This thesis builds upon ethnography of Apple Watch user experience and explores its connections with Apple's different branding strategies such as official website advertisements for Apple Watch Series 4, Supplier Responsibility Progress Report (2019) and Today at Apple sessions held in Apple Stores. I draw on sociomaterial approaches with special emphasis on John Law's (2004) method-assemblage and the feminist critique of ANT managerial vision that allow me to conceptualize corporate practices as means of enacting singular and coherent commercial out-thereness and absences. The goal of this thesis is to explore possible connections between the user's experience and the corporate branding strategies which craft a series of commercial realities in order to translate the needs of other actants and enroll them in its corporate network. This paper also argues that ambivalence is central to this process as corporate branding is being constantly reshaped and reconfigured by both the branding strategy itself and the actants involved. Chapter I provides a semiotic analysis of advertisements inspired by Woolgar's (1990) concept of moral universe. The second chapter follows with examining the Progress Report which provides information on the production processes that are completely absent in exclusively...

Problématique : L’infertilité – considérée par l’Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS) comme une maladie du système reproducteur – affecte de plus en plus d’hommes et de femmes, soit un couple sur six en âge de procréer au Canada et au Québec. Elle a un impact sur le bien-être physique et mental des patient.e.s, souvent stigmatisé.e.s et isolé.e.s socialement parce que, pour plusieurs, l’infertilité demeure un sujet tabou. L’infertilité est traitée en procréation médicalement assistée (PMA) où les patient.e.s-familles sont accompagné.e.s par des infirmières dont la pratique est complexe et diversifiée, mais méconnue. But : L’étude avait pour but d’explorer la pratique infirmière en PMA dans un établissement de santé québécois. Méthode : Le devis retenu est une autoethnographie où l’étudiante-chercheuse a mis à profit son expérience comme patiente et comme infirmière en PMA. Des entretiens semi-dirigés, une observation participante et un journal de terrain ont été employés pour la collecte des données. Une analyse thématique a été réalisée. Résultats : L’expérience des patient.e.s-familles en infertilité est au cœur de la pratique infirmière et l’une des principales dimensions de cette pratique est le soin relationnel, peu importe les sphères d’activités auxquelles les infirmières sont affectées au sein de la clinique. Les autres dimensions rapportées sont le leadership/advocacy, l’apprentissage/enseignement, la collaboration et les interventions techniques. Ces résultats correspondent à l’expérience de l’étudiante-chercheuse, tant à titre de patiente que d’infirmière en PMA. Retombées : L’étudiante-chercheuse a documenté la pratique infirmière en PMA, mettant en valeur une méthode peu usitée en sciences infirmières : l’autoethnographie. / Problem: Infertility – classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a reproductive system disease – affects an ever-increasing number of women and men. Today, one couple out of six of reproductive age struggles with this condition in Canada and in Quebec. It has an impact on the patients’ physical and psychological well-being, often leaving both partners stigmatized and socially isolated as infertility remains a societal taboo for many. Infertility can be treated via Assisted Reproduction Technologies (ART) where the patients-families are cared for by fertility nurses, whose practice is both complex and diversified, but remains little-known. Purpose: This study explores the field of fertility nursing as it is practised in a Quebec healthcare institution. Method: The student-researcher chose to do an autoethnography in order to draw from her own experience as both a fertility nurse and a fertility patient. Semi-directed interviews, participant observation and field journal were used to collect data. A thematic analysis of data then followed. Results: The patients-families’ infertility experience is at the heart of the fertility nurse’s practice and relational care is the main dimension of that practice, regardless of which nursing activities are assigned to them in the clinic. These other dimensions were also reported : leadership/advocacy, learning/teaching, collaboration and technical interventions. These results coincide with the student-researcher’s experience, both as a fertility patient and as a fertility nurse. Impact: The student-researcher documented the practice of fertility nursing and showcased a method rarely used in nursing science: autoethnography.

