal posthuman associated with Hayles. The project also considers the researcher in relationship to the medics she encounters, a situation of subject / object where the experiencing subject comes to understand that she is the medical object for the medics. The female researcher encounters questions of disempowerment. Ideas of empowerment from the ideals of feminism are referenced. Evidence emerges that a person, specifically the participating researcher, can change the relationship of subject / object when engaging with attributes of the posthuman, and demonstrates how an emerging subject develops from this engagement, facilitating change for the subject from a position as a disenfranchised female liberal humanist subject to an emerging posthuman subject who is female, an empowering and emancipating change, a social movement consistent with the field of critical theory.

IntroductionThe researcher’s sharp awareness of her-self as corporeal body offered a setting to question the body. The collecting of medical event material developed from the experience of being human in the terms of being mortal, having emotions, compassion, weaknesses and imperfections; an experience resulting from physical trauma that included the possibility of death. This experience of being human was challenged on being faced with the Moravec’s position on the literal posthuman that offers immortality (Moravec1987). Hayles counterbalances this with the non-literal posthuman where ‘it is the construction of subjectivity that is considered important’ (Hayles 1999). Studio practice is the tool of research using videos, stills and medical leftovers collected from medical events of the researcher to combine the internal experience of each event with evidence of the external view of the event. The participating-observer-researcher is the subject for the project. Subject comes to have two positions specific to the project. First subject is the researcher as an experiencing being, the subject who is herself altered by the process of this research, second is the researcher situated in the relationship of subject / object within the medical events (Fig 1), with herself as the experiencing subject simultaneously perceived as the object by the medics. Object here means medical object that is treated to objectification and where the body is, as stated by Foucault perceived as an inscribed body, the product of socially enforced positioning (Foucault 1997). The project ‘peels’ off the body in terms of how the body is perceived, both by the subject and by the medics.

Peeling the body


Fig. 1 - One Body in Two Positions; Stills from Cyst (2006) Yvonne Jones

OverviewThe roboticist Hans Moravec states his belief and desire for a situation where the information pattern of a human mind is transferred into a machine, an advanced computer where the sense of ‘me’ will be carried across, the body is left behind, the ‘person’ now immortal (Moravec 1987). Hayles explains how ‘information lost its body, how the cyborg was constructed in the postwar years as technological artifact and icon, and how the human being became the posthuman’. She argues and demonstrates erroneous thinking in the roboticists, that has become embedded in the ideas of the posthuman, and makes a plea to challenge the idea of the literal post human before it is too late (Hayles 1999). Hayles states ‘we have already become posthuman when we are put into a cybernetic circuit that splices the will, desire, and perception into a distributed cognitive system in which represented bodies are joined with enacted bodies through mutating and flexible machine interfaces’ (Hayles 1999). She hopes that posthuman values are used in improving the quality of human life while not overlooking materiality and not as a means of replacing human life. The research demonstrates that there are difficulties with both positions, the researcher recognises a move in the direction of both positions. A raised awareness of the development of such ideas along with incorporation of these posthuman attributes is productive, offering the possibility of change and considered choices.

The researchEight medical events are used for the research each with a focus on the human body. The events include breast disease, salmonella poisoning and face interventions. The memory of the event together with video, stills and medical leftovers are combined within the studio practice. With Action Research as methodology they are used for reflection to consider the ideas that arise from this, that is the issue here of subject /object, and the changing position therein along with the initial liberal humanist position of the researcher. Within the studio process the researcher was able to understand her position not only from the inside but by combination with external information was able to increase her understand of herself in relation to herself (initially as a liberal humanist subject) and herself in relation to her objectifiers in the medical environment within a relationship of subject / object, a position which moved to a more encompassing relationship at the end of the project shown when Fig 2a moves to Fig. 2b.

The outcomeThe researcher moves from a position of existing as a disenfranchised female subject situated within the constraints of liberal humanism about which Hayles states ‘the liberal human subject was constructed as a white European male, a universality that worked to suppress and disenfranchise women’s voices’ (Hayles 1999), to an emerging female posthuman subject, a subject who is aware of the body and, through raised awareness of the posthuman is aware of her changing boundaries. The process of the research created an understanding of herself as this subject and as subject / object that enabled the movement experienced within the project. By means of discussion, negotiation and engagement instigated by the subject with the medics within the medical events; by means of combing the internal experience of the subject with a sense of the subject body as medical object; using the posthuman ideas of distributed cognition, explained by Hutchins (2000) as ‘information beyond the skull’ the subject became visible to herself and to those who perceived her as medical object as referred to in Fig 1.


Fig. 2a the start of the project - from Repair and Maintenance 1- breast disease

Fig. 2b The final subject object position where subject is emerging as a posthuman female subject and is seen both by herself and by the objectifier resulting in a reduction of absolute dualism of subject /object

ReferencesFoucault M. (1997) Nietzsche, Genealogy, History. IN BOUCHARD, D. F. (Ed.) Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews. Cornell University Press.

Hayles N. K. (1999) How We Became Posthuman, Chicago. The University of Chicago Press.

Hutchins, E. (2000) Distributed Cognition [online] pub University of California. Available from http://eclectic.ss.uci.edu/~drwhite/Anthro179a/DistributedCognition.pdf [Accessed 11th march 2009].

Moravec, H. (1987) Dualism from Reductionism; from proceedings of the International Symposium on AI and the Human Mind, Yale University, New Haven CT. March 1-3 1986. Truth, Volume 2, Dallas TX.

Author biographyBorn in North Wales, the author’s education includes Cert.Ed. Biology and Maths (The University of Liverpool); B.A. Hons Fine Art (Liverpool John Moores University); M.A (Dist) Fine Art (University of Southampton); and Year 1 B.Sc. Hons Psychology (University of Southampton). As well as presenting at WSA Conference and The University of Reading in the mind /body Conference 2007, her work was the subject of a paper by Michele Waugh at The University of Leicester 2007. She is a contributor to the Winchester School of Art Research Anthology 2009. Her artwork has been shown widely including at The University of Southampton LASS Conference, New Contemporaries 2004 (Liverpool and London) and the Royal Academy London. Work is held in The Permanent Collection of Contemporary Women’s Art at Murray Edwards College, formerly New Hall College Cambridge, and in private collections. Previously an advisor to Southern Arts Regional Arts Board, she was a founder member and is currently a board member of ArtSway.


Cristina Quiñones-García Supervisors Dr Raquel Rodríguez-Carvajal and Dr Nicholas Clarke School of Management

AbstractEmotional Labour (EL) is a central feature of customer service roles, which refers to the effort employees exert in order to manage the emotions required by their role. Despite the emphasis placed upon “effort”, the instruments developed to measure EL have been focused on the strategies “deep acting” (i.e. changing your own feelings to achieve the required display) and “surface acting” (i.e. changing only the outward display). The lack of consistent findings, however, reveals the limited explanatory power of deep and surface acting as predictors of employees’ well being. Initial evidence from qualitative studies has started to emerge and suggests that the effort employees perceive to perform EL could be a better predictor of employees’ well being. Based on these findings and building on relevant stress theory, we present the development and initial validation of the perceived emotional effort construct.

IntroductionIn order to ensure a pleasant customer experience, front-line workers must display a range of positive emotions when dealing with customers (Grandey 2003). Within this context, Emotional Labour (EL) becomes a fundamental component of customer service work as it refers to the “effort, planning and control required to display organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions” (Morris and Feldman 1996, p.987). According to Hochschild’s pioneer work (1983), employees perform EL by either surface acting (SA) or by deep acting (DA). DA describes the process whereby employees try to change their own feelings so that they match the emotions they have to display (Grandey 2003). For instance, individuals perform DA when they try to recall a pleasant situation in order to smile to customers more genuinely. SA, on the contrary, refers to the process whereby employees fake the emotional displays keeping their own feelings untouched; for example “painting on a smile” (Grandey 2003:86).

A crucial aspect of Hochschild’s ethnographic work was highlighting the costs associated to EL. Thus, she found that the maintained effort involved in managing emotions to meet role requirements, could lead to a form of chronic stress called “emotional exhaustion”; but also to other negative indicators of well being such as inauthenticity and depression (Hochschild 1983; Grandey 2003). These findings raised the awareness of the potential risks of EL and encouraged the development of tools to examine the EL phenomenon in a quantitative way (Grandey 2000). The mainstream tool used in the literature developed by Brotheridge and Lee (2003) however, ignores the central element of the definition of EL as the “effort” employees make to meet the emotional requirements of the job (Hochschild 1983). Instead, they measure SA and DA strategies and its associations with well being, assuming that EL is an “effortful activity” per sé (Brotheridge and Lee 2003). This assumption will be challenged and the development of a measure of perceived effort will be justified.

Gaps in the literatureThe lack of consistent findings from self-administered surveys in cross-sectional studies has evidenced the limited explanatory power of DA and SA as predictors of employees’ well being. Whereas SA seems to be associated with emotional exhaustion and job dissatisfaction in many studies (Grandey 2003; Brotheridge and Lee 2003), mixed evidence has been found for DA. Thus, DA usually has weak or non relationships with emotional exhaustion however some studies reported associations with job dissatisfaction (Grandey 2003) . Contrarily, DA has also been found associated with positive outcomes such as professional accomplishment (Ashforth and Humphrey 1993). In view of these mixed results we cannot conclude whether the strategies are beneficial or detrimental for individuals’ well being.

