Studying activities that take place in speech interactions: a theoretical and methodological framework

The paper proposes a theoretical and methodological framework based on a pluralistic, concerted approach to the study of activities that take place in and through speech interactions. The framework has a general scope, applying to any collective activity taking form through language interactions. It contributes to a fuller understanding of the dynamics of activity and the emergence of the phenomena observed. The framework fits a constructivist and interactionist paradigm. It allows an approach to different dimensions of the activity: communicational, functional, discursive and interlocutory. The theories, models, concepts and methods chosen to address each of the dimensions are presented. From the study of a collaborative philosophical inquiry produced in the first year of a French primary school, we illustrate the use of the framework and show how it can be enriched according to the nature of the activity studied and researchers’ aims.     

An introduction to the special section on the Capability Approach to career guidance

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - This editorial introduces readers to the Capability Approach to career guidance. It outlines the origins of the approach in the work...     

How Do the Different Components of Episodic Memory Develop? Role of Executive Functions and Short‐Term Feature‐Binding Abilities

This study investigated the development of all 3 components of episodic memory (EM), as defined by Tulving, namely, core factual content, spatial context, and temporal context. To this end, a novel, ecologically valid test was administered to 109 participants aged 4-16 years. Results showed that each EM component develops at a different rate. Ability to memorize factual content emerges early, whereas context retrieval abilities continue to improve until adolescence, due to persistent encoding difficulties (isolated by comparing results on free recall and recognition tasks). Exploration of links with other cognitive functions revealed that short-term feature-binding abilities contribute to all EM components, and executive functions to temporal and spatial context, although ability to memorize temporal context is predicted mainly by age.     

Students’ Perception of Risk About Nanotechnology After an SAQ Teaching Strategy

We experimented with teaching nanotechnology in high school within the perspective of citizenship education in science by involving experts in nanotechnology, education, ethics and philosophy. After training, the students debated a Socially Acute Question (SAQ) that they elaborated during the various phases of instruction. The field of SAQs represents a French orientation for the teaching of SocioScientific Issues. We analyzed the interactions of students in the debate to determine their risk perception on nanotechnology. We compared and put their arguments into perspective using various analytical frameworks. We observed two contrasting argumentative tendencies: one reflecting a positivist view that involved an individualistic use of nanotechnology and science and one carrying a critical and humanistic vision of the use of nanotechnology and science.     

Interactive monopoly power in the daily newspaper industry

The authors explore the debate over whether daily newspapers are natural monopolies and conclude that newspapers do not exhibit the traditional characteristics associated with such monopolies. Nevertheless, the authors argue, newspapers have a proclivity toward monopoly brought on by an interaction of factors, even absent anticompetitive behavior by newspapers. This proclivity provides monopoly power to newspapers similar to that provided by natural monopoly force, they aregue, saying public policy considerations need to take this interactive effect into account.     

Circulations,Revenues, and Profits in a Newspaper Market with Fixed Advertising Costs

This article investigates a model in which 2 newspapers compete between them for readers with differentiated preferences and advertise new products at a cost per reader that decreases as the circulation increases. The model can account for the empirical regularity that the revenues from advertising and the profits of the newspapers increase more than proportionally with the circulation. A complementary finding is that a larger number of potential advertisers lowers the profits of both newspapers.