Ambiguity

Devoid of a circumscribed landscape of its own postmodern fiction is rather fluid and unstable enhancing its exuberant and experimental nature, and a large segment of contemporary fiction is characterized by its attributes. Having entered the cultural discourse the pluralistic and inconclusive line of thought and attitude, associated with postmodernism has further problematized and intensified the ambiguity associated with it. The present article is an attempt to analyze and highlight how Tharoor’s inconclusive and pluralistic approach associated with postmodernism, has problematized both the thematic as well as the technical aspects of the narrative of his book Riot: A Novel. The ingenuity and the indeterminacy of the style adopted by the author, and its correlation with the plurality of life that articulates its varied perceptions--discussed both in isolation as well as in cohesion with the text-- establish Riot as an exemplum of the fluidity and the ambiguity characterizing the f...

Utilitarian concerns increasingly drive machine ethics, particularly the few ethical discussions in learning analytics. Determining the most good for the most people is a responsible way forward, but perhaps not the most comprehensive, especially when assessing potential outcomes. Innovations in learning analytics may occur more rapidly and with better outcomes if informed ethical discussions occur at every step of development.

It seems that every culture shares a figure who "tricks" and transgresses rules even if at the same time he is a "Cultural Hero". Based on a classification of some basic characteristics common to all "tricksters", and despite the fact that contradiction and ambiguity are fundamental to their identity, this paper deals with the traces of the trickster in several Medieval Literature characters as Loki, Renart, Tristan, Merlin, Robin Hood and the anonymous mischievous deceivers of fabliaux and nouvelles.

Il semblerait que toutes les cultures ont en commun un personnage qui transgresse les lois sociales et abuse ses semblables, même s'il peut, à la fois, représenter un héros civilisateur. Malgré les contradictions et ambiguïtés qui déterminent la figure du trickster ou joueur des tours mythique, on partira d'une classification des composantes fondamentales de son identité pour examiner ses traces chez plusieurs personnages de la littérature médiévale tels que Loki, Renart, Tristan, Merlin et Robin Hood, ainsi que chez les mystificateurs anonymes des courts récits.

A re-reading of the Polyphemus episode in the Odyssey emphasizes the perfect homonymity between "non-identity" (mē tis) and "wisdom, craftiness, counsel" (mētis) in order to test the limits and expand the scope of Aristotle's discussion of homonymy, synonymy, and paronymy in the opening chapter of his Categories and subsequently in his Metaphysics. The reading not only demonstrates how Aristotle's conceptions oscillate uneasily between logical and metaphysical considerations, but also shows to what extent the Homeric example undermines the very distinction between a purely linguistic and a decidedly metaphysical account of intended ambiguity.

What does the French playwright Jean Genet accomplish by rewriting the lengthy preface that he had prepared for his play Les Nègres? After discussing how the preface contextualizes the play, we consider for the first time the significance of the evolution of Genet’s authorial intentions both at the microtextual and macrotextual levels by comparing the full-length preface with its shortened, reordered version. We show that in rewriting his preface Genet endeavored to be more ambiguous as well as to counterbalance the cuts he had also made in rewriting the play for which it was written.

Resumen. En el presente texto, a partir de lo planteado por Eduardo
Nicol en su obra La agonía de Proteo, intentaremos hacer ver, en primer lugar, que el ser humano es un ente cuya forma de ser es proteica, es decir, multiforme; y, en segundo lugar, intentaremos hacer ver en qué medida este ser proteico es también agónico: ¿Proteo agoniza porque su fin está cerca, o porque su ser es esencialmente una constante lucha por ser más hombre, esto es, hombre de diferentes maneras?
Palabras clave: ser humano, ambigüedad, posibilidad, uniformidad, diversidad.
Abstract. Building on Eduardo Nicol’s book,  Proteus’s agony , the present paper will try to show that the human being has a multiform, or protean, way of being. Furthermore, we will try to show how this protean being is agonic. Is the agony of Proteus a result of the fact that his end is near, or is it the struggle of his being trying to be more
human, i.e. a human in multifaceted ways?
Keywords: human being, ambiguity, possibility, uniformity, diversity.