Initial support for the “ perceived emotional effort” as an alternative and more accurate construct whereby analyzing the different impact of EL has started to emerge in qualitative studies. Thus, an exploratory study conducted by the authors of this paper with Human Resources Practitioners found that emotional exhaustion was associated with the effort employees perceived in meeting emotional display rules, regardless of the strategy they used. Similarly, in-

Beyond deep and surface acting: Perceived emotional effort in customer service roles


depth interviews conducted by Wong and Wang (2009) with tour representatives suggest that the emotional burden reported by employees was the result of the emotional effort they had to exert when dealing with customers. The latter increased with the size of the group they were working with but was independent of the EL strategies. On the other hand, Guerrier and Adib (2003) found that when meeting emotional requirements was perceived as a “low-effort activity”, tour-operators reported high levels of job satisfaction and authenticity. In short, these results suggest that when perceived effort is high, negative consequences are expected but when perceived effort is low, EL can have positive impact on individuals’ well being (Ashforth and Humphrey 1993). Based on this evidence and the limitations shown by DA and SA, we argue that perceived effort is a more accurate construct by which to examine the impact of EL on employees’ well being. In the next section, theoretical support for the construct will be presented.

Perceived emotional effort: A two dimensional constructLazarus’ stress theory (1993) states that individual’s experience of stress is largely determined by how threatening they perceive the external demands of their environment. It is argued that when demands are related to meeting emotional requirements of the role, the extent to which individuals perceive the latter as an effortful activity will ultimately determine the stress they experience. Although many studies imply and support that EL is effortful, no study so far has analyzed the role of individual’s perception of effort on handling the required emotions. Marginally, support for the role of perceptions in the experience of stress within the EL field was found by Grandey et al. (2004). In their study, the authors demonstrate that when employees perceived customer aggression as less stressful, they also experienced less emotional exhaustion and had fewer absences from the job.

The role of effort in the experience of stress is also supported by the Ego Depletion Theory (Baumister et al., 1998). According to this theory, there is a limited source of energy for self-control activities. Thus, if one activity involves self control then the energy remaining for subsequent self control activities will be reduced. Based on this, Martinez-Iñigo et al. (2007) developed a two item instrument to assess the effort indirectly, by interference with other tasks. Although the instrument had low reliability and validity, their findings revealed that indirect effort predicted emotional exhaustion beyond SA and DA. Thus, these results provide initial evidence for the role of indirect effort as a fundamental component of EL and better predictor of well being than the EL strategies.

In view of this, we believe that the Perceived Emotional Effort is a two-dimensional construct that distinguishes between direct perceived emotional effort (based on Lazarus classic stress theory) and indirect perceived emotional effort or by interference with other tasks (based on the Ego-depletion theory and the existing items). In this study we present preliminary findings for the development and initial validation of the Perceived Emotional Effort scale.

Method

Procedure, item development and sample

We followed the standard procedure recommended in the literature for the development and initial validation of a scale (Worthington and Whittaker 2006). The first stage consists of developing the initial pool of items. The item development process in our study was inspired on the theoretical models outlined earlier. Thus, items for the direct dimension were developed based on Lazarus Stress Theory (e.g. “How often have you felt that this activity involves a great amount of effort”) and items for the indirect dimension were based on Ego Depletion Theory (e.g. “How often have you felt that you make more mistakes in other areas due to this activity”). We also included the two items developed by Martinez-Íñigo et al (2007). Secondly, there is an exploratory stage where researchers must administer the initial questionnaire to a given sample in order to find out the psychometric adjustment of the initial pool of items. Statistics analysis will show the internal consistency of the items (i.e. reliability) and whether or not the two theoretical dimensions (direct and indirect perceived effort) are confirmed with the initial sample (i.e. factorial validity). Finally, the questionnaire is administered to an independent sample to test the reliability and validity of the final scale.

A total of 253 employees from the South-East of England dealing with customers on a regular basis participated in the exploratory and item purification stage. Recruitment consultants and letting agencies made 45% of the sample; 26% retail, 16% bars and restaurants; 7% travel agents, and 6% bank clerks and insurers. Ages ranging from 17 years old to 61, with an average of 30.5; 60% were female, and 40% were male. As a pilot study, a convenience sampling was used (Field 2005). The final scale was made of 13 items and participants were asked to rate on a 5 point Likert scale (from never to very often) the frequency with which they felt each of the 13 statements. A further 204 employees participated in the second stage. Participants were customer service workers from a Theme Park and a large chain of Pubs and Restaurants. Their ages ranged from 18 to 70 , an average of 30 years old; 65% were female, and 35% male.

Data analysis and results

Answers were entered into a Social Statistics Computer Package (SPSS) and analysis were performed. We performed factorial analysis (to assess the extent to which the two theoretical dimensions can be maintained) and reliability


analysis (to assess the internal consistency of the scale). Factorial analysis was conducted as recommended in the literature (e.g. Field 2005; Hayton et al. 2004). First, positive results on the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy and Bartlett’s test of sphericity allowed us to conduct exploratory factor analysis. Second, Principal Component Analysis with Oblimin rotation was performed. Finally, decisions to retain factors were informed by three tests: Kaiser’s criterion to retain factors (those with eigenvalues >1); Cattel’s Screeplot (where only components above the point where the shape of the plot changes should be retained) and Parallel Test. Then, items that reduced the internal consistency of the scale were eliminated.

The best solution with regards to both validity and reliability was found for 2 dimensions which corresponded to the theoretical ones, direct and indirect effort. The final scale was made up of 7 items. The “Indirect Factor” was made up of 4 items and “Direct Effort” factor of 3 items. Factor analysis were replicated with the second sample confirming the two factor structure of the scale. High internal consistency of the items was achieved in both samples. Indirect Factor achieved. 72 in the first sample and .85 in the second one and Direct Effort achieved .64 in the first sample and .70 in the second sample.

Discussion and future researchThe need for a measure of perceived emotional effort has been justified. Also, the development and initial validation of the “perceived emotional effort scale” has been presented. The final 7 item-scale showed good reliabilities in both samples. As highlighted in this paper the EL literature assumes and even defines EL as “effort to manage emotions”. However, the empirical measure of EL has been focused just on the EL strategies. We believe that by measuring the effort with this new and reliable instrument we will be able to explain the mixed evidence found for DA, SA and its impact. Authors may incorporate the perceived emotional effort in future studies along with measures of DA and SA. In line with Martinez-Iñigo et al. (2007) we expect to demonstrate that the actual predictor of emotional exhaustion would be perceived effort, regardless of the strategy.

References Ashforth, B. E. and R. H. Humphrey (1993). Emotional Labor in Service Roles: The Influence of Identity. The Academy of Management Review 18(1): 88-115.

Baumeister, R., E. Bratslavsky, et al. (1998). Ego depletion: Is the active self a limited resource? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 74(5): 1252-1265.

Brotheridge, C. M. and R. T. Lee (2003). Development and validation of the Emotional Labour Scale. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology 76: 365.

Field, A. P. (2005). Discovering statistics using SPSS. London,Sage.

Grandey, A.A. (2000). Emotion regulation in the workplace: A new way to conceptualize emotional labor. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology 5(1): 95-110.

Grandey, A. A. (2003). When the show must go on: Surface acting and deep acting as determinants of emotional exhaustion and peer-rated service delivery. Academy of Management Journal 46(1).

Grandey, A. A., D. N. Dickter, et al. (2004). The customer is not always right: customer agression and emotion regulation of service employees. Journal of Organizational Behavior 25: 1-22.

Guerrier, Y. and A. Adib (2003). Work at leisure and leisure at work: A study of the emotional labour of tour reps. Human Relations 56(11): 1399.

Hayton, J., Allen, D., & Scarpello, V. (2004). Factor retention decisions in exploratory factor analysis: A tutorial on parallel analysis. Organizational Research Methods. 7: 191–205.

Hochschild, A. R. (1983). The managed heart. London, University of California Press.

Lazarus, R. S. (1993). From psychological stress to the emotions: A history of changing outlooks. Annual Reviews Psychol. 44(1): 1-21.

Martinez-Iñigo, D., P. Totterdell, et al. (2007). Emotional labour and emotional exhaustion: Interpersonal and intrapersonal mechanisms. Work and Stress 21(1): 30 - 47.

Morris, J. and D. C. Feldman (1996). The Dimensions, Antecedents, and Consequences of Emotional Labor. The Academy of Management Review 21(4): 986-1010.

Worthington, R. L., & Whittaker, T. A. (2006). Scale development research: A content analysis and recommendations for best practices. The Counseling Psychologist, 34, 806–838.


Author biographyChristina Quiñones-García is a final year PhD Student at the School of Management. She received a BSc in Psychology from the University of Oviedo (Spain) and MA Human Resources Management in Southampton Solent University. Her research interests include cognitive and emotion regulation, emotional labour moods and well being at work, job attitudes performance.



Organ shortage in Malaysia

Farah Salwani Muda@Ismail Supervisor Dr Remigius Nwabueze School of Law

AbstractOrgan donation is one of the miracles of modern medical science and is the best if not the only life saving therapy for patients with end stage failure of most essential organs. 1 However, even though this technology has managed to bring hope to many dying and chronically diseased patients and has saved thousands of valuable lives, organ shortage is now becoming a huge barrier impeding many more people to benefit from it. Malaysia is also facing this global problem, as organs are insufficient to meet the rising demands for it. Thus, this paper will highlight briefly this issue of organ shortage in Malaysia and the reasons causing it.

IntroductionOrgan donation is one of the miracles of modern medical science and is the best if not the only life saving therapy for patients with end stage failure of most essential organs including liver, kidney, heart and lungs. 2 In organ donation procedures, the whole or partial organ from an organ donor is transplanted to an organ recipient to replace the recipient’s damaged or failing organ with a working one. That is why it is often referred as ‘the gift of life’. 3 ‘In 1975, Malaysian transplants began with a renal transplant in Kuala Lumpur General Hospital.’. 4 From 1995 and 1997, liver and heart transplants have been practiced by local surgeons respectively. 5 Currently, an average of 40 to 60 kidney transplants are done annually (2 per million populations per year), though unfortunately, this figure has not changed since the 1980s, despite the number of renal failure patients which keeps increasing each year.6 Currently organ transplantation activity is considered relatively low in Malaysia, despite the many campaigns initiated to promote it7 and the promising number of registered potential organ donors available.8 This has led to organ shortage problems, where the demand for organs is soaring high, beyond the limited supply of organs available. So, there are not sufficient organs, to provide for the many patients in need of it. And, even though organ donation has managed to bring hope to many dying and chronically diseased patients and has saved thousands of valuable lives, organ shortage is now a huge barrier impeding many more people to benefit from it. Thus, this paper will highlight briefly this issue of organ shortage in Malaysia and the reasons causing it.

