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This study explores the relationship between wood-crafting activity and technological development in metal tools during the Late-Middle and Late Bronze Age in Southern England. It suggests that a number of tool types and forms can be characterised as direct responses to specific crafting processes. The study further suggests that through analysis of those tools and crafting processes, the socio-technological relationships between craftspeople and materials can be better explored. The thesis makes a case for the importance of wood-use during the British Bronze Age as a material key both to a range of craft activities and technological change. The discussion highlights the lack of a cohesive analysis of its use, potential and material relationships. It suggests that a semantic approach to craft practice can inform as to how those practices were facilitated, and that particular craft processes focussed on wood-use are manifested in surviving tools. Four tool types are examined - socketed axes, gouges, chisels and saws; their morphology and structure are analysed to discern variations in function and structural trends which are suggestive of common approaches to production and use. The results of this analysis are linked to woodcrafting practices to highlight how particular forms of each tool type were targeted to activity. The study concludes by arguing that Bronze Age tool forms, and their production, were the result of a complex network of social, technological and developmental influences. It finds that a number of forms were indeed targeted to specific wood-crafting tasks, and that tools ostensibly produced separately followed common structural trends which derived from those tasks. The study also concludes that certain tool forms such as saws manifest multi-material developmental origins, and that analysis based on crafting functions has the potential to provide a more cohesive perspective of Bronze Age tool development than has previously been developed.

Textile conservation, defined here as the preservation, investigation and presentation of textiles, is often viewed largely as a technical and aesthetic problem. This research develops an alternative view by understanding objects as being subject to both material and social change. The dynamic aspects of this material and social process is emphasised as ‘stuff happens’. This research proposes, and provides evidence for, a material culture approach to textile conservation, and demonstrates its development and application. An analysis of case studies shows how the material and the social interact at the point of assessment and intervention. Examination of the material aspects of textile conservation reveals that social values influence decision-making. Values held at the time of conservation are shown to depend on the categories used. Investigation of these categories demonstrates that any anomalous quality of the textile undergoing conservation allows for contestation of social values. As values change over time, analysis of each conservation assessment and intervention reveals a comparison of values held at different times viewed retrospectively. The resulting approach is centred on the interaction between things, persons and language where each mediates relations of the others. It is argued that this material culture approach enhances understanding of the dynamic material and social environment of textile conservation principles and practices.

Nigerian textile and clothing industries is face with crisis under the pressure of influx of smuggled second-hand clothing and cheap and poor quality of Chinese textiles. The situation has resulted to closure of many textile industries and massive unemployment with inability of the few existing industries to compete favourably base on price. The study was carried out in Abeokuta among tie-dye/batik practitioners and consumers of tie-dye/batik products with the aim to examine the challenges facing the resist dyeing industries. The research method is divided into three: Theoretical- this involves using secondary data from books, journal, newspaper, and the web to gather background information; Statistical- this involves the use of questionnaire to gather primary data. The data collected was analysed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Scientist); and Visual- this entails the use of images to establish facts and make judgement on the basis of the facts discovered. The findings revealed that the challenges facing the practitioners are multi-facet ranging from poor educational status, lack of adequate training/re-training programmes, poor financial status, low customers’ patronage, poor management and marketing skill, lack of adequate and functional social amenities, low purchasing power of consumers who often buy on credit and pay on instalment (some don’t bother to pay their debt), increased competition from smugglers of second-hand clothing and imported Chinese textiles, poor/ no knowledge of information technology, low access to international/ overseas markets and minimal willingness to take risk. Consumers of tie-dye/batik are pertinent to the study. The findings from the consumers shows that about half of the consumers interviewed cannot afford to buy clothes monthly while slightly more than half buy clothes on credit and pay on instalment. The industry has being affected with change in taste of consumers, consequently one third of the consumers do not patronise tie-dye/batik fabrics. Consumers pointed out that tie-dye/batik fabrics are not colourfast and the designs are too common (frequently seen). Consumers also complained of poor customers services of the practitioners. Base on the findings, the study proposes holistic approach to the challenges. A sustainable model of five major pillars (Continuous innovation, Customer Relationship Management, Government Policy Support, Networking and Practitioners Personal Capacity Development) is proposed. Absence of any of the pillar will result to sustainability collapse of tie-dye/batik industry. Other model being proposed include establishment of an Export Centre with an effective and efficient two way communication model; EVIPI an acronym of English words to stimulate innovative entrepreneurial drive in niche marketing, a model for internal secondhand clothing to revisit the pass me down clothing culture among the Yoruba and a networking model to complement each other for development.