Вводится понятие бистабильного текста-по аналогии с понятием бистабильных изображений в когнитивной психологии. Бистабильные тексты-это тексты, которые могут одновременно прочитываться в двух или нескольких не пересекающихся смысловых планах. Для таких текстов характерна не много-значность, а четкая разделенность двух независимо существующих интерпрета-ций, каждая из которых равноправна и независима, когда актуализирована в соз-нании. Для бистабильных текстов, как и для бистабильных изображений, характерны эксклюзивность, неизбежность и случайность. В качестве примера бистабильного текста в статье анализируется стихотворение Владимира Строчко-ва «Последнее дело». Ключевые слова: когнитивная поэтика, бистабильность, бистабильный текст, многозначность. УДК 82-1/-9 Контактная информация: Ахапкин Денис Николаевич, кандидат филологиче-ских наук, доцент кафедры междисциплинарных исследований в области языков и литературы СПбГУ (Галерная ул., 58-60, Санкт-Петербург, 190000, Россия, d_akhapkin@spbu.ru) * Работа выполнена в рамках НИР СПбГУ «Русская формальная школа об особенно-стях восприятия текста: актуальность научного наследия», ID 37592584.

Ambiguity is now widely seen by Western scholars as a defining
feature of literature. Keats’s notion of negative capability, the creative potential of “being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason” (Milnes 71), anticipates the cognitive concept of ambiguity tolerance that has been recently found to correlate with creativity. It can be argued that the fantastic is thus an extreme example of literariness. But what exactly does ambiguity mean in the context of the fantastic? The article explores it in the context of two contemporary novels based on fairy tales: The Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham and The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey.

Ovids Metamorphosen weisen ein ‚Heldenbild‘ auf, das sich radikal von ‚klassischen‘ antiken Epen wie Homers Odyssee oder Vergils Aeneis unterscheidet. An die Stelle des einen Helden tritt nun eine Polyphonie von Helden in ca. 250 Einzelerzählungen, die unter dem Aspekt aitiologisch motivierter Verwandlungen zu einem narrativ hochkomplexen Gesamtgebilde verbunden sind. Der Beitrag versucht, diesen in der Forschung immer wieder betonten Aspekt näher zu analysieren, indem er Ansätze der Tübinger Ambiguitätsforschung (GRK 1808) und des Freiburger Heldenprojektes (SFB 948) integriert. Im Einzelnen wird auf der Schnittfläche von Literaturwissenschat und Linguistik gefragt, wie Ambiguität in den Metamorphosen sprachlich erzeugt wird. Es geht also weniger um die Bewertung einzelner Figuren unter dem Gesichtspunkt der Heldenhaftigkeit (z.B. ‚Ist Actaeon ein Held oder Anti-Held‘), sondern darum, wie – eine Ebene tiefer – eine Sprache der Ambiguität erzeugt wird. Ausgangspunkt bilden sprachliche Einheiten, die Aspekte des Halben bezeichnen, wie die bei Ovid auffällig häufigen Komposita auf semi- / ‚halb‘ (z.B. semi-vir / ‚Halb-mann‘).

A qualitative-quantitative study was conducted on students preparing for their Master's degree in English, linguistic and literary branch, at the Lebanese University, the deanship, to investigate the participants' perception of ambiguity in language. Ambiguity in language is considered a problematic issue since it hinders precise language processing. Ambiguity leads to a confusion of ideas in the reader's mind, for the reader will struggle to decide on the precise meaning intended behind an utterance. This study presented a holistic view on EFL learners' perception of ambiguity. Via three questionnaires, the subjects' perception of ambiguity was tested on the recognition and production levels as well as sentential and textual levels. The results depicted that the subjects were unaware of ambiguous language, and at many times ambiguity hindered the subjects' ability to process language precisely. The research threw at some strategies that aid in disambiguating ambiguous language on the production level, and deciphering ambiguity on the interpretation level. Implications and recommendations for teachers, students, and curriculum designers were offered in the light of the study's findings.