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Through discontinuous growth and its use in multiple sectors the podcasting established itself as a medium to be reckoned with in the future. Recently, the mainstream scene of French podcasting has seen, among its usual professionally produced shows, the presence of a few podcasts involving a clear and subjective message of activism. These manifestations, although a minority in the head of the charts, are only the visible part of a phenomenon made possible by the “long-tail” dimension of this medium. Indeed, although overwhelmed by the multitude of shows forming this tail, various activist circles have been able to take advantage of the myriad of useful qualities that this medium affords by creating their own programs. With the aim of grasping the interest shown by French activists in podcasting, this thesis was supported by the interviews of two French citizens working for progress through podcasting. The findings of these discussions were backed by active listening to the episodes produced and hosted by these participants and by three auto-ethnographic vignettes tracing the various stages of the creation of a podcasting show by the author of this work. The analysis of these results has been treated under the lenses of adequate theories to demonstrate that activists have a practical relationship with podcasting allowing them to reach their community active offline through participatory and independent episodes

Kulturmiljöanalyser används idag som verktyg för värdering av kulturmiljöer. Det finns ingen bestämd mall i Sverige för hur kulturmiljöanalyser ska utföras. Kulturmiljö är ett brett begrepp som inte alltid är så lättolkat, men som är av vikt för framtida städers identitet och attraktivitet. Studien analyserar metoder som används vid kulturmiljöbedömning. Hur kulturmiljöanalysers utformning kan påverka resultat av planeringsarbete samt vilken roll planeraren bakom analysen spelar, undersöks i studien. Målet är att förstå på vilket sätt dessa faktorer kan vara av betydelse för hamnområdens ombyggnationer. Två kulturmiljöanalyser har utförts, DIVE-analys och Swecos stadsbild- och kulturmiljöanalys, genom en fallstudie i området Hullkajen och Hamnparken i Malmö. Området är del av vår tids moderna arv, som idag står inför omvandling. Kritik har riktats mot att planerare förväntas anta en objektiv expertroll vid bedömning av urbana miljöer, då tidigare forskning belyst planerares subjektivitet. Studien intresserar sig för planerares subjektiva roll. Autoetnografi har använts för att undersöka den egna rollen, som planerare, vid utförande av analysmetoder. Resultaten från kulturmiljöanalyserna framförde skillnader, främst kopplade till processen inom metoderna framför resultaten av metoderna. En subjektiv påverkan visades också inom processerna och belyser relationen planeraren och metoden emellan. Skillnader och likheter tyder på att en transparens och breddat deltagande inom processen för värdering av kulturmiljö behövs, för att stärka legitimiteten i planeringsprocesser. / Cultural environment assessments are used as tools for valuing cultural heritage environments. There are no specific guidelines in Sweden today for how cultural heritage assessments are to be performed. Cultural heritage as a concept can be difficult to interpret, it is however important for the identity and attractiveness of future cities. This research is interested in methods used for cultural environment assessments. How the structure of cultural environment assessments can affect results in city planning and what role the planner behind plays is examined, to understand why it can be important for the redevelopment of port- and industrial areas. Two cultural environment assessments are performed within the study, the DIVE analysis and Swecos cityscape and cultural environment analysis, through a case study in the area of Hullkajen and Hamnparken in Malmö. The area is part of our modern heritage, which today is facing transformation. Critics have argued that planners are expected to adapt the role as an objective expert, even though previous research highlights the subjectivity planners hold. This research is interested in the subjective role of planners in performing cultural environment assessments. Autoethnography is used to examine our role, as planners, in performing cultural environment assessments. The results presented differences, mainly linked to the process within the methods rather than the results of the methods. A subjective influence was also shown within the processes and sheds light on the relationship between the planner and the method. Differences and similarities indicate that transparency and broaden participation in the process of valuating the cultural environment is needed, in order to strengthen the legitimacy of planning processes.