The scenario in MalaysiaMalaysia as a vast developing country of an estimated population of 28.31 is counted globally amongst the countries having the lowest number of donors.9 For every thousand of the population there is less than a single donor,10 compared to 8 in Singapore,11 12 in Great Britain and 35 in Spain.12 Though Malaysia allows organ donation from

1 Lela Yasmin Mansor. 1st. Report of the National Transplant Registry 2004, (Kuala Lumpur, National Transplant Registry, 2005) p.1.2 Ibid3 http://www.agiftoflife.gov.my/4 See. n.1 above5 Ibid6 Ibid7 Tan Chwee Choon, 2nd National Report of the National Transplant Registry 2005, (Kuala Lumpur, National Transplant Registry, 2006) p.2.8 National Transplant Registry, http://www.agiftoflife.gov.my/, Viewed on 1 October 2009.9 Department of Statistics Malaysia Official Website, http://www.statistics.gov.my/eng/index.php?option=com, updated on 31 July 2009,

Viewed on 7 October 2009.10 Lela Yasmin Mansor, Fourth Report of the National Transplant Registry 2007 (Kuala Lumpur, National Transplant Registry, 2007), p.170.11 Volker H. Schmidt and Chee Han Lim, 2004, ‘Organ Transplantation in Singapore: History, Problems, and Policies’, Social Science &

Medicine, 59, 2173-2182.12 House of Lords European Union Committee 17th. Report of Session 2007-08 Increasing The Supply of Donor Organs Within The

European Union, Volume 1: Report, [London, The Stationary Office Limited, 2 July 2008], Para 53, p.14.


both living13 and cadaver donors,14 it can only be resorted to, when there is no elements of organ trading involved,15 free informed consent has been obtained, and there is no other life saving treatment available other than the transplantation.16 The Human Tissues Act 1974 is the sole legislation regulating all organ donation matters. Practicing the ‘opting in’ system, Malaysia does not make organ donation compulsory, so, individuals willing to contribute their organs after death, must voluntarily register themselves as potential organ donors. However, the deceased’s family also has authority to decide on behalf of the deceased, to donate his organs, while any objections by them can predominantly override any individual consent already obtained.17

Organ shortage in MalaysiaWhile organ donation is quite well known in Malaysia, nevertheless not many are willing to come forward and voluntarily register as potential organ donors. In contrast the demand for organs keeps increasing; approximately 2500 chronic patients are added to the waiting list each year.18 This is related to demographic changes including an increase in the elderly population and the greater incidence of lifestyle-related diseases; raising the occurrences of end stage organ failures in Malaysia.19 Furthermore, more people feel confident to resort to organ donations to cure their illness after witnessing many events of successful achievements in others.

Plenty of effort has been taken by the government to reduce the gap between numbers of organs available and the large number of people waiting to get the needed organs, however, the number of actual donors is still decreasing. For instance in 2005, from a total of 62 potential donor referrals made to the National Transplant Procurement and Management Unit (NTPMU), only 13 became actual donors.20 This resulted to a very low rate of only 0.53 organ donor per million of the population.21 However, although the next year, whilst there was an increase to 112 potential donors, only 25 donations actually occurred. Unfortunately, the increase was insufficient to meet the continuously increasing demand of organs nationwide and did not last.22 There was another decline in 2007 with 73 referrals made, yet only 25 donations materialised. This figure translated to a donation rate of 0.99 donors per million populations.23 Hence, as of 31 August 2009, whilst Malaysia has 133,496 registered organ donors, only 256 have actually became donors.24 From these figures, it is shown that Malaysia does not lack registered, potential organ donors, though many more have not registered as organ donors. Most importantly, there is something hindering potential organ donors from becoming actual organ donors. Consequently, due to this shortage, desperate patients are purchasing organs at their own cost from countries like China and India.25

Family objectionOne of the main reasons preventing actual organ donations from taking place accordingly is family objection. Currently, whenever there is any objection expressed by the deceased family towards the intended organ donation by the deceased donor, the organ procurement procedure will not proceed, despite clear evidence that the deceased had officially registered as a potential organ donor during his lifetime.26 Section 2(2) of the Human Tissues Act 1974 clearly states that the person lawfully in possession of the deceased body may authorise removal of the organs only after ensuring that the deceased had not expressly retracted his wish to donate organs27 or there is no objection from the deceased’s surviving spouse or any other next-of-kin existing.28 Therefore, family objection takes priority over the deceased’s wish to donate his organs. Although this might have been intended to prevent further sufferings of the

13 Article 1.5, National Organ, Tissue and cell Transplantation Policy, (Kuala Lumpur, Ministry of Health Malaysia, June 2007) p.2.14 Human Tissues Act 1974 S. 2(1)15 Article 3.2, National Organ, Tissue and cell Transplantation Policy, (Kuala Lumpur, Ministry of Health Malaysia, June 2007), p.6.16 Supra. Art.3.117 Section 2(2)(a) and (b) Human Tissues Act 197418 Nurul Anuar Kari, ‘Takut Derma Organ-9000 Pesakit Terpaksa Menunggu Ganti Buah Pinggang’, http://www.utusan.com., 1 November

2006, Viewed on 2 April 200819 Article 1.1. National Organ, Tissue and cell Transplantation Policy, (Kuala Lumpur, Ministry of Health Malaysia, June 2007), p.120 Lela Yasmin Mansor, 2nd.Report of the National Transplant Registry 2005, (Kuala Lumpur, National Transplant Registry, 2006), p.151.21 Ibid22 Lela Yasmin Mansor, ‘Cadaveric Organ and Tissue Donation’, Third Report of the National Transplant Registry 2006,

http://www.mst.org.my/ntrSite/download/report 2006/Introduction_NTR2008final.pdf, Viewed on 25 August 2009.23 See n.10 above. P.17024 See. n.8 above.25 Puteri Nemie Kassim, 2005, ‘Organ Transplantation in Malaysia: A Need for a Comprehensive Legal Regime’, Med Law, March, 24(1), 173-

1789.26 Human Tissues Act 1974, S2(2)(b)27 Section 2(2)(a) Human Tissues Act 1974 “(2) Without prejudice to the foregoing subsection, the person lawfully in possession of the body of a deceased person may authorize the

removal of any part from the said body for use for the purposes aforesaid if, having made such reasonable enquiry as may be practicable, he has no reason to believe-

(a) that the deceased had expressed an objection to his body being so dealt with after his death; or”28 Section 2(2)(b) Human Tissues Act 1974 (b) “that the surviving spouse or any surviving next-of-kin of the deceased objects to the body being so dealt with.”


bereaved family members, who are already in much pain as a result of the loss of the deceased, it nevertheless leaves the deceased party with little authority over his own body. By virtue of this Act, the surviving spouse and next-of-kin can legally overrule and veto the deceased’s final wishes to donate his own organs. Indeed, this is not an obligatory power that must be exercised by them, but it does reflect huge respect and consideration given to the deceased’s family. It is courteous to seek families’ opinions, especially in end-of life matters which are very sensitive and delicate, and indeed ignoring the wishes of relatives could consequently invite more objections to organ donation from the public, however regardless of the reasons, this clearly negates the deceased’s final wishes to contribute to society by donating his own organs. Thus, all the hassle the deceased had gone through to register himself as a potential donor would just be in vain. Not only would it have been a waste of time for him to register as an organ donor but, worst of all, the precious organs would have been wasted as well, when they could have been used to save more lives. So, the best way to prevent this is by permanently amending the Act. Powers provided to the deceased’s family, which enables them to overrule the wishes of the deceased party must be removed. Previously, the law in UK was similar, where the deceased’s family also had such overruling powers.29 However, after amendments were made, the recent Human Tissue Act 2004 now gives priority to the deceased’s wish and right of autonomy, by putting a stop to family objections. If the laws in Malaysia could be amended in such a manner, there is a good chance that the number of donors would increase dramatically.

Besides, registered organ donors must also be strongly advised to inform their family members on their intention to become organ donors during their lifetime. This will ensure that, when the time comes, their families are already prepared for such procurement procedures taking place, and would not simply object to it. Hopefully, when such initiatives are taken, families would be more inclined to respect the donor’s wishes and simultaneously contribute towards more organs being successfully harvested.

Conclusion Undoubtedly, organ shortage is a serious problem in Malaysia. Therefore, continuous effort must be taken to increase both the number of registered organ donors and actual donors. Seeing that family objection is the key reason causing organ shortage, until further amendment is made to the Human Tissues Act 1974, to remove objection powers given to families, the only alternative available is to ensure registered organ donors, responsibly inform their family members of their decision to become organ donors. Meanwhile, families are also urged to respect and honour the wishes of their family member, wanting to contribute the ‘gift of life’ to others. Hopefully, this simple effort would prove beneficial to resolve the problem of organ shortage in Malaysia.

BibliographyDepartment of Statistics Malaysia Official Website, http://www.statistics.gov.my/eng/index.php?option=com, updated on 31 July 2009, Viewed on 7 October 2009

1st. Report of the National Transplant Registry 2004, (Kuala Lumpur, National Transplant Registry, 2005)

Fourth Report of the National Transplant Registry 2007, (Kuala Lumpur, National Transplant Registry, 2007)

Human Tissue Act 1961

Human Tissues Act 1974

Human Tissue Act 2004

National Organ, Tissue and cell Transplantation Policy, (Kuala Lumpur, Ministry of Health Malaysia, June 2007)

National Transplant Registry, http://www.agiftoflife.gov.my/, Viewed on 1 October 2009

Norlaila Hamima Jamaluddin. ‘Derma Organ Selamat Nyawa’. Harian Metro, 8 October 2006. http://www.hmetro.com, Viewed on 7 March 2007.