The article contains 36 linguistic problems, represented as multiple-choice questions, that were used at the Russkij Medvezhonok linguistic competition for school students. The problems deal with ambiguity at all levels of the language: polysemy, various types of lexical homonymy (full and partial homonyms, homographs, homophones), syntactic ambiguity, etc. In some of the problems, ambiguity is explicitly named, but in most cases it must be discovered by the solvers. It is the surprise factor that makes such problems useful, since the ability to find an unexpected interpretation of a text is a very useful skill. Many problems are based on quotations from prose and poetry and often contain wordplay of various kinds, ambiguity being one of the main sources of humour. Polysemy constitutes one of the greatest challenges for natural language processing, too, and this is demonstrated in the article by several examples of machine translation system failure. The article has three sections with problems for elementary, secondary and high school students. Each problem is supplied with the answer, its detailed ex- planation, and sometimes additional linguistically relevant information that can be used in lessons, elective courses, or linguistic skill workshops.

Tough one of the primary intentions of documentary consists in Representing Reality (Nichols 2001), the nature of factual audio-visual formats may not be equated with mimetic depictions of phenomenological 'reality' nor can they be reduced to unambiguously mediatized arguments. Rather the fascination of documentary as a "creative treatment of actuality" (Grierson 1932) precisely lies in the oscillation between presumable unequivocal modes of representing reality and its potential to negotiate various perceptions. This stimulating tension that is already both challenge and potential for linear documentary is exponentized in non-linear new media-based documentaries.

The article focuses on latest evolutions in this field taking one paradigmatic case – autopoetic Korsakow documentaries – as a test stone. Based on complex algorithms and opaque linking, Korsakow simultaneously presents a multiplicity of itineraries through the database and thus interpretations of the documentary material. Emerging 'meanings' can neither be mastered by the 'author' nor unequivocally interpreted by the users. Instead, different a-causal, a-teleological documentary experiences trigger polysemic patterns of associations.

This calls for a modification of the concept of documentary audio-visual 'text' as we are dealing with only ephemeral manifestations of virtual relations. Moreover, we witness a shift from 'documentary authorship' to performative authoring instance enabling individual experiences for interactive users. And it implies that also concepts of audiences need revision from interpreting receivers to co-creative participants who self-reflexively question their relation to media practices and their agency in daily life.

Thus new media documentaries do not only have an epistemologic potential that goes beyond the options of linear formats; rather, due to their autopoetic nature, performative dynamics and ambiguities, they bear an ontological quality of their own.

Keywords:
interactive documentary – New Media Documentary – Korsakow documentary – performativity – processuality – relationality – ambiguity – non-linearity – interaction – narration – indeterminacy – autopoisis – algorithms – SNU – authorship – complexity

Setups and punchlines are the basic elements of stand-up comedy bits. Generally speaking, the setup puts forth a situation or an idea, on which the punchline provides a new, sometimes radically altered, perspective. Ideally, this twist or reversal creates a dialectical relation of tension between the two that cannot be resolved by appeal to either setup or punchline, but traps thought between them in an 'epistemological problem' as comedian Louis CK put it. For comedians, setups and punchlines are basic tools, practical and concrete ways to create and organize material. They are also familiar to humor theorists. One of the main theories of humor focuses on incongruity: jokes involve bringing together elements that don't seem to belong together. However, incongruity by itself is not enough to make something funny; the elements need to be related in a more precise way so as to open up a range of imaginative possibilities between them, enabling reflexive digressions. In this paper, I offer an analysis of how a setup and punchline relate to each other as a reversible figure-ground pair (in the sense of Roy Wagner). Through exploring the semiotic relations in specific examples of comedy bits I will show how incongruities can be evoked and calibrated, and discuss how the bit may be related further through figure-ground relations to other elements, such as the persona of the comedian, current events, or cultural conventions. The research is based on 20 months of ethnographic field work in Finland, including becoming an amateur comedian myself.

This essay responds to Donald MacKinnon's influential critique of Till-ich in his 1975 essay " Tillich, Frege, Kittel: Some Reflections on a Dark Theme, " in which MacKinnon laments Tillich's " failure at the level of faith " on account of his sexual lifestyle. After outlining MacKinnon's argument in detail, I suggest four possible strategies of response available to those who wish to affirm the value of Tillich's theology in light of the biographical considerations of his sexual ethos. I conclude with a suggestion – contra MacKinnon – of the centrality of ambiguity to Tillich's life and his theology.

