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The thesis is concerned with the exploration of cultural identity in the north-east of England. Superficially that exploration invites an ethnographic approach based on the detailing of socio-cultural relationships which have developed from a unique experience within the region as defined by its industrial past which receives specific expression politically through its long-term loyalty to the Labour Party a devotion unparalleled in twentieth-century England. The examination begins by considering the region's lack of response to the 1981 riots and the local press' celebration of the same. It moves on to consider the deeply-felt sense of peripherality found in the northeast in relation to the 'rest of the country'. That peripherality, marked by comparison with national socio-economic standards is examined in its most potent ethnographic context Beamish Museum. What emerges in these considerations is the importance of examining experiential data as a means of evaluating the singularity of north-eastern cultural identity. Experiential data in the form of archival material, the testimony of a 'traditional' working-class whose experiences provided the constituency for Labour politics, is the key evidence offered here. As a framework for evaluating the substantive content of this evidence, the values and beliefs of the English cultural system are delineated. A primary source for these values is identified as the 'local' press - whose ideological stance it is shown is derived less from the specifics of a north-eastern locality than its role as propagator of national values. In the thesis, two areas which are held to have a local specificity are considered industry and community. These two find their most exemplary expression in the term 'industrial community' which is the real and imagined context from which popular conceptions of 'north-easternness' spring. A third area for consideration is the region's relationship with the English imperial system. This system lacks any conceptualizations which could produce a local specificity. What is of interest is that it exemplifies the frame of reference for evaluating north-eastern particularity the comparison between region and nation. It is the involvement in and the response to this system which is crucial. Overall, this thesis examines firstly the ideology which governs the ordering and interpretation of the north-eastern experience since the industrialization of the nineteenth-century. How did the people of the region interpret these transformations and changes? Secondly, the purpose is to delineate the webs of significance from which determine these experiences. Are they 'home grown' or externally-derived by way of the material structure established a century ago and dismantled since? This is achieved by utilizing Anderson's concept of the 'imagined community' to suggest that as an English region, the north-east claims simultaneous membership in two communities one regional, the other national. It is the weight given to the latter which is in the end determinant. The conclusion being that the region's stability in the 1981 riots is founded on its adherence to the ideology which sprang from an older England that of the nineteenth-century industrial/imperial nation.

The research in this thesis was motivated by an interest in understanding the work and effort that goes into organising family homes, with the aim of informing the design of novel information technology for the home. It was undertaken to address a notable absence of in-depth research into domestic information and communication technology in the fields of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). To that end, this thesis presents an ethnographic study of everyday routines in thirteen family homes. Following an established tradition within HCI and CSCW, the study applies qualitative fieldwork methods as a means to investigate and interpret the empirical materials. Periods of extended observation and semi-structured interviews with the thirteen families over a three-year period form the basis of the empirical material. The materials are analysed using a hybrid perspective composed of a combination of influences from the study of material culture, to interaction analysis and ethnography. The hybrid analytical perspective draws out insights regarding the families’ mundane practices and the artfully devised solutions they use to organise daily life. Four household activities and artefacts are given specific focus: (i) household list making, (ii) the display qualities of refrigerator doors, (iii) the organisation of household clutter, and (iv) the devising of bespoke solutions in organising home life. Broader findings include the observations that people tailor solutions to meet their needs, that optimum efficiency is not the pre-eminent determinant in what method or artefact people choose to organise themselves and their homes, and that homes determine their individual characters in part by how everyday tasks and organisation are accomplished. In short, the personal qualities of these mundane practices are part of what makes a home a home. These findings are used to elicit implications for information technology design, with the aim of encouraging designers of domestic technology to be aware of and respectful towards the idiosyncratic nature of the home, and, wherever possible, to design in such a way as to allow the technology to be appropriated for families’ bespoke tailoring. To evaluate and address this point, two design projects, one on augmented magnets and another on a “media bowl”, are used to develop and test out this approach. Both projects are critically examined to reflect on the efficacy of the design approach and what lessons might be learnt for future studies and design exercises. The combination of detailed ethnographic fieldwork on family homes combined with the development of experimental design projects is intended to deepen the understanding of the mundane behaviours and everyday routines of family homes, in order to better inform the design of information technology for the home.