Nurul Anuar Kari. ‘Takut Derma Organ-9000 Pesakit Terpaksa Menunggu Ganti Buah Pinggang’, http://www.utusan.com , 1 November 2006, Viewed on 2 April 2008

Puteri Nemie Kassim, 2005, Organ Transplantation in Malaysia: A Need for a Comprehensive Legal Regime. Medicine and Law, March, 24(1):173-89

Third Report of the National Transplant registry 2006, http://www.mst.org.my/ntrSite/download/report 2006/Introduction_NTR2008final.pdf, Viewed on 25 August 2009

Volker H. Schmidt and Chee Han Lim, 2004, ‘Organ Transplantation in Singapore: History, Problems, and Policies’, Social Science & Medicine, 59, 2173-2182.

29 Section 1(2)(a) and (b) Human Tissue Act 1961


Author biographyFarah Salwani Muda@Ismail is from Malaysia. She obtained both her degree in Law (LLB) and Master’s of Comparative Laws (MCL) from the International Islamic University, Malaysia. As a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Shariah and Law, University Science Islam Malaysia (USIM), she is dedicated to completing her PhD studies, specializing in Medical Law and Ethics. Her PhD research focuses particularly on the issue of organ shortage in Malaysia.


The Ear of Dionysius Caravaggio’s representations of hearing and acoustic space

David J. Knight School of Humanities (Archaeology)

AbstractCaravaggio’s experimentation with light is known. This paper presents new evidence for his less discussed complementary interests in sound. Firstly, his knowledge of the anatomy of the middle ear is identified in his The Inspiration of Saint Matthew (1602) and set within the history of anatomical knowledge and illustration. Secondly, the painters’ interest in acoustics is identified in his Burial of Saint Lucy (1608). The context surrounding Caravaggio’s execution of this painting is considered drawing together influences from Syracuse and the stories of its famous quarry associated with the tyrant Dionysius. By revisiting these two early 17th century canvases a better appreciation is possible for the history of acoustical investigation. The observations and interpretations offered here are hoped to be beneficial also to Art, Literary and Medical Historians alike.

The anatomy of hearingStudies of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610)1 are dominated by evaluations of his development and mastery of naturalistic observation and dramatic chiaroscuro illumination. His knowledge of human anatomy is acclaimed but remains contextually linked solely to observable physical reality. His exploration of hearing and non-visible acoustic phenomena has gone unnoticed and yet by 1608, when the painter reached the Sicilian city of Syracuse, he appears to have already developed and demonstrated a substantial interest in and knowledge of the anatomy of hearing.

In 1599 Caravaggio was commissioned to paint two canvases for the Contarelli chapel in the church of the French congregation, San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. In 1600 he completed The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew and The Calling of Saint Matthew. Then in 1602 he was further commissioned to provide a painting of St Matthew for the chapel’s altarpiece. The first version, St Matthew and the Angel (Figure 1) was not accepted.

Figure 1: St Matthew and the Angel by Caravaggio in 1602 (destroyed 1945).

1 Cf. Friedlaender 1955, 1969; Hibbard 1983; Puglisi 1998; Langdon 1999.


The second, accepted version, The Inspiration of Saint Matthew (Figure 2), is a radically different composition and although both continue the artist’s exploration of dramatic lighting and naturalistic observation, the second version provides evidence of an otherwise unwritten interest of Caravaggio: hearing and acoustics.

Figure 2: The Inspiration of Saint Matthew by Caravaggio in 1602.

Caravaggio’s depiction of the angel closely resembles an anatomical cross-section of the human skull, notably the brain and ossicles of the middle ear. The angel’s flowing robe describes the frontal lobe of the telencephalon, the subtle bulge in the material at the right indicating the cerebellum. The way in which the robe is wound and tied around the angel’s waist may arguably represent the diencephalon, mesencephalon, pons and medulla. The section of robe seen to the left of the angel’s right arm appears to represent the tongue. The feathers on the tip of the angel’s right wing can even be interpreted as the left eyebrow.

The allegorical context of this anatomical display makes sense, the mind of God becomes known to Matthew by the voice of an angel and Matthew’s ears are open to the message. This refers to Christ seeing Matthew, the tax collector of Capernaum and telling him to “follow me” (Greek: Akolouthei moi; Matthew 9:9-13). Matthew got up and followed Christ. The image is about listening. The ear (believed to be the seat of memory) and the mind of God are revealed to Matthew who is figured as the human mouthpiece, through his writing, of divine revelation. Accordingly, the head of the saint is placed directly where the mouth would be in relation to the brain.

Puglisi has interpreted the angel’s pose as “ticking off on his fingers the generations of Christ’s genealogy opening Matthew’s Gospel”2. However, in light of identifying the angel’s robes as representing the anatomy of the brain it follows that the angelic arms describe the pinna of the outer ear while the hands and fingers are posed to form the three auditory ossicles of the middle ear, the stapes (stirrup), malleus (hammer) and incus (anvil) (Figure 3A). Considering the date of this composition (1602), it is necessary to find its place in the historical context of anatomical knowledge.

The first description of the incus was by Alessandro Achillini (1463-1512) in his publications Corpores humani Anatomia (Venice, 1516-1524) and Anatomicae annotationes (Bologna, 1520). In 1564 Eustachius3 was familiar with both the malleus and incus but it was the anatomist Vesalius (1514-1564)4 who, by 1543, first gave them these names in his influential De humani corporis fabrica (On the workings of the human body). The essence of Vesalius’ work was the conviction that the brain and the nervous system are the centre of mind and emotion, contrary to the Aristotelian belief that the heart was the centre of the body. Vesalius’ concept is writ large in Caravaggio’s Inspiration and his inclusion of the three auditory ossicles strongly indicates his anatomical knowledge was current.

2 Hibbard 1983: 146; Puglisi 1998: 179-180. 3 Bartolomeo Eustachius (1500/14-1574). 4 Andreas van Wesel/Vesal (1514-1564).


Fallopius5 related in 1561 that Ingrassias of Sicily6 was the first to discover, name and describe the stapes in 1546. Vesalius did not know of this discovery for some years, as his Fabrica (1543-1555) includes only the malleus and incus.7 It was not until 1600-1, when Ferrara Victorius Baldinus published Giulio Cesare Casseri’s (c.1552-1616) De vocis auditusq[ue], that the three ossicles and their relationship to each other were illustrated (Figure 3B)8.

Figure 3: (A) Detail of Inspiration. (B) Casseri’s Table XI (Organi Auditus), figure labelled Hominis illustrates the human auditory ossicles9.

From the above observations it appears that Caravaggio had access to and saw Casseri’s De vocis auditusq sometime between its publication in 1601 and 1602. Disguising the human brain as an angelic messenger may have been the artist’s intentional reference to the late 16th century surreal compositions of Arcimboldo10 who constructed portraits using assembled objects such as fruit and vegetables, but Caravaggio offers a far more profound message.

The portrayal of acoustic spaceIn 1608 Caravaggio escaped imprisonment in Malta and fled to Syracuse. While there, the local antiquary Vincenzo Mirabella showed him the ancient quarry (latomie) and cave with remarkable acoustic properties in what is known as the Latomie del Paradiso. Caravaggio named the cave the Ear of Dionysius (L’Orecchio di Dionisio), as it resembled a hearing trumpet. This anecdote was related five years later in Mirabella’s Dichiarazioni (Naples, 1613)11. Mirabella believed the cave was constructed and that its design was intended to amplify the whispered secrets of the quarry prisoners. He relates:

“I remember when I took Michelangelo da Caravaggio, that unique painter of our times, to see that prison. He, considering its strength, inspired by his unique genius as an imitator of natural things, said: Do you not see how the Tyrant, in order to make a horn to hear things, took no other model than nature had herself made to achieve the same result. And so he made this prison like an ear. This had not been noticed before, and caused a great stir ...”12

An understanding of this cave is necessary in order to unpack the meaning of Caravaggio’s reference to Dionysius. The quarries of Syracuse (latomiae) were mined for limestone and are mentioned by ancient authors13. As they are considerably deep they were also utilized as prisons from an early period. Cicero relates they were used as a general prison for criminals from all parts of Sicily14. He also speaks of them as constructed expressly for a prison by the tyrant Dionysius (431-367 BC)15. Specifically, following the Athenian expedition of 413 BC it is reported that approximately 7000 captives were incarcerated in these quarries16; and they continued to be used as such by successive rulers of Syracuse.

5 Gabriele Fallopius (1523-1562). 6 Giovanni Filippo Ingrassias (1510-1580). 7 Asherson 1978: 454.8 De vocis auditusq[ue]; organis historia anatomica, singulari fide methodo ac industria concinnata, tractatibus duobus explicata ac variia

iconibus excuses illustrata. The artist responsible for the engravings was Joseph Maurer, a German painter and etcher.9 Images from University of Toronto Fisher Library Digital Collections, Jason A. Hannah Collection. Digital ID: RBAI008. Online at: http://link.

library.utoronto.ca/anatomia Table XI digital ID: RBAI008-0033.10 Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1526-1593) 11 Dichiarazioni della piñata dell’antiche Siracuse, e d’alcune scelte medaglie d’esse, e de’principi che quelle possedettero. 12 Langdon 1999: 367-8.13 Cicero; Orationes Verrinae v 27; Aelian, Varia Historia xii 44.14 Cicero; Orationes Verrinae v 27.15 Cicero; Orationes Verrinae v 55.16 Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War vii 86, 87; Diodorus Siculus; Bibliotheca historica xiii 33


Philoxenus of Cythera (died c.380/79 BC) adapted Euripides’ satyr-play Cyclops, making the monster shepherd named Polyphemus resemble Dionysius, and calling its cave dwelling the latomiae, a calculated piece of stagecraft eliciting from the Athenian audience painful memories of relatives who had recently died in the Syracusian quarries, at the hand of Dionysius17. Aelian says the most beautiful cave in the Syracusan latomiae was named after Philoxenus18, presumably the same cave later visited by Caravaggio. The acoustic amplification afforded by the cave’s shape and smooth surfaces are said to have been used by Dionysius to listen in on prisoner conversations, a small long opening connecting to the back of the cave used for acoustic espionage. In Philoxenus’ Euripides this same opening is Odysseus’ escape route.