The starting point for the enormous career of the Future Skills concept is the insight that current concepts of higher education do not meet the urgent needs of our societies with convincing future concepts. Neither are they fit to help sustain our environment nor associated social or economic challenges. While social challenges are exacerbated by an accelerating process of globalisation and digital advancement, at the same time these are the very forces that enable a multitude of new options for human development. In this situation of digital acceleration, the characteristic feature is that of uncertainty and the inevitable necessity is that of creative responsibility.
The NextSkills Studies are about models for future relevant skills, so-called Future Skills. They are developed through a multitude of research activities over the last decade, involving a diverse range of international experts. Future Skills are the skills that enable future graduates to master the challenges of the future in the best possible way. The results show that in order to deal with future challenges, students must develop curiosity, imagination, vision, resilience and self-confidence, as well as the ability to act in a self-organised way. They must be able to understand and respect the ideas, perspectives and values of others, and they must be able to deal with mistakes and regressions, while at the same time progressing with care, even against difficulties.

Journalistic online article about the dual national "haafu" in Japan. There is a completely unenforced law that they have to choose one nationality at age 22. With Naomi Osaka turning 22, a policy better left ambiguous might be smoked out to the detriment of biculturals with one Japanese parent.

An archaic dedication from Samos known as the Geneleos Group is considered by scholars to be one of the first family dedications in Greek art, or, to be more precise, the first archaeological record showing an elite family in form of life size round sculpture in a sanctuary. Furthermore, it is one of very few archaic sculptures attributable to a certain artist – Geneleos. It is generally assumed that the persons shown are part of a family extending over two generations with the iconography highlighting the different social role models of its members: mother, father, son, and daughters. In this paper, I will try to question this common reading by proposing alternatives, triggered by the ambiguous iconography of the figures and by the placement of the inscriptions related to them.

Feels free to ask me for a pdf.

2 Kgs 17:24–41 uses the phrase yere YHWH  in two distinct
ways and that the tension between the two different meanings of this phrase is an essential part of the narrative. This phrase can refer to cultic worship and also to exclusive loyalty to God. Phrases similar to the former meaning are extensively used in Akkadian, and the latter meaning seems unique to the Hebrew Bible. This passage contrasts these meanings to highlight the idea that the new settlers in Samaria were disloyal to YHWH despite their ritual worship of Him.

Resumen: El trabajo intenta demostrar que la ambigüedad en su sentido tradicional ha de diferenciarse de la vaguedad y de la omisión de información gramatical o léxica, tan frecuente en los titulares de prensa. Un análisis minucioso de los ejemplos de nuestro corpus nos ha llevado a elaborar algunas conclusiones relevantes en este campo: 1. En ambos tipos de prensa-tradicional y digital-y en las lenguas sometidas a análisis-español, francés y polaco-, la frecuencia de los titulares ambiguos, en el sentido clásico del término, es notablemente baja.  2. Entre los ejemplos analizables, la más frecuente es la ambigüedad de tipo léxico, particularmente en titulares no informativos y en prensa electrónica. 3. La presencia de ambigüedad pragmática o sintáctica en los titulares de prensa parece ser científi camente insignifi cante. En último lugar, el trabajo arroja luz sobre un aspecto que no se aborda normalmente en los trabajos sobre el discurso periodístico, es decir, se intenta comprobar que la ambigüedad es un fenómeno que aparece a menor escala en los medios ofi ciales-periódicos-y en mayor medida en medios menos ofi ciales (portales electrónicos) que reúnen lo informativo y el ocio.

Niniejsza praca porusza językoznawcze zagadnienia wieloznaczności, które mogą sprawiać problemy natury komunikacyjnej, lecz są używane także celowo - do rozśmieszenia odbiorcy, wywołania kontrowersji bądź wprowadzenia go w konsternację.
Autor postara się udowodnić, iż kontekst w przypadku wieloznaczności determinuje zrozumienie przekazu. Celem jest przybliżenie czytelnikowi zagadnień, które mogą być uważane za oczywiste i przez to ignorowane.

This paper will compare and contrast elements of tonality and ambiguity discussed in Leonard Bernstein’s seminal 1973 Norton Lecture series The Unanswered Question, with examples from his Kaddish Symphony No. 3. I intend to demonstrate that even though the Kaddish Symphony was written long after the end of the “common practice tonality’, there remains significant instances of tonality and traditional formal structures in the work. These include instances of dominant to tonic cadences, extended stretches of diatonic writing, ternary forms, and definite tonal centers. There are also obvious examples of musical ambiguity: avoidance of traditional dominant to tonic cadences, abrupt modulations to remote keys, free voice leading (“Freistimmig”), exploitation of chromaticism and dissonance, open compositional structures and forms, unconventional instrumentation, lean textures, pronounced use of silence, rhythmic elusiveness, and arbitrary humming of pitches.