Mémoire en recherche-création / Inscrites au sein de notre société actuelle hétéronormée (Butler 1990), les représentations visuelles sont toujours teintées de codes culturels prescrits et genrés dont il est impossible de se défaire. Ces images actualisent et véhiculent des rapports de pouvoir (Foucault 1973) que l’on incorpore à travers nos identifications personnelles et nos pratiques artistiques. Les objectifs de cette maîtrise en études cinématographiques sont d’une part de contribuer au développement d’une méthodologie de recherche-création (Boutet 2018) critique et située (Haraway 1988) comme exercice de recherche académique en questionnant les rapports de pouvoir, et, d’autre part de proposer une alternative à la photographie de nu à travers la conception d’une installation lumineuse et sonore éphémère. Ma question de recherche se déploie à la fois à travers une posture politique et une méthodologie de recherche. D’une part, comment une recherche-création autoethnographique collaborative (Chang, Hernandez et Ngunjiri 2012) permet-elle de réfléchir les rapports de pouvoir au sein d’une pratique artistique afin de créer des images d’un corps féminin sans pour autant reproduire certains réflexes hétéronormatifs ? D’autre part, comment une posture critique et auto-réflexive féministe queer permet-elle de développer des stratégies de résistance et, par le fait même, d’échapper aux codifications culturelles genrées de son contexte ? J’avance l’hypothèse qu’en dématérialisant le corps au sein d’une pratique installative lumineuse et sonore, fondée sur une méthodologie collaborative, il serait possible d’offrir une résistance aux réflexes hétéronormatifs présents dans la représentation visuelle d’un corps féminin. Cette forme artistique qui se détache d’une narration visuelle traditionnelle serait ainsi une manière de résister au Male gaze (Mulvey 1993). Mon projet est une enquête méthodologique qui investigue la démarche intuitive et qualitative de l’autoethnographie collaborative en tant que méthode inclusive qui permet de questionner l’éthique d’une représentation. Au sein d’une recherche-création, le processus créatif est appréhendé comme recherche académique et me permet d’inclure mes autres pratiques artistiques parallèles au sein d’un mémoire protéiforme. / Among our current hetero-normed society (Butler 1990), visual representations are always tainted with prescribed and gendered cultural codes that are impossible to get rid of. These images actualize and convey power relations (Foucault 1973) that we unconsciously incorporate through our personal identifications and artistic practices. This master's degree in film studies aims, on the one hand, to contribute to the development of a critical and situated (Haraway 1988) research-creation methodology (Boutet 2018) as an academic research exercise by questioning power relations, and, on the other hand, to offer an alternative to nude photography through the conception of an ephemeral light and sound installation. My research question includes a political approach and a research methodology. On the one hand, how does a collaborative autoethnographic research-creation (Chang, Hernandez and Ngunjiri 2012) allows us to rethink the power relations within an artistic practice in order to create images of a female body without reproducing some heteronormative reflexes? On the other hand, how does a critical and self-reflexive feminist queer approach can develop strategies of resistance and consequently avoid the gendered cultural codifications of its context? I argue that by dematerializing the body though a light and sound ephemeral installation practice, based on a collaborative methodology, it would be possible to offer resistance to the heteronormative reflexes currently involved in the visual representation of a female body. This artistic form that intentionally stands out from a traditional visual storytelling would thus become a way of resisting the Male Gaze (Mulvey 1993). My project is a methodological inquiry that investigates the intuitive and qualitative approach of collaborative autoethnography as an inclusive method that allows us to question the ethics of representation. Within the framework of a research-creation methodology, the creative process is regarded as an academic research and allows me to include my other parallel artistic practices into a protean master’s thesis.

The purpose of this study was to critically explore whiteness and masculinity within the context of public school administration. Using a qualitative research design, this study is broken into two separate articles. The first article is a critical narrative, and deeply examined two White and male public school superintendents’ experiences serving in school districts within California’s Central Valley. Framed within the broad context of critical White theory (CWT), I explored each man’s approach to interpersonal communication while conducting business. Additionally, I applied the urban dictionary’s definition of “Whitesplaining” to consider deeply how each man attempted to control the public narrative being disseminated to his constituency. In the second article, I conducted an autoethnography, and presented my own experiences working as a first-year middle school principal. I too situated my experiences within the broad contexts of White and masculine privilege. This study contends pushes whiteness research forward by using first and second person narration to critique and interrupt White and masculine points of view within the context of public school administration.