The cave is most likely a natural slot canyon cut by prehistoric rainwater run-off through the limestone19. When the limestone was quarried the slot was exposed and apparently utilised for its acoustic properties.

Figure 4: Burial of Saint Lucy by Caravaggio, 1608.

This cave became the setting for Caravaggio’s 1608 painting of the Burial of Saint Lucy (Figure 4), believed to be the martyr’s resting place. Saint Lucy’s name derives from lux (lucis: light) and she is patroness of the blind. Mirabella likely related these details when showing Caravaggio the cave and shortly afterwards, and with the aid of Mario Minniti (1577-1640), Caravaggio was commissioned to paint the Burial of Saint Lucy for the Church of Santa Lucia al Sepolcro, Syracuse.

Figure 5: (A) Detail of bishop’s mitre (B) Entrance to the Ear of Dionysius, Syracuse.

17 Cf. Caven 1990.18 Aelian; Varia Historia xii 44; Caven 1990: 223-224.19 For slot canyon formation see: http://www.zionnational-park.com/slots.htm


In light of the historical/mythical background of the cave, several interesting points of Caravaggio’s painting can be productively revisited. The bishop is shown in profile and therefore creates an immediate visual reference to the Cyclops Polyphemus, with only one eye visible to the viewer. The bishop’s crook (crozier) can therefore additionally refer to the Cyclops’ occupation as shepherd. The shape of the cave entrance is echoed in the shape of the lit surface of the bishop’s mitre (Figure 5). Therefore the mythological and Christological significance of the location are conflated in Caravaggio’s painting. The immensity of the space above the figures suggests the comparable immensity of the cave, the volume of dark framed space a corollary of acoustic space filled with echoes, ancient and contemporary. This begs the question whether the visual “pun” of bishop and Cyclops was noticed at the time. Vincenzo Mirabella may have understood the double-meanings in the painting, but if he did he kept quiet about them.

Concerning the cave, Athanasius Kircher (1601/2-1680) visited the site in 163820 and by the 19th century the acoustic properties of the cave were well known21. Therefore, with good reason the physicist Wallace Clement Sabine (1868-1919), father of modern acoustic measurement, chose to visit the Ear of Dionysius.

Answers to why Caravaggio was communicating, in a covert way, his interest and knowledge of human hearing and acoustic phenomena must remain for future investigation. Nevertheless, regarding the later painting, since St Lucy’s name derives from the Latin word for light (lux) and she is the patron saint of the blind, the masked visual pun suggests Caravaggio may have wanted educated viewers to know that “seeing is not believing”. At a time when the artist was on the run and in mortal danger, desiring a formal hearing to clear his name, perhaps it is correct and appropriate that this painting’s message emphasizes sound (explanatory words) over sight (visible evidence).

The observations made in this paper reveal new and potentially fertile details relevant to the current interest in the history of acoustical investigation.

Thank you to Dr. Gary D. Knight (Ottawa, Canada) for verifying the 1602 composition’s resemblance to the human brain, to Vasko Démou (Southampton, UK) for explaining Akolouthei moi, Professor Lamberto Tronchin (Bologna, Italy) for encouraging my work and the reviewers of this paper for their insightful and encouraging comments.

ReferencesAsherson, N. 1978. The fourth auditory ossicle: Fact or fantasy? The Journal of Laryngology and Otology (June 1978). Pp. 453-465.

Caven, B. 1990. Dionysius I War-Lord of Sicily. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

Friedlaender, W. 1955. Caravaggio Studies. Princeton University Press.

Friedlaender, W. 1969. Caravaggio Studies. New York: Schocken Books.

Hibbard, H. 1983. Caravaggio. London: Thames & Hudson.

Langdon, H. 1999. Caravaggio: A Life. Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Puglisi, C. 1998. Caravaggio. Phaidon Press Limited.

Smith, W. (ed.). 1857. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company.

Author biographyDavid J. Knight is a PhD student at the University of Southampton, UK. He received an MA in Roman Archaeology from the University of Southampton in 2002 and a BA in Fine Art/Art History from the University of Guelph, Canada in 1987. His research interest include ancient acoustics and music archaeology.

20 Musurgia Universalis; Lib. IX, Praelusio iii; Phonurgia Nova; Domus Dionysii Tyranni. Kircher reported its acoustic phenomenon in his Musurgia Universalis (1650) and Phonurgia Nova (1673).

21 Smith 1857: 1065-1066.


Capturing humanity: The implicated biography and validity in a narrative world

Charanjit Singh-Landa Supervisor Dr Gill Clarke School of Education

AbstractNarratives are a phenomenon which, if as argued in this paper are accepted for their rich extent, can have the effect of further enhancing research in education because everything ‘…studied is contained within a storied or narrative representation’ which acts to privilege the linguistic and textual basis of knowledge (Denzin 2001: 58). Narratives are a co-constructive process of claiming one’s own reality this facilitates the encoding of meanings which can be brought from the subconscious to the domain of consciousness, awareness and individual volition because ‘…it is through knowledge and the stories about our knowledge that allows us to bring forth and focus on our own identity revealing, amongst other things, our values, attitudes’ (Pagano 1991: 193 – 205) and social influences (Ricoeur 1980). Discourses relating to narrative methods highlight the implication of the personal narrative (Riessman 1993), it is generally accepted that ideas presented using the narrative method may be influenced by a complex structure of dynamics on more than one level and that these dynamics range from the economic, social to the political. Accordingly it is the aim of this paper to explore the impact, if any, such implication has on the validity of research outcomes that utilise the narrative method.

IntroductionNarrative has seen a significant and positive shift or ‘turn’1 in study with questions regarding the explanation, interpretation and understanding of individual and group action in the social sciences (Geertz 1973, 1983; Rabinow & Sullivan 1979, 1987; Riessman 1993: 5 – 6; Chamberlayne et al. 2000; Roberts 2002: 3 – 4). Changes to the way in which the very nature of scientific knowledge was perceived and the methods used to achieve it in the last thirty years have meant that narrative, which is no longer regarded as the sole province of literary study, has added concepts of emplotment through ‘story’ and ‘time’ to the research process (Roberts 2002: 4) or in Dilthey’s terms experience, expression and understanding (Verstehen hermeneutics in Erben 1998; see also Palmer 1969) giving more scope for a rather fraught postmodern individuality (Shilling and Mellor 1994). The omission of the ‘humanity’ of an individual through the ‘pursuit of causal accounts’ by modern science (see Rustin 1999: 65 and Roberts 2002: 4) and the ‘heuristic assumption[s], common in the natural sciences, that everything in the universe can, in principle, be explained in terms of causality’ (Kirk and Miller 1986: 10) means narrative is now far more acceptable as a viable2 ontological alternative in educational research. Narrative as an auto/biographical research method raises a particularly interesting validity issue that this paper will explore; to what extent, if any, does the implicated biography of the narrator (researcher) act to delimit3 the validity of narrative research?

There are many differing definitions of research, often categorised in general as being either academic4 or applied or policy5 related. Research in education can be defined as being an exposure of ‘…the fragility [,] temporality [or] limitation of the reinforcement of the strength or power of a framework or discipline of study and applied research through schooling based research methodologies’ (Schostak 2002: 44). Narrative ‘…does not fit neatly within the boundaries of any single scholarly field’ and is thus ‘…inherently interdisciplinary’ (Riessman 1993: 1). Narrative is considered, in main, to be part of the broader practice known as the qualitative research methods: ‘…qualitative

1 Here the term turn is used to refer to change for example in the perception of narrative methods as a valid strategy of enquiry.2 It should be noted that the term ‘viable’ is used in place of ‘valid’ or ‘robust’ because it suggests less of a relationship based on ‘cause and

effect’, alternatives such as ‘significant’ were considered loaded with suggestions of ‘automatic-reliability’ and hence would not be correct in the context in which the discussion is presented, for further discussion see Kirk and Miller, 1986: 21.

3 The term delimit is used to denote the determination of quality.4 Moore defines academic research as the development of ‘a theoretical explanation or the understanding of an issue’ (Moore 2006).5 Schostak (2002) defines action research as ‘a process of systematic reflection upon circumstances to bring about desired results’ and

as the interrogation of ‘[the part of ] the world appearing to consciousness, where the ‘look’ of the researcher meets the ‘look’ of others’ hence it is ‘a process of systematic reflection… [the interrogation of the part of ] the world appearing to consciousness].


researchers tend to espouse an approach in which theory and empirical investigation are interwoven…during or at the end of field work, rather than [as] a precursor to it’ (Bryman 1988: 81 in Roberts 2002: 2), the philosophy of which is often ‘…guided by highly abstract principles’ (Denzin and Lincoln 2008: 31 – 38; Bateson 1972: 31). Riessman (2008: 10) describes narrative as a ‘…family of methods for interpreting texts that have in common a storied form’.

Narrative as a strategy of inquiry appears in many forms6, it contributes in value to research through a diversely rich methodological and interpretative exploration of contemporary lives within cultural and structural settings providing new and possibly narrower grassroots evidence of social change. Invariably narratives7 will differ in degrees of richness however the narrative method does not seek replication but a hermeneutic engagement of knowledge making a narrative comprehensible to others and thus ‘…an apprehension [understanding] of the weight and meaning of the concept of narrative per se’ (Erben 2000: 384).