Vagueness and ambiguity are key problems in theories of legal interpretation. The article first delimits vagueness and ambiguity and sets it into relation to related phenomena like the generality of legal expressions (1). Vagueness proves to be a multi-faceted phenomenon which can be systematised along three distinctions: vagueness of individuation and classification, degree and combinatory vagueness, and semantic and pragmatic vagueness. For law pragmatic vagueness seems of specific import (2.). As for the origins and accounts of vagueness the different approaches are sorted into logic, ontic, epistemic and semantic accounts with epistemic and semantic accounts showing the closest relations to legal theories of interpretation (3.). The last section argues that vagueness is not a threat to legal interpretation and rule of law values properly understood. It is cautious, though, with regard to some suggested values of vagueness. However, it sees a value of vagueness in reducing decision costs, which cannot be completely accommodated by other semantic features of vague concepts like generality (4.).

"Moby Dick" has such a hermetic atmosphere that Herman Melville expresses what he feels about the novel in his letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne: “I have written a wicked book and feel spotless as the lamb.” It seems ironic that Moby Dick makes Melville feel complex feelings: He feels wicked for he has written it, but he at the same time feels pure innocence like that of the lamb. In the similar manner, "Moby Dick" includes different complicated signs within itself  as Moby Dick, or the whale and doubloon would testify. And this paper tries to display its ambiguity through examining  this two subject matters that the novel interestingly deals with.

I analyze each of the major characters, especially in the ambiguity of them all. There is no clear tragic hero, as they can all be both heroic and tragic. However, one does exist and it is Rome herself. I then discuss the worldview that Shakespeare puts forth, the theatrum mundi (the world as a stage), and the underlying moral message of Stoicism.

Hochschulbildung befindet sich weltweit in einem dramatischen Umbruch. Stu- dienanfängerquoten von über 70 Prozent innerhalb der nächsten 15 Jahre in den Industrieländern sowie eine drastisch steigende Nachfrage in den Entwicklungs- und Schwellenländern markieren einen neuen Stellenwert und eine gewandelte Funktion der Hochschulbildung in Gesellschaften des postmodernen Zeitalters. Zur gleichen Zeit steigen die Anforderungen an Hochschulen, ihre Absolventinnen und Absolventen darauf vorzubereiten, eine globale und digitalisierte Welt von morgen zu gestalten. Die Rolle die der Hochschulbildung für die Umsetzung der Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung (Sustainable Development Goals) zukommt, spricht eine deutliche Sprache: Ohne eine inhaltliche und organisatorisch erneu- erte Hochschule der Zukunft werden gesellschaftliche Problemlagen wie sie etwa mit dem Klimawandel verbunden sind, Herausforderungen der zukünftig noch zunehmenden Migration, Konflikte, die durch populistische Gesellschafts- und Politikentwürfe entstehen und die damit verbundenen Frage nach der Zukunft der Demokratie, nicht zu lösen sein. Die Entwicklung eines erneuerten gesell- schaftlichen Konsenses über die Rolle der Hochschulbildung der Zukunft erfor- dert es, Foren und Kanäle zu schaffen, in denen die Frage der Hochschulbildung der Zukunft diskutiert werden kann. Die Reihe „Zukunft der Hochschulbildung“ hat zum Ziel, Beiträge aus der ganzen Breite der wissenschaftlichen und gesell- schaftspolitischen Themen aufzugreifen und damit die Entwicklung von tragfähi- gen Konzepten für die Zukunft der Hochschulbildung zu unterstützen.
Die Themen der Reihe spannen sich von tiefgehenden Gesellschaftsanalysen, der Bedeutung des Wissenschaftssystems und Hochschulbildungssystems in der Gesellschaft der Zukunft bis hin zu Fragen des zukünftigen Hochschulmanage- ments. Dabei werden empirische Studien aber auch grundlegende Ansätze zu Hochschulinnovationsthemen fokussiert, auch zu Detailthemen, wie bspw. alter- nativen Studienformen, Mikrozertifikaten, der digitalen Transformation, Block- chain für die Hochschule und anderen Themen.

