La recherche se situe dans le courant de la Consumer Culture Theory dans la lignée de travaux récents visant à comprendre les relations collectives à une marque. La marque n’est plus pensée comme une « chose » fabriquée exclusivement par l’entreprise, mais comme un processus dans lequel sont impliqués de multiples acteurs échappant souvent au contrôle de l’entreprise. La thèse investigue comment la marque s’insère et est insérée dans les réseaux de relations, les pratiques et les représentations des consommateurs au sein de leur famille sur trois générations. La méthodologie est basée sur l’auto-ethnographie, une méthode rarement utilisée dans la recherche sur la marque. Le dispositif déployé permet une compréhension fine des interactions et stratégies des personnes, grâce à la prise en compte du temps long (trente ans) et à la multivocalité. La thèse étend le concept de « cultural branding » au niveau de la famille, en introduisant le concept de « réseau familial de marque » qui rend compte de la façon dont familles et marques s’imbriquent dans notre société. En décrivant une réalité différente des principes de gestion de la marque dans lesquels l’entreprise est supposée influencer un consommateur isolé, la thèse renouvelle les approches conventionnelles de la relation marque-consommateur et complète les approches communautaires de la marque. / This thesis is situated in the research stream called Consumer Culture Theory (CCT), in line with recent research trying to understand the collective relationships to a brand. The brand is no more understood as a “thing” created by a company (brand as a name), but as a process (branding as a verb) in which many participants play different roles, frequently outside the control of the company. The thesis investigates how the brand becomes embedded in the networks of relationships, practices and discourses within a family through three generations. The methodology is based on an autoethnography, a method rarely used in consumer and branding research. This approach enables a deep understanding of the interactions and strategies of people, taking a long-term perspective (thirty years) and considering the multivocality. This thesis is an extension of cultural branding at the family level, by introducing the concept of « brand family network », which reports how families and brands are embedded in our society. The thesis describes a reality different from the traditional principles of brand management, based on the idea that the company is supposed to influence a single consumer. By doing so, it extends the understanding of consumer-brand relationships, and complement the approach of the brand communities.

A growing body of writing research suggests college students’ and teachers’ conceptualizations of writing play an important role in learning to write and making the transition from secondary to post-secondary academic composition. First-year college writers are not blank slates; rather, they bring many assumptions and beliefs about academic writing to the first-year writing classroom from exposure to a wide range of literate practices throughout their lives. Metaphor acts as a way for scholars to trace students’ as well as their instructors’ assumptions and beliefs about writing. In this study, I contend that metaphor is a pathway to meta-cognitive awareness, mindfulness, and reflection. This multi-method descriptive study applies metaphor analysis to a corpus of more than a dozen first-year composition students’ endof-semester writing portfolios; the study also employs an auto-ethnographic approach to examining this author’s texts composed as a graduate student and novice teacher. In several cases writing students in this study appeared to reconfigure their metaphors for writing and subsequently reconsider their assumptions about writing. My literature review and analysis suggests that metaphor remains an underutilized inventive and reflective strategy in composition pedagogy. Based on these results, I suggest that instructors consider how metaphoric competence might offer writers and writing instructors an alternate means for operationalizing key habits of mind such as meta-cognitive awareness, reflection, openness to learning, and creativity as recommended in the Framework for Success in Post-Secondary Writing. Ultimately, I argue that writers and teachers might benefit from adopting a more flexible attitude towards metaphor. As a rhetorical trope, metaphors are contextual and, thus, writers need to learn to mix, discard, create, and obscure metaphors as required by the situation.

No description available.

This work narrates a qualitative sociological exploration with auto-ethnographic underpinnings. It deals with the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (SATRC) as a contextual case among others. The thesis seeks to answer the question of whether countries following a TRC route did better than those that did not use TRCs, when it comes to establishing civil control over the military. The author's exposure and involvement in the process as participant, participant observer, observer participant and observer inform the study. With the SATRC as one cornerstone other cases reflected upon include Argentina and Chile (Latin America), Spain and Portugal (Southern Europe), Namibia, Nigeria and Rwanda (Africa). / Sociology / D.Litt. et. Phil. (Sociology)