Narrative richness Narratives exist within a macro structure that is a structure or process greater than the parts that ‘narrative’ subsumes for example a place, a time, an event, a role or an interaction8. What then is the whole of which these fragments are part? Schostak (2002: 86) poses this exact question in relation to objectivity and ‘triangular cuts’, the same reasoning can be philosophically applied to narrative and it can be stated that narrative acts to co-construct multiple realities or truths through its post-positivist subjectivist-interpretivist or subjectivist-hermeneutic approach. This figure, although not exhaustive, builds on the work of Schostak by exploring the possible parts narrative can be used to explore and their relative value in terms of traditional learning strategies9 where the strategy is considered a ‘whole’:

Macrostructure Fragment or Microstructure Whole (Trajectory) Narrative Parts Value in terms of Research

Auditory Life Story/Biography/Music C, SC, Eth, Pol, P, S Visual/Written Art/Photographs/Letters/Documents C, SC, Eth, Pol, P, S Kinaesthetic Practice/Employment C, SC, Eth, P, S C – Culture SC – Sub-culture Eth – Ethical Pol – Political P – Psychological S – Sociological

Figure 1.1 Narrative Structures in Educational Strategies; Parts and Wholes.

Although such learning strategies are usually amalgamated this figure represents how narrative relates to their postulated features, elements and dimensions, and their greater relationship to the educational research in value terms10. For purposes of clarity the reference to ‘culture’ includes for example racial, gender and class, ethical includes virtue and contract ethics, the psychological includes the cognitive process and the sociological an amalgamation of other socially constructed hierarchical structures such as economics and power. Narrative fragments when hermeneutically explored as microstructures can reveal the value and interactional11 benefits of narrative in educational research on two levels; the social and existential. The relationship between narrative and hermeneutics in relation to the three traditional philosophical research paradigms (critical theory, subjectivist and objectivist) can thus be logically mapped as follows, with benefits for educational research coming from the form of narrative in such a relationship as being both recollective and interpretative (Freeman 1993):

6 Bar-Efrat explores narrative in biblical theology as narrative art (Bar-Efrat 1989).7 Most qualitative research conforms to a set of procedures and although several typologies exist (cf. Cortazzi 2001; Mishler 1995) narrative

is far more fluid (Riessman 1993). Riessman (1993: 54) heuristically identifies four contemporary approaches to narrative study; thematic, structural, dialogic and visual analysis, within each of these is an intrinsic link to the stages of the narrative research process identified by her in her earlier work; telling, transcribing and analysing.

8 Schostak (2002) discusses this in relation to qualitative data, the same reasoning is applied here in relation to narratives. 9 Here three main strategies are used; auditory (sound), visual (images) and kinaesthetic (practical). 10 Here the relationship is an explorative one i.e. what narrative as a strategy of inquiry can reveal.11 The term interaction refers to the interaction between the whole and part, and possibly even the interaction between the ‘self’ as an

individual and the ‘self’ as socially reconstructed.


N – Narrative in auditory, visual and kinaesthetic form A – Anglo-Saxon Approach C – Continental Approach NCE – Nomothetic Contract Ethics IVE – Interpretative Virtue Ethics Qual – Qualitative Data Quan – Quantitative Data

Figure 1.2 Paradigmatic Hermeneutics Spiral12

Thus a more detailed and sophisticated analysis is facilitated through critical theoretical or simple plan generation that acts to address fundamental problems and concepts in hermeneutics (Freeman 1993). Two philosophies that contribute to general broader understanding are mapped here, the move from an Anglo-Saxon to an ontological or epistemological continental philosophy is one of exploration as Schostak (2002) remarks from ‘what happens’ to ‘why does it happen’? As a result the horizontal line filters inwards mapping a closer philosophical relationship between narrative and value in terms of education research.

It is suggested that a continental hermeneutic philosophy informed narrative acts to raise the issue of causality i.e. the search for the connection between the narrative and its generating conditions for example ‘…the impact of ideas on practice.’ In addition, the exploration of why narrative exists in a particular form is possible on an existential level thereby questioning the concept and associated practices on a more global, historical, philosophical and political level. Its value to educational research becomes apparent through its challenge of personal narrative with a contemporary form of virtue ethics by reason of its concentration on a reconstructed-self or ‘humanity’. Thus, qualitative narrative studies are more beneficial to education research than most quantitative studies when considered within this paradigm on the basis of two points; first, the concentration of quantitative research studies on method detracts from consideration of the immeasurable existential i.e. personal realities that can reveal sub-cultures. Second, the greater scope for exploration, from this it can be deduced that narrative is the broadest contemporary form in which the self can be scientifically represented. Hence, if figure 1.2 is further mapped against ‘Hernadi’s Triad’13 (Hernadi 1987) what is revealed is a deeper connection between narrative in its broadest sense and the three philosophical research paradigms mentioned earlier:

12 This figure builds on Schostak’s hermeneutic spiral; see Schostak 2002 for more details.13 The formulation by Paul Hernadi in the late 1980s, known as Hernadi’s Triad, was an attempt to abolish the traditional divides between

interpretation and explanation within the hermeneutic tradition.


N – Narrative Study A – Anglo-Saxon Approach C – Continental Approach NCE – Nomothetic Contract Ethics IVE – Interpretative Virtue Ethics Exploration – standing in for existential enactment, construction Explanation – standing in for inferential detection, deconstruction Explication – standing in for reproductive translation, reconstruction

Figure 1.3 Paradigmatic Hermeneutics Spiral and Hernadi’s Hermeneutic Triad14

What begins to emerge is the level of exploration facilitated by narrative that contributes to education research. Where such deep exploration is facilitated the issue of truth, validity, logical robustness and even reliability is also raised. In relation to ‘truthfulness’ in narrative accounts Riessman (2002) validly points out ‘…there is no canonical to validation to interpretative work, no recipes [and] no formulas’, this undoubtedly affects narrative as a truthful account. Two further factors affect the truthful condition of a narrative and if, as it is my argument that, narrative is ontologically rich then discourse requires a response to it’s criticisms – there are obvious methodological validity issues however the rest of this paper centres on; the implication of the narrators biography and the mechanisms that seek to lend greater validity to this research method.

The narrator’s implicated biography Riessman (1993: vii) in her germinal work admits that her personal narrative is implicated when she conducts narrative research because she has ‘…a point of view, and a network of relationships that influences the ideas presented’. Thus the presentation of any narrative will be influenced by factors15 including the location of narrator and narrated. Such multi-disciplinary identities may mean that further weight is lent to undermining the validity of such research. In essence a narrative can act as a historical record or a mirror of an outside world, Schostak (2003) argues that the way in which ‘…an individual perceives the world is never a simple matter of just opening the eyes and looking – the data of the senses are always pre-organised culturally, psychologically’. Therefore the biography of the researcher is also always implicated in that it is a ‘…ready to wear coat created before an individuals birth and tailored by their parents [society and other factors] to fit whatever projects they may in some shared family and social fantasy hold’ (Schostak 2002). Further validity issues are indentified by Bruner who argues that verification in narrative comes into question also in terms of omissions; it is not adequate that the narrative covers ‘the events’ of a life – omissions are also important and can often radically alter a narrative (Bruner 1987). Hence, the ‘choices’ made by the narrator, influenced to varying degrees by their personal biography, also require consideration.

Albeit that the biography of the narrator is implicated the production process can be rather selfishly cathartic, thus the delimitation of the rich extent of the narrative, from an epistemological and ontological perspective, occurs where the construction of the narrator affects the narrative in content and form then the very same issue of the construction of the narrated does the same especially in relation to a visual narrative (Clandinin & Connolley 2000). Figure 1.4 summarises the position of the narrative research process:

14 Hernadi 1987 in Czarniawska (2004: 61).15 Other factors include past personal experiences of law, art, literature, the media, clinical work, socio-economics, psychology, theory,

teaching, race, disability, gender, politics and sexuality.


Narrator – the researcher Narrated – the research participant or subject Stage 1 – raw narrativeStage 2 – narrative affected by the biography of the story teller and factors i.e. language/truth Stage 3 – narrative affected by the biography of the narrator Stage 4 – narrative affected by methodological factors Stage 5 – narrative as perceived by others a/c – narrator’s experiences during research process b/d – narrated’s experiences generallye – narrator’s considerations post-collection and pre-releasez – narrator’s experiences outside the process

Figure 1.4 Narrative Research Process

This figure, although not exhaustative, shows how a singular personal narrative is affected from its raw state i.e. more reliable, through to what I term a perceived narrative, perhaps such a narrative would be better classified as social narrative?

Validity in a narrative world Validity in research relates to, amongst other things, confidence, reliability and perhaps fact and truth – this will be somewhat dictated by the ‘purpose’ of the research itself for example a reliable account may be regarded as truthful and therefore appropriate for phenomenological studies but not for action research. What follows is a discussion of objectivity, crystallisation and critical constellation in terms of validity. What, if anything, can objectivity lend to the validity of narrative research? The purpose of objectivity is to promote confidence to research; without it would a reader have a reason to accept what is researched? Where such authoritarian belief is lacking, objectivity serves to harness the best possible level of validity and reliability that is ascertainable. The problem here concerns the existence of one without the other – surely this, although perfectly plausible, undermines the exact confidence that should have been lent to it. Achieving objectivity through narrative in education research could lead to the objectification of the subject matter for purposes of over-measurement which could in turn stifle the richness of the data itself. In fact as Riessman, Roberts and Denzin all suggest narrative research, like other forms of research, eschews the search for an absolute truth. Thus, objectivity adds little validity to narrative research in education because by its very nature the focus of narrative is to facilitate the provision of a variety of perspectives or viewpoints; a greater ontological or ‘binocular’ understanding of the subject matter concerned.