The chapter provides analytical discourse regarding land policy ambiguities, tenure security and subsequent ethnic conflict in Kibale drawing on various existing literature that has been reviewed. While elements of ambiguities have been found in existing literature, there are also stunning gaps which suggest inability to act systematically in provision of tenure security and subsequent reduction of ethnic conflicts in Kibale district.
The proposition of this chapter focuses on the NLP drafts and the 1998 Land Act which legislatively actualized most of the land policy reforms in the 1995 Constitution of Uganda.

Intentional ambiguities are frequently used as humor by many entertainment media to maintain its serious nuance. However, since they are ambiguous, most of the humor fails to be recognized by audience. Under this circumstance, the researcher is attracted to analyze humorous ambiguities found in each season of ‘Sherlock Holmes BBC Series’ and how they produce humor as they violate Grice’s maxims of Cooperative Principle. There found three from four maxims violated by Sherlock to produce ambiguities as humor. Those are maxim of quantity, maxim of relation, and maxim of manner. By violating those maxims, utterances become ambiguous and construct several possible meanings which are potentially humorous. The study is expected to improve entertainment media’s creativity to produce similar kinds of humor. At the same time, it offers a great help for the audience to recognize and understand ambiguities, thus regain them better sense of humor.

This is a basic, brief introductory course to semantics and pragmatics linguistic sub-fields. It is primarily made for the students of the department of English studies at the University of Ibn Zohr, Agadir, Morocco, who cannot attend classes, or who suffer from a lack of resources and maybe lack of communication from some, not all their lecturers.
It is based on the syllabus of the professor Aziz Driouch (a.driouch@uiz.ac.ma), academic year 2021-2022, Faculty of Languages, Arts and Humanities, Ait Melloul, Morocco.
Of course, this work may be useful for all university students of linguistics around the world. Also, I must state, that this is not a research paper or scientific criteria-based personal work, this is just a humble attempt to simplify things for my classmates.

In the United States, extra-tribal adoption policies have typically been studied in relation to the enactment and enduring viability of the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, which aims to prevent indigenous children from being removed from their communities. However, little critical attention has been paid to those who were adopted out, and the ways in which those children and subsequent generations negotiate essential questions of belonging, community, and return. This article argues that federal policies of extra-tribal adoption have constrained how adoptees are able to narrate the possibilities of relating with and returning to indigenous communities. It takes the author's own history with adoption as a point of departure for exploring both the affective and narrative problems that arise when a child is adopted out, claiming that this process is fundamentally queer. The text focuses on three central issues: the archival trace of genealogy, the relational possibilities of blood, and the difficulty of performing authenticity in such cases. In doing so, the article proposes that only through the intersection of all three of these central issues is it possible to narrate the queerness of extra-tribal adoption as an interface between the self and collective belonging.

This study concerns itself with examining the degree to which Live Projects can deliver learning experiences that enable architecture students to gain specific professional practice-ready skills and capabilities currently perceived to be lacking within the existing school curriculum - (1) collaborative
interaction within and between inter-disciplinary teams, (2) participatory engagement with clients & civic concerns and the (3) capability to manage emergent ambiguities in risk exposure & decision-making – and as a consequence examine (4) how embryonic Live Project assessment rudiments might contribute
to this acquisition?
Architects are under increased pressure to demonstrate the value of their contribution within the process of building design and construction. They are tasked with working effectively in teams, collaborating effectively with clients and end users and to cope with growing levels of risk and liability, uncertainty and ambiguity, often requiring greater creative leadership and commercial risk-taking in order to succeed. The need for architects to acquire three skillsets to cope with these conditions imposes changing expectations around the architect's role in practice and places increased pressure
upon schools of Architecture to ensure their students are equipped with gaining these skillsets.
The question emerges as to whether a less-established teaching model – Live Projects - might be able to deliver skills that will not only respond to, but also endure the ongoing changes within professional practice? And if so, in relation to what skillsets?
In contrast to other research enquiries concerning Live Projects and literature concerning architectural education in general, this thesis gathered evidence from a highly diverse range of sources – including data on emergent economic and industrial trends outside of the construction sector - as a means to define what the most valuable skillsets might be.
For schools of architecture, the specific challenge is to not only to work out how to teach these skillsets but to design and then assess learning activities that facilitate and reward their acquisition. Subsequently, this thesis also examines whether tentative assessment rudiments can play an enabling
role in this respect. Within a broader learning theory context, this enquiry supports a wider body of emergent evidence that
Live Projects offer learning experiences consistent with much of the literature regarding effective pedagogy - one that involves authentic and active engagement with real situations being more effective at enabling learning more relevant to the nascent demands of wider industry. Subsequently, the main question being considered – as reflected in the title - is:
To what extent do Live Projects enable the acquisition and application of three ‘practice-ready’ skillsets? This question is then operationalised by examining this efficacy in relation to four sub-questions. 1. To what extent can Live Projects enable students to acquire inter-disciplinary teamwork capabilities?
2. To what extent can Live Projects enable students to acquire client collaboration & civic engagement capabilities?
3. To what extent can Live Projects enable students to acquire ambiguity tolerance & risk management capabilities?
4. To what extent might Live Project assessment rudiments assist in the acquisition of the three skillsets?

