The thesis argues that the artist's book Between Carlerhaugh and Tamshiel Rig: a borderline episode (2004) offers a valid and innovative model for writing-up creative practice-led research at doctoral level. It sets out a post-hoc elucidation and contextualisation of the creative / pedagogic / research position adopted there in the context of the wider 'politics' of the university sector. The Introduction provides aims and objectives, a rationale for the 'anthropological' methodology and 'polytheistic' terminology used, locating the project both generally and in the particular context of the AHRB bid that funded the book's production. Chapter One provides historical and pedagogic accounts of shifts from 'professional practice' to 'creative practice research' in the context of Gibbons et ai's discussion of 'knowledge production', seen in the context of the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) and the politics of 'scientific' models of cultural evaluation. Both Apollonian and Hermetic perspectives are discussed. Chapter Two offers a discussion of the author's relevant research outputs between 1994 - 2005 as a context for the AHRB bid, raising issues of contingency, the 'metaphoric field', and Paul Ricoeur's 'Hermetic' understanding of 'new knowledge'. Chapter Three discusses the duel evaluation of Between Carlerhaugh and Tamshiel Rig and some of the implications arising from it. The conclusion claims the validity of the model for 'writing up' doctoral study has been demonstrated. Salient points identified include the voluntary accommodation between Hermetic and Hestian perspectives, issues of contingency and of 'approximate knowledge', both seen in the context of the work of Paul Ricoeur. The positive outcome of the double evaluation process is also cited. The author's contribution to the CHEAD paper Types of Research in the Creative Arts and Design is taken as further evidence that the project has made a contribution to the sector's self-understanding through a more accurate account of the psychosocial context within which research is conducted in the UK.

Traditional technologies are revelations of knowledge, skill, and wisdom of ancestors that have been used to facilitate and enhance the performance of socio-economic activities, overcome environmental challenges, and magnify symbolic presentations of cultural and spiritual engagements. Traditional technologies are still practiced in many communities despite the strides made in the advancement of modern technologies. The socio-economic significance of traditional technologies in the context of Ethiopia is even more profound. There are hardly social, economic, and spiritual activities that are not, directly or indirectly, influenced by the application of traditional technologies. The irony is, however, they are not appreciated and conserved in spite that they have been proving a sustained significance across generations while, to the contrary, modern technologies are even staggering to outlive the stage of product introduction. Although still proving to be useful, traditional technologies have been marginalized as if they are symbols of backwardness belonging to the past as irrelevant to the modern day settings. It was, therefore, the urge to look into this dilemma that became the basis for the initiation to conduct a research on the captioned topic. The study has endeavored to address how traditional technologies, specifically that of Ethiopia, are able to sustain contrary to extant theoretical predictions of technologies, and investigate why they have been deterred from getting the conservation and transformation they deserve in spite of the socio-economic significant role they have continued to play as capitulated in the statement of the problem. In addressing the statement of the problem, the paradigm of the world outlook within which the research was situated is found to be related to the Critical Theory paradigm. As a result, a qualitative research methodology based on a case study design was framed and a longitudinal field study on the sampled cases was conducted. The data generated from the study were ix filtered, coded, organized, categorized, and ultimately analyzed and interpreted using apparent analytic models until saturated and triangulated findings were established. Accordingly, the core constructs that has been defining the fate of traditional technologies were induced and their impact in deterring or promoting the conservation and transformation of traditional technologies were synthesized. Based on the outcomes of data analysis and interpretation, appropriate methods of reshaping the societal attitude and orientation in terms of conserving and transforming traditional practices are proposed as induced recommendations ultimately requiring a timely intervention. / Business Management / D. Litt. et Phil. (Business Leadership)