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This thesis assesses the role of the Government (in Mexico) and the Foreign Trade Council of Mexico (BANCOMEXT) in the internationalization of Mexican small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in low- and medium-technology industries (LMT), which is the main group of firms serviced by BANCOMEXT-Europe. It also sheds light on the internal and external barriers this organization has identified as affecting the internationalization of these SMEs from developing countries (Mexico) in developed and distant markets (the European Union). To achieve this, a case study was undertaken in the six offices of BANCOMEXT (now PROMEXICO) in Europe: Italy, the UK, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and France. BANCOMEXT is the most specialized governmental organization dealing with the internationalization of SMEs. The story told by the BANCOMEXT officers is analysed from the international business (the Uppsala model and the role of government intermediaries in the internationalization of SMEs), innovation and policy perspectives (the national system of innovation (NSI) approach) and the economic perspective. After the inductive analysis of the interviews undertaken with government officers from BANCOMEXT-Europe, 220 concepts that span the policy, macro, micro and meso levels were identified. The findings suggest that BANCOMEXT-Europe has mainly contributed to the internationalization of LMT-SMEs by the provision of information and by putting these firms in contact with potential clients abroad, but there are some unattended areas in which BANCOMEXT-Europe could expand its activities to contribute to the internationalization of LMT-SMEs. This thesis also uncovered that the SMEs' performance and the scope of BANCOMEXT's activities have been negatively affected by problems of different origins. Some of them are internal to Mexican SMEs, and there are also external barriers of both domestic and foreign origin inhibiting the SMEs' internationalization and explaining their very limited participation in foreign markets. These problems are enhanced by the environmental differences (differences in institutional set-ups) between Mexico and the EU and the geographical distance. In addition, this research provides empirical evidence from a developing country (Mexico) about the pervasive consequences of the lack of governmental support and policies for the internationalization of LMT-SMEs. This research calls for more active participation from the Government and policy makers to contribute to long-term economic growth from the supply side by improving SMEs' competitiveness through interactive learning, knowledge access and knowledge creation, innovation (incremental innovation) and the provision of favourable conditions for the internationalization of LMT-SMEs. Accordingly, a series of suggestions aimed at improving the competitiveness and internationalization of Mexican LMT-SMEs in the EU is also presented.

This thesis is an exploration of women's domestic crafts in the Geelong region, between 1900 and I960, Through analysing oral testimony and the women's handicraft artefacts, the nature of the domestic production of handicrafts and the meanings the makers have constructed around their creations and their lives is illuminated. The thesis is organised around the themes of work, space, the construction of femininity, memory, time and meaning. The thesis argues that until recently, the discipline of history has privileged the experiences of men over those of women. It challenges the trivialising of women’s handicrafts. It also argues that within the restrictive social structures around them and within the confined nature of their situations, the women of my study asserted themselves to transform their environments and to improve their situations through labour in the home. In ‘making do’, recycling materials and creating functional and decorative needlework items for their homes and families, the women were often finding solutions to pressing practical and economic problems. Doing handicrafts was rarely just a passive way of filling in time. Rather, making and creating was for these women a multi-layered activity that similtaneously fulfilled a complex range of needs for themselves and their families. A multiplicity of deeply personal, aesthetic, familial, social, practical and economic needs were met in the making of domestic craft artefacts, whose symbolism reflected the values and meanings of the women's cultures, homes and families.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people participate in art and handicrafts study circles organized by educational associations, and thus receive an increased esthetic education. The degree of this increase in knowledge is dependent on the quality of the particular study circle, the extent to which they live up to the aims and conditions required for the receipt of state grants. There are some indications that educational associations sometimes close their eyes to these aims and conditions and neglect to provide information about them. An educational association is able to control the quality of art and handicrafts study circles—for example, through the selection of course leaders, and by providing course leaders with better information and in-house training. Educational associations also receive state grants for this type of activity. The grants are not specifically ear-marked for this purpose, and it is the educational association itself that decides how to use the grants received. Certain areas of activity can be given priority over others. It is therefore of interest to examine the official attitudes of the various aducational associations towards their activities within the area of arts and handicrafts. This study, which concentrates on the four major educational associations in Sweden- the Workers' Educational Association (ABF), the Adult Educational Association (Vuxenskolan), the Educational Association of the Citizens' School (Medborgarskolan), and the Salaried Employees' Educational Association (TBV)-is based on the following: - a direct method, involving an analysis of official publications, e.g. charter, programme, publications and journals - a questionnaire directed to the Directors of Studies at the various educational associations - an indirect method involving the analysis of the educational associations' reactions to the cultural policy introduced in the 1970s. The results of the study show that none of the educational associations give esthetic activities the highest priority, despite the fact that in the eases of Medborgarskolan and Vuxenskolan these activities are clearly dominant, and also constitute the major activity for TBV. There are many signs that instead indicate that the interest in esthetic activities is rather luke-warm. The associations also question the aims and conditions that the state has drawn up in order to maintain a certain standard in the content of study circles. TBV and Medborgarskolan consider these aims and conditions to be too demanding. Vuxenskolan does not appear to have any unified policy concerning these aims and conditions, and ABF appears to deny the very existence of fixed aims for study circle acitivites. / digitalisering@umu

