This study examines the reasons of people with dementia request euthanasia and how these reasons change over time with a special focus on reasons related to family. In addition, it examines how family relates to their loved one’s euthanasia wish. Seven people with dementia and a euthanasia wish in the Netherlands were interviewed, and three years later, two of them and five family members were interviewed again. Four themes were identified using thematic analyses: (1) Protecting the relationship from the impact of dementia; (2) Private domain as the primary setting to discuss euthanasia; (3) Implicit expectation to respect and agree with the euthanasia wish; (4) Experienced responsibilities of family regarding the euthanasia wish. Professionals should be aware of the position of family and the interrelatedness of the person’s concern for family happiness and families’ moral commitment to agree and support the wish.
Interview with German Media Theorist Vera Tollmann on View from Above By Geert Lovink This interview was previously published on October 11, 2023 on Geert Lovink’s blog, Net Critique, at: https://networkcultures.org/geert/2023/10/11/interview-with-german-media-theorist-vera-tollmann-on-view-from-above/
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Events play an increasingly big role in our society. Whereas events were mainly considered entertainment in the past, the social function of events is becoming more and more apparent, in particular, in the field of social bonding and in creating a feeling of solidarity.During an event, visitors identify with a theme or topic, and interact with each other about it. Thanks to social media, they can continue these interactions online, which leads to a hybrid network of individuals sharing the same interests. Eventually, this may lead to forming new communities, who communicate with each other both online and offline. However, it is not clear yet how exactly these new communities are being created.This PhD research studies the online and offline interaction rituals of various events and online communities. Through interviews and participating observations at events such as Redhead Days and the Elfia fantasy event, processes are mapped out that result in forming communities at and around events.Partner: Tilburg University
-Chatbots are being used at an increasing rate, for instance, for simple Q&A conversations, flight reservations, online shopping and news aggregation. However, users expect to be served as effective and reliable as they were with human-based systems and are unforgiving once the system fails to understand them, engage them or show them human empathy. This problem is more prominent when the technology is used in domains such as health care, where empathy and the ability to give emotional support are most essential during interaction with the person. Empathy, however, is a unique human skill, and conversational agents such as chatbots cannot yet express empathy in nuanced ways to account for its complex nature and quality. This project focuses on designing emotionally supportive conversational agents within the mental health domain. We take a user-centered co-creation approach to focus on the mental health problems of sexual assault victims. This group is chosen specifically, because of the high rate of the sexual assault incidents and its lifetime destructive effects on the victim and the fact that although early intervention and treatment is necessary to prevent future mental health problems, these incidents largely go unreported due to the stigma attached to sexual assault. On the other hand, research shows that people feel more comfortable talking to chatbots about intimate topics since they feel no fear of judgment. We think an emotionally supportive and empathic chatbot specifically designed to encourage self-disclosure among sexual assault victims could help those who remain silent in fear of negative evaluation and empower them to process their experience better and take the necessary steps towards treatment early on.
Zowel binnen als buiten de paardensector is de aandacht voor paardenwelzijn aan het toenemen. Dit blijkt uit one-issue topics als aandacht voor toegang tot water in periode van droogte en meer activistische aandacht voor bijvoorbeeld excessen in de springsport. De Nederlandse paardensector heeft veel draagvlak in de maatschappij en wil dat behouden. Ontwikkelingen als een Keurmerk Paarden Welzijn worden breed gedragen in de georganiseerde paardenhouderij. Echter, de paardenhouderij is niet volledig georganiseerd en het beoordelen van paardenwelzijn wordt niet altijd objectief gedaan wanneer het dezelfde paardensector is die het welzijn van de paarden moet waarborgen. De praktijk vraagt om een onafhankelijke expertraad voor paarden die advies kan geven over paardenwelzijn gerelateerde onderwerpen. Stakeholders binnen of buiten de paardensector (maatschappelijke organisaties / NGO’s) kunnen dit advies bij de raad aanvragen. De organisatie en inrichting van de onafhankelijke expertraad voor paarden is de onderzoeksvraag van dit KIEM-2021 project. Eerste uitgangspunt voor een advies is dat de leden het advies geven op basis van (wetenschappelijke) feiten en hun eigen (internationale) expertise bezitten. Overige eisen zoals: organisatiestructuur, inbedding in of een nieuwe plek in de paardensector en werkwijzen worden beantwoord door het KIEM onderzoek. Het onderzoek wordt uitgevoerd door middel van interviews met verschillende stakeholders zowel binnen als buiten de paardensector.