In order to answer these questions, the enquiry employed qualitative as well as quantitative data collection methods. The qualitative evidence largely utilised grounded theory methods and analysis as a means to examine the perceptions of educators, architects and students. This involved the discovery of theory through the analysis of data and real world research, which focuses upon problem solving with a view to creating meaningful change. The mixed methods approach relied upon triangulation as a means to cross-examine evidence from the different data sets and to strengthen validity. The themes
relating to the missing skillsets were then inter-related to highlight any interdependencies and to ensure a rigorous level of analysis and abstraction. Findings in relation to each skillset were isolated within focused chapters.
Mixed method or ‘multi-method’ analysis - involving a series of matrices - was used to compare both quantitative and (selected sections of) qualitative data. In line with practice-based research
methodology, an extended and iterative period of data gathering and analysis allowed the researcher to consolidate observations regarding the acquisition of specific skills in both an academic as well as a practice context to consolidate into a concise set of learning concepts. The thesis subsequently used
these learning concepts to define tentative assessment rudiments. The samples chosen for this study were situated in two distinctly different contexts; in practice and in education: encompassing architects, trainee architects, students and educators both with and without Live Project experience, to enable a clear set of variables for comparative analysis. The samples were also drawn from both the US and UK
– a useful consequence of research funding in terms of providing quantitative data and comparable cohorts. These insights were then used to tentatively explore practical ways the acquisition of these skillsets could be assessed. The conclusions of this study identify that Live Projects can enable students to acquire the three skillsets due to their ability to offer experiences that more closely align with professional practice.
However it also pinpoints specific contingencies such as ensuring Live Project success is measured in terms of processes and not just outcomes - and - that keeping Live Projects as non-compulsory, extra curricula options or adjuncts to more established teaching models allows them to retain their inherently flexible, adaptive and responsive nature. Whilst there is general view that a lack of formal acknowledgement of Live Projects within the curricula-validating infrastructure of RIBA & NAAB has contributed to a collective sense that Live Projects are undervalued, the evidence suggests that the opposite is true – that Live Projects do have the ability to meet the criteria for validation extensively and effectively and can make the validation criterion more accessible and meaningful to students – and - because Live Projects encompass a hugely diverse range of projects by their nature of being holistically responsive to a set of site and community specific circumstances – assessment rudiments (rather than a design brief) might be the only unifying criteria. Given the current crisis in underemployment and the rise of the unpaid internship, these capabilities are of increasing relevance and value. Furthermore, it is transposable skills – which all three of the skillsets are – as opposed to those that are exclusive and unique to architecture – that are most
likely to best serve students in future, whether or not they choose to become professional architects. Traditional subject specific skills are undeniably important, but transposable skills deserve greater emphasis and investment given the economic reality of finite resources and demands for greater user participation. Finally, for architectural educators already engaged in or initiating Live Projects, this thesis provides theoretical as well as an applied-knowledge framework to draw from, encompassing a practical as well as passionate advocacy for their wider implementation.

https://radar.brookes.ac.uk/radar/items/7504258d-d3e9-4ee5-8350-ff0028035e3a/1/