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There has been a growing awareness that ambiguity is not just a necessary evil of the language system resulting, for instance, from its need for economy or, by contrast, a blessing that allows writers to involve readers in endless games of assigning meaning to a literary text. The present volume contributes to overcoming this alternative by focusing on strategies of ambiguity (and the strategic avoidance of ambiguity) both at the production and the reception end of communication. The authors examine ways in which speakers and hearers may use ambiguous words, structures, references, and situations to pursue communicative ends. For example, the question is asked what it actually means when a listener strategically perceives ambiguity, which may happen both synchronically (e.g. in conversations) as well as diachronically (e.g. when strategically ambiguating biblical texts in order to make them applicable to moral lessons). Another example is the question of whether ambiguity awareness increases the strategic use of ambiguity in prosody. Moreover, the authors enquire not only into the effects of ambiguous meanings but also into the strategic use of ambiguity as such, for example, as a response to censorship or as a means of provoking irritation. This volume brings together several contributions from linguistics, literary studies, rhetoric, psychology, and theology, and it aims to provide a systematic approach to the strategic production and perception of ambiguity in a variety of texts and contexts.

Machine generated contents note: -- Introduction / A. Hurrelmann and J. DeBardeleben -- PART I TRANSNATIONALISM IN EUROPEAN STUDIES : CONCEPTUAL PERSPECTIVES -- Transnationalism and the Theory of European Integration : Political Science Perspectives / A. Hurrelmann -- Transnationalism and the Political Sociology of European Transformation : Bringing People Back In / C. Rumford -- PART II TRANSNATIONAL GOVERNANCE : POLICY MAKING AND INTEREST MOBILIZATION -- Transnationalism in European Governance and Policy Making / I. Tömmel -- The Emergence of a Public Sphere for the European Union : Prospects for Transnationalism through Mass Media Communication? / P. Statham -- Protest in the EU : a Path toward Democracy? / D. Chabanet -- European Integration and Transnational Labor Markets / N. Lillie -- East European Transformations and the Paradoxes of Transnationalization / D. Bohle -- PART III TRANSNATIONAL SPACES, COMMUNITIES, AND IDENTITIES -- Historicizing the Nation : Transnational Approaches to the Recent European Past / J. Casteel -- Integrating Migrants beyond the Nation-State? : The Paradoxical Effects of Including Newcomers in a European Social and Cultural Community / O. Schmidtke -- Managing Ambivalence and Identity : Immigration Discourses and (Trans-)National Identities in the European Union / R. Gould -- Muslim Migration, Institutional Development, and the Geographic Imagination : the Aga Khan Development Network's Global Transnationalism / K. H. Karim -- The Social Lives of Borders : Political Economy at the Edge of the EU / A. Simonyi and J. Allina-Pisano -- The Awkward Divide : Paradoxes of Transnationality at the Polish-Ukrainian Border / K. Szmagalska-Follis -- Conclusion / J. DeBardeleben and A. Hurrelmann

This book provides a comprehensive overview of digital trends, innovations, and strategies in fashion retailing. As consumers adopt new technologies and ways of shopping, fashion brands are constantly looking for ways to innovate and achieve digital transformation. Combining theory with practice, the authors take a deep dive into the impact of digital technologies on fashion brands communication and social media strategies; on consumer behaviour and customer participation strategies; and on entrepreneurship and e-tailing strategies. The book covers topics such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), fashion recommender systems, virtual fitting rooms, customer models, gamification, online shopping, mobile-shopping, videogames, digital media and virtual worlds. The book also explores the concepts of cocreation, storytelling and interactivity in real-life crowdfunding campaigns and in the digital world. Bringing a cutting-edge insight into the state of the fashion business, this book will help scholars and practitioners in fashion retailing, discover how to digitalise and gamify products, services, experiences and open new enterprising avenues through innovative strategies, leadership and management.

Part 1 Introduction -- Chapter 1. The Change of Time and the Formation of the Westernization Thought -- Chapter 2. The Guiding Principle of Westernization Movement.-Chapter 3. The Development Strategies of the Self-Strengthening Modernization -- Chapter 4. Social Reformative Thought of Westernization Group -- Part 2. Business -- Chapter 5. Raising Capital -- Chapter 6. Improve the thought of technology -- Chapter 7. The thinking of cultivation personnel of running business -- Chapter 8. Thoughts of Hiring Free Labors -- Chapter 9. Theories of enterprise operation and management -- Chapter 10. Companies Organization System Thoughts -- Part 3. National Economy -- Chapter 11. Develop Thought of Modern Agriculture -- Chapter 12. Development of modern industry thought -- Chapter 13. The ideology of developing modern business -- Chapter 14. Development of transportation & Communication thought -- Chapter 15. The Development of Modern Financial Thinking -- Chapter 16. Thinking of Transferring the Surplus Workforce in Agricultural Society -- Part 4. Peroration -- Chapter 17. The Origins of Westernization Thought -- Chapter 18. Ideological evaluation of westernization movement -- Chapter 19. Qing Government and Westernization.