Kirk and Miller (1986) identify three types of validity of relevance to this discussion; apparent, instrumental and theoretical or construct validity. Apparent validity concerns the creation of ‘obviously’ valid data for example the use of an instrument closely linked to phenomena – such validity is often illusory (Kirk and Miller 1986: 22). In contrast, instrumental validity occurs where the results of one instrument exactly match those generated by another already accepted valid instrument. Finally, theoretical validity is generated where the paradigmatic use of theory corresponds to themes obtained from data. It is the latter of these that would seem the most appropriate method of attaining validity in narrative research – mainly because it is unconstrained. The problem here lies with the difficulty in testing the hypothesis against alternatives and thus guarding against unforeseeable sources of invalidity. Further, such validity cannot prevent the making of errors for example belief in the truth of a false principle, rejection of something that is true or posing an incorrect question. Maybe then, as Webb et al (1966: 174), state ‘the most fertile validity comes from a combined series of different measures… each pointing to a single hypothesis [which when tested by a range of methods and survives] contains a degree of validity unattainable by one tested within [a] more constricted framework of a single method’.


Crystallisation Laurel Richardson, in a truly affirmative-postmodernist style, proposes crystalline as a form of validity in which reliability and truth are problematized; Denzin and Lincoln (2005) argue this as being purposefully transgressive. This has a three-fold effect first; it changes the relationship between the researcher and research, second researcher and participant, and third it allows the researcher to uncover the ‘…hidden assumptions and life-denying repressions of sociology’ (Richardson, 1997: 167). The basis of this lies partly in the belief that theories are inherently flawed because they convey an erroneous representation of the external world. An unfortunate result of this is the subjugation of time to a state of random or disjointedness when juxtaposed alongside incongruous plot development.

Richardson (2003) articulates crystallisation in qualitative research as allowing researchers to break free from traditional and more generic constraints, thus she states: ‘…the scholar draws freely on his or her productions from literary, artistic, and scientific genres, often breaking the boundaries of each of those as well. In these productions, the scholar might have different ’takes’ on the same topic, which I think of as a postmodernist deconstruction of triangulation…in postmodernist mixed-genre texts, we do not triangulate, we crystallise…I propose that the central image for ‘validity’ for postmodern texts is not the triangle—a rigid, fixed, two-dimensional object. Rather, the central imaginary is the crystal, which combines symmetry and substance with an infinite variety of shapes, substances, transmutations, multi-dimensionalities, and angles of approach…crystallisation provides us with a deepened, complex, thoroughly partial, understanding of the topic. Paradoxically, we know more and doubt what we know. Ingeniously, we know there is always more to know.’ (Richardson 2000: 934).

Patti Lather (1993) argues in favour of ‘… [rupturing] validity as a regime of truth, to displace its historical inscription…via discussion, circulation and proliferation of counter-practices of authority that take the crisis of representation into account’ (Lather 1991: 647). Thus, what Lather seeks is an incitement to discourse. Crystallisation essentially fits the social constructionist (Gergen, 1999; Holstein & Gubrium, 2008) and critical paradigms such as queer theory or feminism (Ellingson 2008: 4). Hence, researchers tend to utilize a wider range of methods, practices, and perspectives thus adapting crystallisation to their specific needs and goals. Crystallisation does not compliment positivism and thus those researchers seeking objective ahistorical, unbiased or universal truth do not find it of use (Ellingson 2009: 4). It is generally accepted that it is almost impossible to remove subjective influences from the research process (Atkinson 2006). If, as propounded by Ellingson, that crystallisation is in fact the ‘[combination of ] methods and genres from across regions of the [qualitative research] continuum’ and that genres are ‘…groups of discourses which share substantive, stylistic, and situational characteristics [or] a group of acts unified by a constellation of forms that recurs in each of its members [forms which] appear in [isolation] in other discourses… what is distinctive about the acts in a genre is the recurrence of the forms together in constellation’ (Campbell and Jamieson 1995: 403).

Crystallisation has the added benefit of allowing the richness of narrative data to be enhanced by tendering ‘…deep, thickly described [and] complexly rendered interpretations of meanings [in relation to] a phenomenon’ (Ellingson 2009: 10). Further, it allows the combination of data sources from a variety of perspectives for example constructivist, post-positivist and interpretative producing and representing knowledge from across the continuum that forms the qualitative research method thus allowing the researcher to reflexively consider their own role in the research process16. Additional richness is provided by the combination of writing styles perhaps even a mixture of Riessman’s poetic, thematic and storytelling. In short, like narrative inquiry crystallisation eschews positivist claims to singular truths and embraces ‘…knowledge as situated, partial, constructed, multiple, embodied, and enmeshed in power relations’ (Ellingson 2009: 10), thereby surrendering definitive claims to truth and acknowledging the non-neutrality, biasness and incompleteness of knowledge itself (Ellingson, 2009: 13). Hence, crystallisation can further enhance narrative data improving dialogue thus effecting positive change in presenting representations that are less naïve and thus harness more confidence. Crystallisation has the potential to further deepen the understanding of narrative research without giving up systematic research methods and compromising validity through the promotion of reflexive validity.

Crystallisation is not a panacea and has its fair share of limitations. First, to achieve the benefits of crystallisation the researcher must have skills and expertise in conducting multi-disciplinary and multi-dimensional research. Second, as Lather (1993) concludes the breadth of subject matter often suffers to the expense of depth by reason of specificity. I would argue that crystallisation, in its affirmative-postmodern form borders dangerously on rendering time unimportant, the effect of which can be to make less reliable the individual and collective narrative where the story of a life in time becomes a pure work of fiction denying the narrative its ontological purpose. Hence, it is arguable that crystallisation, with its multiple genres and truths, marginalizes the life in narrative form because the plot becomes the major focus of the subject matter rather than the life itself. Consequently, validity, in terms of rationality, is brought into issue through a deliberate act of conflict. Further, crystallisation is not widely accepted as a viable or necessarily ‘valid’ methodological framework and is often seen as lacking in validity and rigor – the exact issue that narrative research often faces. It seems that crystallisation simply accepts that the researcher’s self is implicated that interpretation is affected and that the truth of the account may be embellished or compromised – and thus avoids the issue itself by simply accepting that, in legal terms, the probative value of such research outweighs the prejudicial

16 Here the research process includes design, data collection and analysis including interpretation, and representation.


effect of the implicated biography on it. Crystallisation in narrative form has the effect of marginalising a narrative life and therefore it is not appropriate to rupture validity at the expense of ontological reliability, validity or even truth. An alternative is offered in the form of Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin’s critical constellation [a concept relating to literature], which when applied to narrative research can achieve the breadth of crystallisation whilst revealing the regime (as per Lather above) so as to provide all important context, whether that is socio-political or otherwise, to perspective. In short, it is my argument that, amongst other things, it is perspective that provides a degree of validity to a narrative – so long as it is informed.

Critical constellations Walter Benjamin in his critical constellations argues that uprooting something from its conventional context, and carefully crafting, repositioning and illuminating it afresh so that it becomes a fragment of a different idea like a mosaic provides ‘insight into the interplay between individual [narrative fragment] and the idea [the essence or story] of which it is one instance’ (Gilloch 2002: 69 – 70, see figure 1.1 above). Here the ‘…phenomena are not incorporated in ideas … they are not contained in them … ideas are, rather their objective, virtual arrangement, their objective interpretation (The Origin of German Tragic Drama (OGTD from here): 34) like each individual tessera of the mosaic, the [narrative fragment] is a constitutive fragment of the idea, and simultaneously derives its significance from its location within it … the idea is constituted in the particular formation or pattern adopted by a set of fragments, and manifests itself only within them … phenomena (individual works of art) contain as their truth content the idea they compose … composition and containment, not distillation and abstraction, are the key to the relationship between ideas and [individual narrative fragments] … this in turn points to Benjamin’s key figures in his understanding of the character and significance of the idea: the constellation’ (Gilloch 2002: 70).

Benjamin writes ‘… ideas are objects as constellations are to stars (OGTD, p.34) … however the notion of the idea as a constellation is used by Benjamin not only to articulate the importance of the patterning of phenomena by concept, but also to point to the characteristics of this process … in a constellation of stars, the most remote objects are conjoined to form a unique, legible figure, which cannot be easily undone … similarly, in the idea, a sudden yet enduring connection between extreme phenomena is brought into being … Pensky describes this process well: “… the constellation emerges – discloses itself – only insofar as the concept divests the particulars of their status as merely particular, refers them to their hidden arrangement, but also preserves their material existence … at that point a meaningful image jumps forward from the previously disparate elements, which from that point onward can never be seen as merely disparate again … in this way the phenomena is rescued from their status as phenomenal or fragmentary, without simultaneously sacrificing the phenomena in the name of an abstract concept (Pensky 1993: 70)’’ … the constellation involves a fleeting but irrevocable shift in the perception of phenomena which preserves both their individual integrity and their mutuality … hence for Benjamin “ideas are timeless constellations, and by virtue of the elements being seen as points in such constellations, phenomena are subdivided and redeemed’’ (OGTD, p.34) the individual work is not dissolved in the realm of ideas, but, subject to immolation, remains ablaze as a point of illumination within the constellation … moreover, this constellation is only one of a manifold of other constellations’ (Gilloch 2002: 71).

Furthermore, Benjamin states that ‘ …every idea is a sun and is related to other ideas just as suns are related to each other … the harmonious relationships between such essences is what constitutes truth (OGTD, p.37) … the individual artwork is a tiny point of light, one of many forming the idea (the tragic, the comic, the sorrowful), which in turn is just one element of the wider realm of ideas (the idea of art), which is itself part of the universal, divine creation: truth … this movement from individual instance to the totality is matched by a corresponding tendency in the opposite direction … the idea is not just a constellation it is also a monad … derived from Leibniz, the notion of the monad is based upon pantheistic conception of nature … according to this view, every fragment of creation, however insignificant, contains and indicates its divine origin, imitates god … each element possesses, in miniature yet intelligible form, the totality of which it is a part … Benjamin transposes this conceit on the realm of ideas: ‘’the idea is a monad … the being that enters into it, with its past and subsequent history, brings – concealed in its own form – an indistinct abbreviation of the rest of the world of ideas, just as, according to Leibniz’s Discourse on Metaphysics (1686), every single monad contains in an indistinct way, all the others (OGTD, p.47)’ (Gilloch 2002: 71). Further, as a monad [for me this is explicable in the following terms; single metaphysical entity from which properties, both material and relative, derive] every idea intimates the realm of ideas of which it forms a part, and in this way too, every phenomena contain the ideas they represent. Every work of art is a microcosm of the greater realm of ideas’ (Gilloch 2002: 72).