The Small- to Medium- Sized Enterprise (SME) has attracted the attention of researchers and governments because of the increasingly important role it is playing in national and international economies. The current research is directed towards understanding the internationalisation of this important economic unit, specifically the internationalisation of SMEs in the East Midlands region of the United Kingdom. The research adopts a critical realist philosophy, used by researchers to explain the decision-making process, and applies it in a different context to provide insights into the internationalisation process of the SME. A critical realist approach is used as it enables an understanding of the roles of structures and the contingent environment in facilitating differing levels of SME internationalisation. These are factors that are believed to operate at a level below that of the observable. The study adopts a mixed methodology (a questionnaire survey and two company case studies) that identifies three main issues, including, the international orientation of the industry, previous international experience of management, and the age of the firm. The survey also identified two other issues, perceptions of competition levels, and technology. All of these factors heavily influenced the differing internationalisation levels seen. The two case study companies were used to illustrate the issues at a real level, highlighting the effect of the structures of the capitalist mode of production and the supply chain. The roles of these structures were shown as not deterministic, as the affect of structure was only exhibited under particular contingent conditions in the external and internal environments

This thesis presents a new approach for fabricating free standing structures on flexible substrates using the screen printing technique. The research addresses electronic textile applications and is intended to provide a new method for realising sensors and complex structures on fabrics. Conventional smart fabric fabrication methods, such as weaving and knitting, are only able to achieve planar structures with limited functionality. Packaged discrete sensors can also be attached directly to fabrics but this approach is unreliable and unsuitable for mass production. The reported materials and the fabrication processes enable free standing structures to be formed by printing functional layers directly on top of the fabric. This reduces the fabrication complexity and increases wearer comfort and the flexibility of the fabric. This research details an investigation into sacrificial materials suitable for use on fabrics. A plastic crystalline material (Trimetlylolethane (TME)) was identified as an appropriate sacrificial material because it sublimates which reduces the chance of stiction occurring. A screen printable TME paste has been achieved by dissolving TME powder in a solvent mixture of cyclohexanol (CH) and propylene glycol (PG). The TME sacrificial paste can be cured at 85 oC for 5 minutes providing a solid foundation for subsequent printed layers. This sacrificial layer can be removed in 30 minutes at 150 oC leaving no residue. EFV4/4965 UV curable dielectric material was identified as an appropriate structural material for use with TME. The feasibility of the sacrificial and structural materials has been demonstrated by the fabrication of free standing cantilevers and microfluidic pumps on fabrics and flexible plastic films. Printed cantilevers, with capacitive and piezoelectric sensing mechanisms, have been demonstrated as human motion sensors. A printed microfluidic pump with a maximum pumping rate of 68 μL/min at 3 kHz has also been demonstrated. Both the cantilever and micropump have been demonstrated, for the first time, on fabrics and polyimide substrates, respectively.