The Hollywood trilogy, the Disney duo / Eileen R. Meehan -- Movie theaters and money : integration and consolidation in film exhibition / Ben Birkinbine -- How Hollywood workers unite : labor convergence and the creation of SAG-AFTRA / Catherine McKercher and Vincent Mosco -- Mexican film industry, 2000-2018 : resurgence or assimilation? / Rodrigo Gomez -- The new holy grail : prime time television and state production incentive in the United States / William M. Kunz -- Old strategies in the new paradigm : web series and corporate control / Mary P. Erickson -- State monopoly of telecommunications in Ethiopia : revisiting natural monopoly in the era of deregulation / Téwodros W. Workneh and H. Leslie Steeves -- Through being cool : iTunes and the political economy of music retail / David Gracon -- In practice and theory? : a review of scholarship on Wikipedia's political economy / Randall Livingstone -- Bribe and journalism / Jörg Becker -- Labor in the age of digital (re)production / Gerald Sussman -- Power under pressure : digital capitalism in crisis / Dan Schiller -- Minutes to midnight : capitalist communication and climate catastrophe / Graham Murdock -- Time, ecology, and commodity fetishism / Wayne Hope.

The Internet has been transformed in the past years from a system primarily oriented on information provision into a medium for communication and community-building. The notion of "Web 2.0", social software, and social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have emerged in this context. With such platforms comes the massive provision and storage of personal data that are systematically evaluated, marketed, and used for targeting users with advertising. In a world of global economic competition, economic crisis, and fear of terrorism after 9/11, both corporations and state institutions have a growing interest in accessing this personal data. Here, contributors explore this changing landscape by addressing topics such as commercial data collection by advertising, consumer sites and interactive media; self-disclosure in the social web; surveillance of file-sharers; privacy in the age of the internet; civil watch-surveillance on social networking sites; and networked interactive surveillance in transnational space. This book is a result of a research action launched by the intergovernmental network COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology)

This paper compares port hinterland access strategies in the form of intermodal freight corridors connecting ports and inland intermodal terminals. Interviews and site visits were conducted at a number of locations in the United States in order to compare strategies of stakeholder management, planning and policy issues and access to private and public funding.Detailed case studies on the Alameda Corridor, Alameda Corridor East, Norfolk Southern's Heartland Corridor and CSX's National Gateway are presented. The various projects represent corridors of different sizes, objectives and challenges relating to stakeholder management. Furthermore, as government policy in the United States has developed over recent years, ports and railroads have needed to alter their approach to project planning in order to attract public funding of various types, from national to state and local.Results indicate the importance of aligning stakeholder objectives with funding sources and planning schedules. Of particular importance to the development of hinterland access is recent US policy towards the provision of public funding through discretionary funding programmes. These developments are discussed in the context of US transport policy and the difficulties of government involvement in a traditionally privately owned and operated rail industry. Such issues need to be understood in order to limit their constraints on port development options

Stunting continues to be a global health challenge. Despite numerous interventions, community engagement in addressing stunting often remains inadequate. This qualitative study explores the perceptions of stunting within rural communities in Central Java, Indonesia. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, observations, and documentation from 58 participants, including prospective brides, pregnant women, mothers, grandmothers, religious leaders, community leaders, and health cadres, who met specific selection criteria. The study uncovered widespread misconceptions in the community, where stunting is frequently perceived as a hereditary condition or a matter of fate, diminishing the perceived need for medical intervention. Through thematic analysis, the research emphasizes the critical importance of strategic communication in raising awareness about stunting and the necessity for community empowerment in designing and implementing interventions that integrate local cultural and social elements. The findings highlight the need to enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of stunting reduction programs, emphasizing the pivotal role of community involvement from planning to execution in overcoming passive attitudes and misconceptions that impede stunting prevention efforts.

AbstractPolitical leaders of pariah authoritarian states communicate their political discourse unilaterally, in a closed environment without free and open media access or the space for public scrutiny or debate. They use their speeches for various aims such as to respond to external shocks, justify hardship, appeal to domestic and international sympathy, assert autonomy and power, and influence policy and governance. This research uses Iran as a case study and offers an in‐depth analysis of 10 years of speeches by the country's Supreme Leader. In a case study of unilateral political communication method in an authoritarian environment, it sheds light on various aspects of the discourse generated by the country's Supreme Leader over a decade. It also analyzes the Leader's effort to influence policymaking and governance structure through practical official guidelines. Building upon existing theories of populism, the study seeks to unpack an understudied approach in populist politics that is based on a political discourse by the leadership which defines the populist dichotomy of people versus elite at the global level.

