Qualitative Research in Education and Social Sciences, Second Edition provides readers with an in-depth guide on planning, conducting, and reporting qualitative research to inform professions, communities, and scholarship as a whole. It also considers the importance of cultivating the relationships that researchers develop with others as well as within themselves as they navigate complex questions that impact them both professionally and personally. Authors Danica G. Hays and Anneliese A. Singh organize this step-by-step guide in four sections: Foundations of Qualitative Inquiry; Qualitative Research Design; Data Collection and Analysis; and The Qualitative Research Proposal and Report. A focus on shared power, collaboration, and personal and political activism is infused in their research approach and recommended often throughout the text. This second edition reflects a more multidimensional perspective of the role of the qualitative researcher, a restructured and updated presentation of qualitative research paradigms and traditions, an expansion on online media research, and a continuing eye toward empowerment and advocacy within the research conducted with participants and communities. This text is written at a level most suitable for graduate-level students, practitioners, and educators in a variety of education and social science disciplines.

In this selective overview of scholarship generated by The Hunger Games-the young adult dystopian fiction and film series which has won popular and critical acclaim-Zhange Ni showcases various investigations into the entanglement of religion and the arts in the new millennium. Ni introduces theories, methods, and the latest developments in the study of religion in relation to politics, audio/visual art, new media, material culture, and popular culture, whilst also reading The Hunger Games as a story that explores the variety, complexity, and ambiguity of enchantment. In popular texts such as this, religion and art-both broadly construed, that is, beyond conventional boundaries-converge in creating an enchantment that makes life more bearable and effects change in the world.

Throughout the 1990s, artists experimented with game engine technologies to disrupt our habitual relationships to video games. They hacked, glitched, and dismantled popular first-person shooters such as Doom (1993) and Quake (1996) to engage players in new kinds of embodied activity. In Unstable Aesthetics: Game Engines and the Strangeness of Art Modding, Eddie Lohmeyer investigates historical episodes of art modding practices-the alteration of a game system's existing code or hardware to generate abstract spaces-situated around a recent archaeology of the game engine: software for rendering two and three-dimensional gameworlds. The contemporary artists highlighted throughout this book-Cory Arcangel, JODI, Julian Oliver, Krista Hoefle, and Brent Watanabe, among others -- were attracted to the architectures of engines because they allowed them to explore vital relationships among abstraction, technology, and the body. Artists employed a range of modding techniques-hacking the ROM chips on Nintendo cartridges to produce experimental video, deconstructing source code to generate psychedelic glitch patterns, and collaging together surreal gameworlds-to intentionally dissect the engine's operations and unveil illusions of movement within algorithmic spaces. Through key moments in game engine history, Lohmeyer formulates a rich phenomenology of video games by focusing on the liminal spaces of interaction among system and body, or rather the strangeness of art modding.

Communication plays a critical role in enhancing social, cultural, and business relations. Research on media, language, and cultural studies is fundamental in a globalized world because it illuminates the experiences of various populations. There is a need to develop effective communication strategies that will be able to address both health and cultural issues globally. Dialectical Perspectives on Media, Health, and Culture in Modern Africa is a collection of innovative research on the impact of media and especially new media on health and culture. While highlighting topics including civic engagement, gender stereotypes, and interpersonal communication, this book is ideally designed for university students, multinational organizations, diplomats, expatriates, and academicians seeking current research on how media, health, and culture can be appropriated to overcome the challenges that plague the world today.

What do you do when you are a newcomer in a cultural group and you must find your way? From the perspective of an ethnographer of communication, one of the most effective strategies you can take is to go from the inside out. Exploring Cultural Communication from the Inside Out: An Ethnographic Toolkit is a workbook that offers readers a hands-on approach to navigating new cultural environments. The text helps readers develop richer and more nuanced understandings not only of the different cultures they are members of but also their own roles in an increasingly multicultural and global society. The book is grounded in an interpretive theoretical/methodological framework of the ethnography of communication and speech codes theory, and guides readers through the process of applying this framework to any setting of their choice. Throughout, the text introduces theoretical concepts and pairs them with applied activities that require readers to engage in ethical fieldwork, data collection, and analysis. Readers are then challenged to document their experience, communicate what they have learned, and participate in deep reflection. Featuring a unique methodology and highly practical information, Exploring Cultural Communication from the Inside Out is exemplary for courses in intercultural communication, language and culture, sociolinguistics, and communication research.

This open access book brings together an international team of experts, The Middle Ages in Modern Culture considers the use of medieval models across a variety of contemporary media - ranging from television and film to architecture - and the significance of deploying an authentic medieval world to these representations. Rooted in this question of authenticity, this interdisciplinary study addresses three connected themes. Firstly, how does historical accuracy relate to authenticity, and whose version of authenticity is accepted? Secondly, how are the middle ages presented in modern media and why do inaccuracies emerge and persist in these works? Thirdly, how do creators of modern content attempt to produce authentic medieval environments, and what are the benefits and pitfalls of accurate portrayals? The result is nuanced study of medieval culture which sheds new light on the use (and misuse) of medieval history in modern media. This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched.