title: PBRF on the horizon

authors: Smith, Ron C.

subjects: PBRF

abstract: New Zealand universities spend a great deal of time and money evaluating the research outputs of their staff in the cause of Performance Based Research Funding (PBRF).  This time and money is wasted since the assumptions that lie behind this process are fatally flawed and the results are neither valid nor fair.  Additionally PBRF is inconsistent with the universities’ obligations to be ‘critic and conscience’ for society and to scholarship, itself.  The paper argues that no further assessments of this kind should be undertaken.

text: PBRF on the horizon New Zealand universities spend a great deal of time and money evaluating the research outputs of their staff in the cause of Performance Based Research Funding (PBRF).  This time and money is wasted since the assumptions that lie behind this process are fatally flawed and the results are neither valid nor fair.  Additionally PBRF is inconsistent with the universities’ obligations to be ‘critic and conscience’ for society and to scholarship, itself.  The paper argues that no further assessments of this kind should be undertaken.

year: 2008-09-13

title: The Sincerity Game: An Exploratory Study of Erving Goffman’s Dramaturgical Framework in Relation to Interaction and Identity Construction Online

authors: Baker, Amy Leanna

subjects: Erving Goffman, Identity, Presentation of Self Online, Artifact Affordances, Dramaturgical Framework, Symbolic Interactionism, Postmodernism, Sincerity, Self Construction, Online Self, Facebook, Social Networks, Mediated Interaction, Affordance Theory, Anthony Giddens, Actor Network Theory, Dramaturgy

abstract: Self-construction is an intrinsically interactionist process (Leary & Tananey, 2005). The formation and maintenance of identity is socially reliant. Understanding the ways in which interaction changes is therefore vital for recognising how the individual maintains an identity. Contemporary forms of online interaction via social media are, therefore, inescapably implicated in these larger processes.

Interactionist theory and Goffman’s (1959) dramaturgical framework are grounded in the observations of face-to-face social situations. Identity construction scholarship since the introduction of technologically mediated interaction has yielded contradictory and incohesive results. Online interaction specifically has received special attention from an identity construction point of view. Implicated theories in such studies include variations of symbolic interactionism, romantic conceptions of self, idealisation, and postmodernism.

Deductive reasoning through the tested application of a single identity construction theory has typically left alternative interaction theories unexplored. Online interaction has normally been considered “special, because it is technological mediated interaction” (Pinch, 2010, p. 412).And the unique treatment of online interaction has resulted in the general dismissal of Goffman’s interactionist perspective.

This project attempted to re-evaluate the applicability of Goffman’s framework to online interaction. Inductive reasoning allowed alternative identity construction theories to arise naturally from in-depth interviews. Ten in-depth interviews and two case studies were conducted with users of the website Facebook. Participants were asked to discuss the ways in which they used the website to interact, and why. Coding and analysis followed by a constantly comparative approach allowed theory to develop naturally from the interview material.

Goffman’s dramaturgical framework found considerable applicability in this project’s analysis of participants’ use of Facebook. The five components of the framework, the actor, the performance, the stage, the team, and the audience were each identifiable in participants’ articulation of their interaction on this social networking website. Limitations in applicability however, were found to be due to a lack of affordance recognition.

Prior studies, attempting to reanalyse Goffman’s dramaturgical framework online, have found his perspective inapplicable. This reconceptualisation of identity formation has resulted in theorists exploring concepts of postmodernism and romantic idealism instead. Such stark perspectives were not articulated by this project’s interviewees. Rather, the primary finding of this project was that interviewees sought sincerity. Neither a fluid and multiple, nor a static and grounded identity was identified in participants’ Facebook selves. Interviewees instead took an approach to the social networking website best explained by adapting Giddens (1991). 

This project found that interviewees created a self through a narrative. By creating a trajectory of self through Facebook’s timeline and “maintaining constants of demeanor across varying settings of interaction” (Giddens, 1991, p. 100) interviewees sought perceived sincerity in their singular, evolving identity. As Facebook affords just one self to be portrayed to multiple audiences, unlike Goffman, Giddens’ perspective provided a resolution to Facebook’s lack of audience segregation and performance maintenance issues.

text: The Sincerity Game: An Exploratory Study of Erving Goffman’s Dramaturgical Framework in Relation to Interaction and Identity Construction Online Self-construction is an intrinsically interactionist process (Leary & Tananey, 2005). The formation and maintenance of identity is socially reliant. Understanding the ways in which interaction changes is therefore vital for recognising how the individual maintains an identity. Contemporary forms of online interaction via social media are, therefore, inescapably implicated in these larger processes.

Interactionist theory and Goffman’s (1959) dramaturgical framework are grounded in the observations of face-to-face social situations. Identity construction scholarship since the introduction of technologically mediated interaction has yielded contradictory and incohesive results. Online interaction specifically has received special attention from an identity construction point of view. Implicated theories in such studies include variations of symbolic interactionism, romantic conceptions of self, idealisation, and postmodernism.

Deductive reasoning through the tested application of a single identity construction theory has typically left alternative interaction theories unexplored. Online interaction has normally been considered “special, because it is technological mediated interaction” (Pinch, 2010, p. 412).And the unique treatment of online interaction has resulted in the general dismissal of Goffman’s interactionist perspective.

This project attempted to re-evaluate the applicability of Goffman’s framework to online interaction. Inductive reasoning allowed alternative identity construction theories to arise naturally from in-depth interviews. Ten in-depth interviews and two case studies were conducted with users of the website Facebook. Participants were asked to discuss the ways in which they used the website to interact, and why. Coding and analysis followed by a constantly comparative approach allowed theory to develop naturally from the interview material.

Goffman’s dramaturgical framework found considerable applicability in this project’s analysis of participants’ use of Facebook. The five components of the framework, the actor, the performance, the stage, the team, and the audience were each identifiable in participants’ articulation of their interaction on this social networking website. Limitations in applicability however, were found to be due to a lack of affordance recognition.

Prior studies, attempting to reanalyse Goffman’s dramaturgical framework online, have found his perspective inapplicable. This reconceptualisation of identity formation has resulted in theorists exploring concepts of postmodernism and romantic idealism instead. Such stark perspectives were not articulated by this project’s interviewees. Rather, the primary finding of this project was that interviewees sought sincerity. Neither a fluid and multiple, nor a static and grounded identity was identified in participants’ Facebook selves. Interviewees instead took an approach to the social networking website best explained by adapting Giddens (1991). 

This project found that interviewees created a self through a narrative. By creating a trajectory of self through Facebook’s timeline and “maintaining constants of demeanor across varying settings of interaction” (Giddens, 1991, p. 100) interviewees sought perceived sincerity in their singular, evolving identity. As Facebook affords just one self to be portrayed to multiple audiences, unlike Goffman, Giddens’ perspective provided a resolution to Facebook’s lack of audience segregation and performance maintenance issues.

year: 2012

title: Local Cryo-history: Redefining the creation, transformation and circulation of Aotearoa’s nineteenth century glacier knowledge

authors: Annandale, Claudi - Ann

abstract: The creation, transformation and dissemination of knowledge constantly shapes the narrative of glacier history. However, the intersecting layers that human encounters with the frozen environment, Indigenous knowledge, and popular thought add to glacier histories is often overlooked. By analysing the trends and intellectual traditions that emerged in nineteenth century New Zealand, a period defined as glaciology's 'classical' era of study, this thesis aims to broaden the Southern Alps’ local science-focused glacier discourse.   

Māori, for example, possessed unique mātauranga (knowledge) that was documented through Europeans employing local guides to accompany them across the Southern Alps. This mātauranga shaped some encounters nineteenth-century scientists, surveyors, and travellers had with Kā Tiritiri o te Moana’s glacier environment. New Zealand scholars like Julius von Haast and James Hector, on the other hand, further refined their understanding of New Zealand glaciers through the transnational exchange of knowledge and intellectual debates. A combination of Enlightenment rationalism and Romantic aesthetic also influenced popular glacier narratives that emerged during the nineteenth century. For example, the imagination of journalists, mountaineers and travellers reflected the broader cultural trends that circulated from Europe to New Zealand before their knowledge was disseminated to the public.  

By interrogating mātauranga Māori, formal scientific study, and popular settler imagination about glaciers, this thesis redefines New Zealand’s nineteenth-century glacier history as inherently multilayered through the circulation, creation, transformation and dissemination of glacier knowledge. In doing so, it highlights glaciers not only as physical entities defined by scientific study but as ideas shaped by diverse knowledge systems, cultural perceptions, and historical contingencies.

text: Local Cryo-history: Redefining the creation, transformation and circulation of Aotearoa’s nineteenth century glacier knowledge The creation, transformation and dissemination of knowledge constantly shapes the narrative of glacier history. However, the intersecting layers that human encounters with the frozen environment, Indigenous knowledge, and popular thought add to glacier histories is often overlooked. By analysing the trends and intellectual traditions that emerged in nineteenth century New Zealand, a period defined as glaciology's 'classical' era of study, this thesis aims to broaden the Southern Alps’ local science-focused glacier discourse.   

Māori, for example, possessed unique mātauranga (knowledge) that was documented through Europeans employing local guides to accompany them across the Southern Alps. This mātauranga shaped some encounters nineteenth-century scientists, surveyors, and travellers had with Kā Tiritiri o te Moana’s glacier environment. New Zealand scholars like Julius von Haast and James Hector, on the other hand, further refined their understanding of New Zealand glaciers through the transnational exchange of knowledge and intellectual debates. A combination of Enlightenment rationalism and Romantic aesthetic also influenced popular glacier narratives that emerged during the nineteenth century. For example, the imagination of journalists, mountaineers and travellers reflected the broader cultural trends that circulated from Europe to New Zealand before their knowledge was disseminated to the public.  

By interrogating mātauranga Māori, formal scientific study, and popular settler imagination about glaciers, this thesis redefines New Zealand’s nineteenth-century glacier history as inherently multilayered through the circulation, creation, transformation and dissemination of glacier knowledge. In doing so, it highlights glaciers not only as physical entities defined by scientific study but as ideas shaped by diverse knowledge systems, cultural perceptions, and historical contingencies.

year: 2025