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This autoethnographic case study explores the experience of the digital regime on learning and knowledge production brought about by merging university study and research practice within a single digital regime in Work Integrated Political Studies (WIPS) during 2019-2021. The study provides a detailed account of the nature of learning and producing knowledge through this common digital regime, and its political implications. To explain the possibility and impacts of the digital regime, the study employed the concept of digital pharmakon by French philosopher Bernard Stiegler. In the analysis, I have operationalized the concept to the empirical materials I generated in the form of autoethnographic notes taken during the internship in the political science unit of University West, Trollhättan. Based on the analysis of these notes, the study postulates three features of the digital regime in learning knowledge production, which is: 1) to supplement human memory without memorization, 2) the provision of tools with various powerful technics, and 3) as a medium for communication and individuation. Additionally, the regime brought forthsome consequences for learning and practice, for instance, the dangers of forgetting, accelerating dependence on the computational memory and process, weakening thinking for oneself, and short-circuiting the process of individuation. The political implications would be eliminating diverse, negentropic, improbable, and incalculable parts of knowledge, so the knowledge left to be produced is based on computational reasoning, universal, data-driven, negotium, entropic nature of knowledge, lacking the local specialties, and subjective experiences

M. Tech. (Department of Visual Arts and Design: Graphic Design, Faculty of Human Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / The main aim of this study is to determine in what ways my graphic design practice is impacted by my socio-cultural identity. The intention is to explain and theorise the creative dynamics at play in Graphic Design as a discipline, so that I can use this to trace how the culture of graphic design, learned through training, influences the designs that I conceptualise and produce. From this exploration, critical self-analysis strategies and lines of inquiry for graphic designers, are established. To achieve this, triangulated investigations are undertaken in the context of a graphic designer as an idiosyncratic enculturated person, within the domain and field of graphic design. The attention falls on the dynamics of creativity and the cultivation thereof within cultural subject formation processes. Triangulated explorations of identity formation and identity within a culture in itself are undertaken, along with investigations into the culture of graphic design. Autoethnography (AE) is employed as practice-led research methodology and tool to extract data from autobiographic investigations that can be used to analyse and interpret the creative outcomes that were produced for the study. The cultural elements and principles of graphic design and the cultural elements and principles of an idiosyncratic enculturated graphic designer are compared, that result in answers to the main objective of the research conducted. Background and motivations introduce interpretation and contextualisation (personalisation) of AE as practice-led research methodology and method within graphic design as a cultural practice. The introduction is followed by creative practice that involves the generation of graphic design creative outcomes and the writing of a condensed autobiography. An in-depth literature review then provides a theoretical framework that sketches the discipline of practitioner within a field of practice, where after the practice is analysed, critically reflected upon and then AE interpreted, using the developed theoretical framework. From this, a detailed self-analysis follows. The process leads to the development of a new knowledge base and model (framework) that can be used in further research possibilities across other disciplines and cultural identity selections for self-reflection. This “strategic cultural preference facilitator model” consists of seven macro self-analytical identity markers, drawing on Appiah’s (2018) categories of Country, Creed, Colour, Gender, Class, and Culture (to which is added Professional Development). This is extended into ten micro sub-selfanalytical identity markers, namely: (1) Patriotism; (2) Paternalism; (3) Patriarchy and (4) Power; (5) the Pastoral; (6) Pretence; (7) Protection; (8) Punishment; (9) Privilege; and (10) Process, which are employed as socio-cultural identity lines of inquiry. The modelling and analysis processes documented in the dissertation could be extremely useful in most fields of human interaction, such as social work, psychology training, communication theory and practice, and in virtually all domains where the notion of self-critique as practice is prevalent (and necessary).