Lolita fashion is a small youth fashion that originated in Japan but is inspired by historical western clothing. The clothing is not sexual in nature. Most studies look at the style in Japan, but the fashion has also found popularity overseas. This paper takes an ethnographic approach to studying the Lolita community in the United States by comparing two regional communities, Houston and South Florida. The research found that the largest difference between the two groups was size and community involvement, with Houston as the larger group and the smaller South Florida group being more concerned with group activity. The study found that compared to the strong subversive element of the wearers in Japan, the United States community at large appears to be motivated by Lolita as a creative outlet. There was no support of the idea that aging played a role in what kind of Lolita fashion was worn. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This is a slide show of selected photographs from the Hoover Dam Ethnographic Study.

The translator’s workplace (TW) has undergone radical changes since microcomputers were introduced on the market and, as a result, digitization increased enormously. Existing translation-related technologies, such as machine translation (MT), were enhanced and others, such as translation memory (TM) systems, were developed. It is a noteworthy fact that implementing new translation-related technologies in the TW is done in various conditions according to specific goals that subsequently define new work conditions for translators. These new work conditions affect translators’ satisfaction with their job, and their satisfaction will influence career development and employee retention in the translation industry over the long term. In the past two decades, Language Service Providers (LSPs) have started integrating MT into TM systems to benefit from MT suggestions when TM is not helpful. Neither TM nor MT is unfamiliar to the translation industry, but the combination, i.e. TM+MT, is fairly new. So far, there have been few studies on translators’ satisfaction with TM+MT. This study consists of an ethnographic research project on seven translators in a Canada-based company where TM+MT is used. Observations, semi-structured interviews, and in-house document analysis have been used as data collection methods. The data obtained has been analyzed and discussed based on Rodríguez-Castro’s task satisfaction model (2011). This model addresses intrinsic and extrinsic sources of translators’ satisfaction with the activities they do in their job. Investigating the factors and variables of her model in the aforementioned company, I concluded that those sources of satisfaction cannot be considered separately from the job-context factors, such as the company’s policies in implementing TM+MT.

This is a sociological ethnography of nine people with dementia living in a private nursing home in central Scotland. It seeks to find an alternative way to view people in this situation, in a field that has been dominated by the medical modeL. By placing the people before the disease of dementia, they can be studied within the same framework as any people. For this study this framework is everyday life sociology with a focus on symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology and dramaturgy. Additionally, by gaining the subjective perspective, we can get close to understanding meaning for these people. The ethnographic methods I use consist of participant observation and interviews. For analysis I employ NUDIST to structure the data and the thesis. The settng, Lavender Wing of Deer View Grange Nursing Home, provides context for the study. This is a culture of surveillance and routines, which can be restrictive, infantilizing and disabling for residents. Despite this culture research findings are of socially active participants. By examining relationships through an interactional framework three thematic areas developed concerned with emotions, interactions and classification. These thematic spheres demonstrate the emotional self, the interactional self and the generalized self of research informants. The emotional is concerned with the most inner and intimate self, often engaging in backstage intimacies and in thought. Significant others share with the interactional self, in frontstage performances, which are more ritualistic. The generalized self interacts with the generalized other, most often consisting of everyone in Lavender Wing and is concerned with classification and boundarydefinition. Within these spheres the described relationships are fluid and change according to the situation, and how participating actors define it. To engage in intimacies, rituals and form, and to shift between them requires social competence and active participation. People in this study demonstrate these. Despite restrictions they offer resistance to the environment and to dementia. They often make profound and metaphorical statements, to which this ethnography gives voice. Keywords Everyday life; interaction; nursing home culture; people with dementia; resistance; self and others; social competence; surveillance.