Benjamin writes ‘the idea is a monad – this means briefly, every idea contains the image of the world … the purpose of the representation of ideas is nothing less than an abbreviated outline of the image of the world (OGTD, p.48)’ (Gilloch 2002: 72). Thus, for Benjamin the image of the world is thereby discerned whilst retaining the origin (the moment at which the constellation of phenomena comes into being, when it is suddenly recognized as a constellation, when the idea is perceived by the critic of the idea, its cultural sensibility, theological understanding, historical condition and dynamic context. The fundamental importance of this is apparent, because ‘individual works that compose the idea always in flux, always becoming something other than what they were, through the corrosive, ruinous action of


criticism’ hence their meaning is not fixed by the author but ‘continuously reconstituted in their afterlife … origin as the recognition of the meaning of, and truth within, the phenomenon is not so much an occurrence prior to the afterlife … as, paradoxically, its final moment of mortification … thus origin [in this perilous dialectical image] is a historical moment in which the idea is represented and recognized and the phenomena which compose it are redeemed’ (Gilloch 2002: 72). Hence, because ‘re-recognition and re-thinking’ allow ‘misunderstandings’ in meaning truth is revealed [by the process of ‘burning up of the husk as it enters the realm of ideas … a destruction of the work in which its external form achieves its most brilliant degree of illumination (OGTD, pp 31-2) – here criticism can illuminate the truth through a self-immolating process. Benjamin argues that the origin of the idea can only be found via a ‘critical redemption of its truth, in actuality’ (Gilloch 2002: 73) in short recognizing the narrative as an idea. The notion of the constellation captures both the potential deceptiveness of any scheme – points, which seem nearest to one another may prove to be those furthest apart – and their contingency. Each constellation must be recognized as only one permutation among an infinite number of possible configurations, conjunctions and correspondences.

Reliability in narratives when considered as critical constellation could be enhanced through an illumination of the individual fragmentary and collectively formed essence of the narrative itself. The effect of this is would be, as Benjamin argues, to reveal the origin of the narrative by providing an informed context-perspective. Critical constellations, relative to ideas, are distinctive from crystallisation as the latter can more easily subconsciously subjugate or perhaps even consciously marginalise the origin of the narrative fragments that provide important context to perspective. In contrast, the framework of the critical constellation has the effect of preserving this. Both crystallisation and constellation rupture the narrative fragments, provide differing perspective, however the context provided to perspective by the critical constellation provides an image of the world that is far more reliable – being freer from the dynamics that bring into implication the narrators biography.

Synthesising in the alternative, can such implication act to enrich rather than delimit narratives?

Generally, limitations such as those discussed in this paper are taken to undermine, reduce, make less reliable or less trustworthy such research and or its findings; it seems so difficult for scholars to accept that such constraints may act to enrich research. If for example narrative seeks to provide an understanding of a far more intimate reality then perceptions of ‘why we are the way we are’ that are inherently restrained (see above) provide rich research in presenting a view of something, someone or a group of individuals from a given perceptive insight. Here richness is harnessed through perception-representation in accepting something for what it is i.e. what a middle-class white male researcher acting as champion regards as the problems or hurdles experienced by a working- class black male labourer who may for many reasons lack a voice, regardless of the framework in which the narrative is represented; whether that be through crystallisation or critical constellation. The point is that if narratives are accepted as rich data then why can a perceptive insight (although limited) not be accepted as being just as rich, a strand within the chord? As Freud argues in Civilizations and its Discontents (1930) ‘...it is impossible to resist the impression that people commonly apply false standards, seeking power, success and wealth...yet in passing such judgement one is in danger of forgetting the rich variety of the human world’.

Verification and validity procedures rely heavily on realist assumptions and hence are somewhat irrelevant to narrative which does not seek to validate a historical truth, on the contrary it assumes a point of view, as Chafe (1980) states ‘...individuals construct very different narratives about the same event’. Thus, facts are rendered a production of the interpretive process; both require and shape the other (Stivers 1993). Riessman offers four methods of validation; persuasiveness, correspondence, coherence and pragmatic use (Riessman 1993), Lieblich et al offer width, coherence, insightfulness and parsimony (Lieblich 1998); much of these link together for example Riessman’s persuasiveness and Lieblich’s width are much the same barring that Riessman adds plausibility and style. Albeit the validity of the truth of narrative is implicated the achievement of that is not its aim, it is trustworthiness through the assumption of a binocular objective-subjective reality, rather than a purely objective reality, that can mean that narrative has a truly peculiar and rich value – accepting this position may result in the scientific rigorousness and validity of narrative research not being called into question that often.

Conclusion In conclusion, narrative knows little boundary and thus facilitates an opportunity through which human experience can be explored, it has as Riessman states ‘…penetrated all human sciences, and practising professions’ (Riessman 2002). In this paper I have argued that there is much to be learned in education research where validity is at issue by reason of the implication of the narrator’s biography even though narrative researchers tend to accept that a risk of interior-self reification exists as narrative purports to offer authenticity in the representation of subjective truth idealising individual agency (Riessman 2002; Atkinson and Silverman 1997; Bury 2002) and that an over-personalisation of the narrative can result in the production of a preconceived narrative i.e. a manifestation through imagination and strategic influence of ones own beliefs rather than a personal or social truth.

Perhaps validity in narrative analysis simply involves a deeper appreciation of meticulousness in respect of the ‘… [subtle]: nuances of speech, the organisation of a response, relations between researcher and subject, social and historical contexts [and] culture’ (Riessman 2002). It seems to me that narratives are ‘valid’ precisely because they are


interpretations of the past rather than a factual account of ‘what was’. This point is made well by Riessman who states that ‘…the ‘truths’ of narrative accounts are not in their faithful representations of a past world, but in the shifting connections they forge amongst [the] past, present and future’ (Riessman 2002) allowing narrators to re-imagine lives and forge identities.

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Author biographyThe author is a Barrister, currently working as Field Leader of Law and Criminology Undergraduate Programmes, a Senior Lecturer in Law and Programme Leader of Qualifying Law Degrees at the Thames Valley University (London). He is the author of a number of books on the Law of Evidence and Employment Law, and is currently registered on the Doctor of Philosophy Degree (PhD) with the School of Education at the University of Southampton, under the supervision of Dr Gill Clarke MBE.

Email: [email protected].


The works listed on this page are monographs, based in whole or in part on doctoral theses completed at the University of Southampton.

The editors would be delighted to receive notices of publication of doctoral theses for the next issue of the Hummingbird. Reviews of these and other similar works are also welcomed.

Brooks, R. (2005) Friendship and educational choice: Peer influence and planning for the future Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 240 pages. ISBN 978-1-4039-3369-0

De Toledo Vieria, M. (2009) Analysis of longitudinal survey data: Allowing for the complex survey design in covariance structure models, VDM Verlag, 256 pages ISBN 3639202953

Gurses, O., Reinsuring clauses, (London: Informa, 2010) (forthcoming)

Knight, D.J. 2008. King Lucius of Britain. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Tempus Publishing / The History Press Ltd ISBN 978 0 7524 4572 4

Nebbia, P., Unfair contract terms in European law: A study in comparative and EC law (Oxford and Portland: Hart, 2007), 248 pages ISBN: 978-1841135946

Noussia, K., The Principle of indemnity in marine insurance contracts: A comparative approach (Berlin: Springer, 2007), 297 pages ISBN: 978-3540490739

Paolini, A., and D. Nambisan, Directors’ and officers’ liability insurance (London: Informa Law, 2008), 214 pages ISBN: 978-1843116301 (awarded the 2009 BILA Book Prize by the British Insurance Law Association)

Saunders, C. (2012) Environmental networks and social movement theory Bloomsbury Academic: London (forthcoming)

Books published


Original cover art design by Walter van Rijn, School of Art

Hummingbird was inaugurated in 2009 by the LASS Faculty Graduate School as a student-led publication celebrating the wealth of doctoral research within the Faculty. The 2009-10 Editorial Board (including the Editors-in-Chief ), the reviewers and the contributors were all PGR students from LASS Schools. The original aims of the Journal were:-

− To publicise and promote doctoral research within the Faculty of LASS

− To appeal to a broad readership across the University and beyond

− To be inclusive across all LASS disciplines

− To give a flavour of the research in the LASS Schools, without necessarily attempting to be representative

− To give contributors the opportunity to develop their skills in communicating their research to a wider audience

− To give PGR students training and experience in reviewing academic papers

− To give the Editorial Board training and experience in academic editorship and managing the review process

Following the organizational restructuring of the University of Southampton, the disciplinary scope of Hummingbird will change. However the Journal will definitely continue to be published, and building on the success of the first issue, the LASS Faculty Graduate School is very keen to ensure that the Journal fulfils the above aims in a wider context across the whole University.

If you are a University of Southampton PGR student and are interested either in being part of the academic Editorial Board, or in submitting a paper for publication, or would simply like more information, you are invited to contact either Professor Sally Brailsford ([email protected]) or Dr Beth Harland ([email protected]).

The future of Hummingbird

www.soton.ac.uk/gradschools

Knight, D.J. 2010. The Ear of Dionysius: Caravaggio's Representations of Hearing and Acoustic Space.

Documents

Transcript of Knight, D.J. 2010. The Ear of Dionysius: Caravaggio's Representations of Hearing and Acoustic Space.