Text in Afrikaans / This study is aimed at the development of a guiding framework for fathers and their adolescent sons by focusing on male identity as the main binding factor in the relationship between father a and son. The establishment, as well as the confusion regarding male identity, have been stated as starting point and problem statement of the study. The need regarding the way in which the father and son can be guided within this dynamic relationship in order to establish male identity, has been stated as motivation for the study. The need regarding the guidance of fathers and their sons was thus the primary aim with the research question, namely what the most applicable factors in a guiding framework should be that would guide fathers and their sons in order to support the formation of male identity within the sons. The research methodology that has been followed, was from a Gestalt perspective as meta theoretical assumption from which qualitative, explorative and descriptive strategies were followed. The qualitative strategy consisted of an auto-ethnography and semi-structured interviews. The trustworthiness of the research has been strengthened by a quantitative component of the research by utilizing questionnaires, after which data was collected and analysed. A purposive sample was drawn that included respondents from the Drakenstein municipal area in the Boland district. Categories that were identified from data from the semi-structured interviews, as well as indicators from the questionnaires, have been integrated, from which propositions were constructed. Six themes and resulting guiding strategies were presented in the form of a guiding framework. / Hierdie studie is gerig op die ontwikkeling van 'n begeleidingsraamwerk vir vaders en hulle adolessente seuns deur te fokus op manlike identiteit as die samebindende faktor in die verhouding tussen vader en seun. Die vestiging, asook die verwarring ten opsigte van manlike identiteit, is as vertrekpunt en probleemstelling vir die studie gestel. Die behoefte ten opsigte van die manier waarop vader en seun binne hierdie dinamiese verhouding begelei kan word ten einde manlike identiteit te vestig, is as motivering vir die studie gestel. Die behoefte aan begeleiding vir vaders en huile seuns was dus die primere doel met 'n navorsingsvraag, naamlik wat die mees toepaslike faktore sal wees wat in 'n begeleidingsraamwerk aan vaders en hulle seuns leiding sal bied ten einde die vorming van manlike identiteit by die seuns te ondersteun. Die navorsingsmetodologie wat gevolg is, was vanuit die Gestaltperspekief as metateoretiese aanname waaruit kwalitatiewe, verkennende en beskrywende strategies gevolg is. Die kwalitatiewe strategie het bestaan uit 'n outoetnografie en semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude. Die vertrouenswaardigheid van die navorsing is deur 'n kwantitatiewe komponent van die navorsing versterk deur vraelyste te benut waarna data ingesamel en geanaliseer is. 'n Doelgerigte steekproef is getrek, wat respondente ingesluit het uit die Drakenstein munisipale gebied in die Boland distrik. Kategoriee wat vanuit die data van die semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude geidentifiseer is, asook indikatore vanuit die vraelyste, is geintegreer waaruit proposisies saamgestel is. Ses temas en voortspruitende begeleidingstrategiee is aangebied in die vorm van 'n begeleidingsraamwerk. / Social Work / D.Diac. (Spelterapie)

Text in English / Most Xhosa people experience the condition of feeling dislocated and confused when choosing a spiritual belief between Christianity and Xhosa ancestral traditions. This study uses the concept of diaspora to describe the mental dislocation that people whose culture has changed experience. This study is based on the phenomenon of diaspora as a state of identity in the contemporary cultural identity of amaXhosa, the people of the Eastern Cape Province, by exploring the interrelationship between the key concepts, namely, identity, culture, land, and home as they relate to ancestral worship and Christian practice. Two installation artworks by Bill Viola and Nicholas Hlobo were selected for a comparative analysis under the spectacle of Xhosa ancestral tradition. In this study, I seek to understand how identity is constructed within a particular geographical and ideological culture and how self-identity can be constituted through the construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction of cultural histories. Touching on notions of mediation, altar, and dislocation, this study uses Martin Buber’s concept of I AND THOU to weave the key concepts together. / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / M.A. (Visual Arts)

This study addresses the topic of class consciousness and the radical educator. Using the theory of revolutionary critical pedagogy and Marxist humanism I examine the impact of formative experience and class consciousness on my own radical praxis across three continents. The methodology of auto/biography is used to interrogate my own life history. I excavate my own formative experience in Scotland, Canada and my radical praxis as a human rights educator in Ghana West Africa. The study is particularly interested in the possibility of a radical educator transgressing across race, whiteness and gender while working in Ghana, West Africa. Chapter One begins by discussing the theory of revolutionary critical pedagogy, Marxist humanism and theories of the self. Chapter Two assesses the methodology of auto/biography,research methods and an introduction to formative experience. Chapter Three, Four and Five contain excavation sites from Scotland, Canada and Ghana with accompanying analysis. Chapter Six concludes with a summary of research findings.

This study addresses the topic of class consciousness and the radical educator. Using the theory of revolutionary critical pedagogy and Marxist humanism I examine the impact of formative experience and class consciousness on my own radical praxis across three continents. The methodology of auto/biography is used to interrogate my own life history. I excavate my own formative experience in Scotland, Canada and my radical praxis as a human rights educator in Ghana West Africa. The study is particularly interested in the possibility of a radical educator transgressing across race, whiteness and gender while working in Ghana, West Africa. Chapter One begins by discussing the theory of revolutionary critical pedagogy, Marxist humanism and theories of the self. Chapter Two assesses the methodology of auto/biography,research methods and an introduction to formative experience. Chapter Three, Four and Five contain excavation sites from Scotland, Canada and Ghana with accompanying analysis. Chapter Six concludes with a summary of research findings.

This thesis highlights the sociopolitics of English as a dominant/colonial language by focusing on the linkage between language, power, and race. Grounded in critical language theory, comparative education theory, and anti-racism research methodology, this research examines the inextricable relationship between language, power, and race. With this in mind, this thesis argues that language, specifically English, is not a neutral tool of communication but a highly contentious issue that is deeply embedded in sociopolitical ideologies and practices. The contexts of Japan and Trinidad and Tobago are used to illustrate how colonialism continues to impact English language policy, practice, and perceptions. In sum, this research aims to bridge the gap between critical language theory, comparative education theory, and anti-racism studies in a way that (1) highlights the complexity of language politics, (2) explores ideological assumptions inherent in the discourse of the "native" language, and (3) underscores the overlooked ubiquity of race.

This thesis highlights the sociopolitics of English as a dominant/colonial language by focusing on the linkage between language, power, and race. Grounded in critical language theory, comparative education theory, and anti-racism research methodology, this research examines the inextricable relationship between language, power, and race. With this in mind, this thesis argues that language, specifically English, is not a neutral tool of communication but a highly contentious issue that is deeply embedded in sociopolitical ideologies and practices. The contexts of Japan and Trinidad and Tobago are used to illustrate how colonialism continues to impact English language policy, practice, and perceptions. In sum, this research aims to bridge the gap between critical language theory, comparative education theory, and anti-racism studies in a way that (1) highlights the complexity of language politics, (2) explores ideological assumptions inherent in the discourse of the "native" language, and (3) underscores the overlooked ubiquity of race.