Essa tese interpreta a remoção de uma favela da Vila Madalena, zona Oeste de São Paulo, em 2005, através do estudo etnográfico realizado antes e durante a remoção da mesma e o recolhimento de histórias de vida de seus ex-moradores. O foco da tese recai sobre o modo como esses sujeitos interpretam a casa, as coisas e o entorno dessas: a relação com os vizinhos, o bairro e a cidade. Recoloca a questão da remoção como algo dentro de suas trajetórias de vida e não isoladas no tempo e no espaço. Ao re-interpretar essas interpretações acerca do texto dos sujeitos e da observação de seu cotidiano na favela e dois anos após sua remoção, essa tese procura abrir os sentidos dessa experiência, abrindo-lhe outros significados, no intuito de elaborar um pensamento a respeito do habitar na cidade. / This work interprets the removal of a favela (slum) of Vila Madalena, an west area of Sao Paulo, in 2005, through ethnographic study conducted before and during the removal of the same favela (slum) and collection of lifes stories of its former residents. The focus of this work lies with the way these people interprets the house, things and the surroundings like: the relationship with neighbors, the neighborhood and the city. Ask again the question of removal as something within their paths of life, not isolated in time and space. To reinterpret these interpretations about the text of the subject and their daily observation about the slum (favela) and two years after their removal, that approach seeks open the senses of this experience, opening it other uses, aiming prepare a thought about the living in the city.

The Kenyan society is patriarchal, has an alarming rate of deforestation where rural farmers, especially women, are highly affected by climate change. There is little research on companies operating in dry areas with a mission to address poverty, ecology and women. The objective of this study was therefore to understand how an investment model can alleviate poverty in rural Kenya and what the consequences of doing so are for the local community. This was answered using a qualitative research approach presented in an ethnographic case study, conducting 29 interviews. The field research took place at three different locations at Better Globe, an agroforestry company operating in dry areas who mainly employ and work with women in rural Kenya. Our research, analysed through an ecofeminist lens, demonstrates that the local community benefits on several areas; access to water, employment, firewood and grass, microfinance, training and education. However, there is a big power distance within the company and a high dependency from the workers as Better Globe is the sole big employer in the region. We welcome further research between the merging of ecofeminism and business, operating within the structures of the patriarchal and capitalist society.

The author's ethnographic study of a professional development program for managers and aspiring managers taught at a distance intends to make a substantial contribution to both the theory and practice of continuing education for professionals. The study focused on a group of Deakin University Master of Business Administration (MBA) participants and their experiences of the final two years of the program. Theorising on the professional development experience was based on data gathered from the direct observation of participants working in their study groups and at residential schools. Moreover, data drawn from end-of-year interviews with participants and discussions with MBA teachers also contributed to the theorising process. Theorising spanned a broad set of interactions encompassing participants' formal educational, professional and personal worlds. The thesis is devoted to two aspects of the professional development experience, namely: participants' interactions in their study groups and at residential schools; and participants' attempts to grow and develop as competent professional practitioners during their MBA studies. Interactions with key learning contexts orchestrated by the teaching institution (i.e. study groups and residential schools) are grounded in an analysis of the changing group cultures observed to accommodate the different educational demands of the program. Group interaction on a broader scale is also analysed in the context of the residential schools. The residential school provided a powerful forum for the development of participant activism over the future development of the MBA program. The analysis of the study groups in action led the author to identify the key characteristics of effective educational work groups. The implications of the success of these essentially egalitarian and leaderless groups for the formation of self-managed groups in the workplace is examined. On the matter of professional development, the author reveals the relationships between the nature of participants' jobs, their search for professional integration, their stage of professional empowerment, the strategies they pursued either to empower themselves or others in their organisations and the barriers which were encountered in the pursuit of empowerment. Dramatic examples of professional disempowerment are analysed indicating that interaction between formal off-the-job learning and professional practice in the workplace is not necessarily a smooth and positive experience. The group of participants studied are seen to be heterogeneous in relation to the above factors characterising professional development The implications of the theorising are considered in relation to professional pedagogies, assessment strategies and distance education. Distance education is seen to socially construct the roles of both teachers and students in the educational process. Specifically, teachers are seen to be somewhat marginalised during the program in use whereas the participants are located at the centre of the educational experience. The primacy of participants in the educational process is highlighted through the growing reliance on self-and peer-group assessment skills as participants progressed through the program. It is argued that the teaching institution should encourage and maintain the development of these skills as they represent a major learning outcome of the professional development experience, i.e. the ability to engage in the process of critical self-reflection and informed action.