AbstractThis paper examines two seemingly opposing trends in the women's rights movement in Turkey: the first trend indicates growing numbers of feminist collaborations and alliances while the second highlights heightened levels of identity‐ridden dissent and polarization. By focusing on the relationship between self‐identified "pious feminists" and "secular feminists" in Turkey this paper argues that, rather than opposing ends of a continuum, these two trends are in a relational flow. Based on a rich ethnographic study and discourse analysis, I analyze secular feminist and pious feminist perceptions of a possible long‐term collaboration between the two groups as equal partners and by mutual consent. I delineate the relational and affective dimensions of collaborations that may initiate as well as hinder new solidarities based on difference. I argue that the shared civil society encounters between secular and pious women's rights groups in Turkey present opportunities for "feminist iterations" that are contingent, performative, and opaque which require what Lugones calls "complex communication" in addition to the deliberative dialogue.

Academic and professional practice development is taking an ever-more dominant role in higher education and is evolving through undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative inquiry (URSCI) in the undergraduate curriculum, particularly in courses involving interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary modules/subjects. Such courses are critical to engaging students in more meaningful and deeper learning experiences and enabling them to experience real-world issues, all while developing various disciplinary and professional skills as part of both a specific content area and more general competencies. By developing and enhancing URSCI skills, graduates from higher education institutions gain the agility to adapt to changes in the world. Inter- and multi-disciplinary approaches are required to tackle global challenges such as climate change, food security, and public health. Such engagements and experiences are particularly important as employers increasingly expect graduates to have higher-order literacies and communication skills in addition to their discipline-specific knowledge. This special issue, therefore, presents original work and nuanced ways that faculties around the world actively engage students in URSCI.

The paper sets to examine the impact of multimedia technology in the teaching and learning of oral English in secondary schools in Osun State. The researchers' main objectives are to determine the availability of multimedia technology in secondary schools and also find out the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills possessed by oral English teachers. Further, the study explores strategies to improve on the usability of multimedia technology in secondary schools. Data were collected through questionnaires distributed among 80 teachers in Osun State central senatorial district. The results and discussions of findings are presented based on the demographic information of the respondents as well as their views towards the utilisation of ICT. Recommendations are made to the language planners, government, and the relevant agencies in the education sector as it was observed that challenges in pronunciation were not limited to students alone; it also affected teachers. This study further suggests that refresher courses be organised periodically for oral English language teachers and particularly, that the teaching of oral English should start at a primary school level.

Abstract
Recent research has pointed to the increasing impact of digitally derived data on forced migration processes, including legal mechanisms for accessing social media profiles of asylum seekers. These developments raise the issue of data privacy, specifically how asylum seekers understand data privacy and protect their data. This article pays particular attention to cultural variants of data privacy. Culture, here, refers to a communication culture linked to displacement, with safety as a key code and variant of data privacy. For the asylum seekers and refugees from South(east) Asia, the Middle East and African nations, safety was a concern in daily digital practice. Safety was a relational way of being, exercised through selective contacts and playful presentations of the self. Those presentations were deeply embedded in the logics of social media and stood in contrast to narratives of persecution, potentially posing problems for asylum claim determination in the future. Based on the lack of awareness of asylum seekers about data privacy and safety, a data safety workshop was designed, available on GitHub.

Abstract
Research has shown that North Korean refugee (NKR) youth who defected to South Korea are at high risk for multiple psychosocial-adjustment problems. However, little is known about the perceptions of these difficulties on the part of alternative-school community members who interact with them on a daily basis, although such perceptions could provide a rich description of the cultural and environmental aspects associated with these issues. Using a rapid ethnographic assessment, this study explored NKR youth's psychosocial-adjustment needs from the perspectives of community members of alternative schools that offer NKR students not only education, but food, housing and 24-hour care without charge. Twenty-seven free listing interviews identified that NKR students suffer from three major psychosocial issues: (a) not feeling loved/lack of affection, (b) identity confusion and (c) communication issues/language difficulties. The subsequent seven key informant interviews revealed the perceived symptoms, causes and effects of the psychosocial issues identified and strategies used to cope with them.

The purpose of the study is to research the relative importance of various factors that motivate Latvian consumers to purchase products and services from social enterprises in order to provide practical suggestions and recommendations for Latvian social enterprises that would allow them to improve their performance. The primary method used by the study is quantitative research by the means of an online survey of Latvian consumers. The results of the research indicate that Latvian consumers find the product / service quality aspects, as well as aspects of social responsibility and convenience of the shopping location, on average, as most motivating to purchase products / services of social enterprises. However, the results of factor analysis highlight the importance of emotional aspects during on-site shopping as well as the importance of digital presence. Such factors as pleasant atmosphere and friendly service have the highest potential to generate repeat purchases among Latvian consumers. Communication of social value is important, but should not be the only focus of social enterprises.