scholarly journals Affinity Groups: More Bang For The Buck

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terrence Freeman ◽  
Jessica du Maine
Keyword(s):  
Affinity Groups

scholarly journals Online collaboration and identity work in a brony fandom: Constructing a dialogic space in a fan translation project

2021 ◽  
pp. 204275302098892
Author(s):  
Liudmila Shafirova ◽  
Kristiina Kumpulainen
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
Collaborative Writing ◽  
Online Collaboration ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
Ethnographic Case Study ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
Affinity Groups ◽  
My Little Pony ◽  
Dialogic Space

Online collaboration has become a regular practice for many Internet users, reflecting the emergence of new participatory cultures in the virtual world. However, little is yet known about the processes and conditions for online collaboration in informally formed writing spaces and how these create opportunities for participants’ identity work. This ethnographic case study explores how four young adults, fans of the show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (bronies), negotiated a dialogic space for their online collaboration on a fan translation project and how this created opportunities for their identity work. After a year of participant observation, we collected interviews, ethnographic diaries and participants’ chats, which were analysed with qualitative content and discourse analysis methods. The findings showed how the Etherpad online writing platform used by the participants facilitated the construction of dialogic space through the visualization of a shared artefact and adjustable features. It was in this dialogic space where the participants negotiated their expert identities which furthered their discussions about writing, translating and technological innovations. The study advances present-day knowledge about online collaboration in affinity groups, engendering the construction of a dialogic space for collaborative writing and participants’ identity work.

scholarly journals Reframing Aging: Penn’s Village Members Thrive While Aging in Place

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 199-200
Author(s):  
Lois Evans ◽  
Jane Eleey ◽  
Avalie Saperstein
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Age In Place ◽  
Social Events ◽  
Affinity Groups ◽  
It Support ◽  
Center City ◽  
Survey Responses

Abstract Villages help older neighbors age-in-place as they manage their environments, take advantage of opportunities for social and civic engagement, and improve or maintain health and well-being. National surveys repeatedly indicate that older adults prefer community living as long as possible. But communities change, and post-retirement living may require rebuilding social connections with old and new neighbors. Fortunately, today’s retirees bring a wealth of knowledge and skills to later life which they are happy to share. Drawing on the talents and career experiences of older adults in Center City, Philadelphia, Penn’s Village (PV) was created in 2007 to address the needs and wishes of neighbors wanting to stay in their own homes as they aged. A member of the Village-to-Village Network, PV (a 501c3) has itself matured through board development, strategic planning, and member engagement. In reframing aging in Center City, PV currently offers its over 300 members and volunteers an array of educational and recreational programs (e.g., talks, affinity groups, social events and outings); services (including transportation, home repairs, IT support, companionship, accompaniment to medical appointments), and opportunities to use their personal knowledge and skills to help their neighbors-- as drivers, companions, volunteer staff and co-chairs/members of committees (e.g., Board of Directors, Program, Welcoming, Marketing & Communications, Finance, Fundraising). In FY2019, volunteers provided nearly 1200 services to PV members. Our most recent survey responses indicate that 82% of volunteers found their work highly meaningful and 79% of those who received services believed their quality of life was greatly improved.

All change please: education, mobility and habitus dislocation

2019 ◽  
pp. 119-136
Author(s):  
Jill Wilkens
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Sexual Identity ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Coming Out ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Bisexual Women ◽  
Affinity Groups ◽  
And Bisexual ◽  
Positive Ageing

This chapter examines the intersection of ageing, gender, class and sexual identity, and highlights the significance of same-sexuality social groups for older lesbians and bisexual women. Interviews with 35 women aged between 57 and 73, discussed ‘coming out’ in the 1950s and 1960s, loneliness and isolation and the experience of attending affinity groups. Many participants were rendered ‘out of place’ by aspects of their social mobility, generation, gender and sexuality. The chapter draws on Bourdieu’s concept of ‘cleft habitus’ to consider the contradictions of these mobilities, suggesting that these women faced unprecedented and unique disjuncture between their original habitus and the new classed, sexual and gendered locations in which they finally ‘arrived’. The chapter looks at the potential of social groups to alleviate loneliness and isolation; for many, they are sites of resilience, helping to promote positive ageing for those who have faced marginalisation across their life course.

Affinity Groups: A Linguistic Analysis for Social Network Groups Identification

2017 ◽  
pp. 265-276
Author(s):  
Jonathan Mendieta ◽  
Gabriela Baquerizo ◽  
Mónica Villavicencio ◽  
Carmen Vaca
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Affinity Groups

The Strange Case of the Missing Adulteress

2018 ◽  
pp. 49-95
Author(s):  
Jennifer Knust ◽  
Tommy Wasserman
Keyword(s):  
Gospel Of John ◽  
Affinity Groups

This chapter studies a climate of Gospel production and interpretation that could lead to the pericope adulterae's incorporation within an already published Gospel of John. While it is true that the pericope was not likely to have been materially present in the earliest copies of John, its absence from the fourfold Gospels would not have prevented interpreters from highly regarding the story. Moreover, with books produced by hand and distributed within circles of affinity groups, it would have been difficult for even the staunchest editor to prevent an interpolator from going about his or her work. Once placed within some copies of John, few would dare to remove it.

Gaming as a Woman

2013 ◽  
pp. 106-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen B. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Rock Band ◽  
Affinity Groups ◽  
Males And Females

This chapter reports the findings of two surveys taken by players of the video game Rock Band. The purpose of the surveys was to determine what differences, if any, exist between the ways that males and females learn to play the game, are motivated to improve, interact with other players both online and in real life, and interact with other players in online communities for the game. This study suggests that while females do not appear to learn to play this game much differently from males, they are motivated differently and interact with other players differently, and ultimately they have a harder time than males finding a place in the affinity groups that exist for the game, and these findings provide starting points for teachers who intend to use video games and virtual worlds for educational purposes in guarding against creating a “gender gap” between males and females.

Bromus L. sect. Bromus: taxonomy and relationship of some species with small spikelets

1993 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.M. Smith ◽  
F. Sales
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Relationships ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Form Function ◽  
Affinity Groups ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Brome Grasses

An artificial group of twelve brome-grasses with small-spikelets is reviewed. Descriptions, comments on their distinctive features, keys, diagnosis, citations and illustrations are provided. Form/function and evolutionary relationships are discussed and four affinity groups are recognized. The possible origin of B. lepidus and B. brachystachys is discussed.

scholarly journals Motivation, Engagement and Learning through Digital Games

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioanna Iacovides ◽  
James Aczel ◽  
Eileen Scanlon ◽  
Josie Taylor ◽  
Will Woods
Keyword(s):  
Active Learning ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Digital Games ◽  
Powerful Learning ◽  
Educational Environments ◽  
Games For Learning ◽  
Affinity Groups ◽  
Powerful Learning Environments

Digital games can be powerful learning environments because they encourage active learning and participation within “affinity groups” (Gee, 2004). However, the use of games in formal educational environments is not always successful (O’Neil et al., 2005). There is a need to update existing theories of motivation and engagement in order to take recent game-related developments into account. Understanding the links between why people play games, what keeps them engaged in this process, and what they learn as a result could have a significant impact on how people value and use games for learning. This paper examines key research that relates to motivation, engagement, and informal learning through digital games, in order to highlight the need for empirical studies which examine the activities that occur in and around everyday gaming practice.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document