Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1966. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

The aim of this thesis is to examine family wineries’ wine tourism diversification decisions in terms of wine producers’ self-constructions. The focus lies on understanding which motives drive family businesses’ decisions to engage in diversification. A case study approach is adopted, using the Italian wine region of Langhe in Piedmont. The dominant debates within the current literature have primarily concentrated on the economic-social dichotomy in relation to diversification decisions. It has been argued that diversification decisions are predominantly economically driven, highlighting the importance of profit maximisation and risk reduction. This thesis highlights the limitations of the economic-social dichotomy approach and argues for the need to take the social context into account when examining the decision-making process. An interpretivist approach to research is adopted in order to extend current understandings of family businesses and their motives underlying diversification decisions. In line with the interpretivist perspective, this thesis uses discourse analysis (DA) as a methodological approach for analysing and interpreting wine producers’ accounts. The findings reveal that by engaging in discourse about wine tourism diversification, wine producers construct a distinctive, coherent and desired sense of self, which in turn influences family wineries’ decisions to diversification. In this instance, the concept of identity formation plays a central role in explaining family wineries’ motives for diversification. Linking wine producers’ motives for diversification to their self-constructions provides a new insight into how family businesses engage in decision-making. Wine producers’ discourses reveal that their decision-making processes are inextricably linked to sustaining a positive sense of self. Decisions are not only taken to achieve economic goals, but are likely to be influenced by deeper motives, notably wine producers’ identity constructions. The main contribution of this thesis is that it advances understanding of family businesses’ decisionmaking processes by developing a multi-layered conceptual framework to go beyond the economic-social dichotomy in order to reveal wine producers’ semi-conscious and unconscious motives for diversification.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Master of Arts / Department of History / Andrew Orr / The history of Italy during World War I has often been characterized by the eleven bloody and inconsequential battles on the Isonzo River from 1915 to 1917. The twelfth battle, Caporetto, was one of the most lopsided defeats of the war. The subsequent development of an inter-Allied Supreme War Council has often been portrayed as a British and French creation with little Italian input. However, the defeat at Caporetto actually signified the rapid escalation of Italy’s influence among her Allies. Combined with American tentativeness and Russian collapse, the winter of 1917-1918 offered key Italian leaders the opportunity to manipulate debates on Allied strategy. Ultimately, the Italians could not keep true to the promises they made during a succession of inter-Allied conferences. This failure led to indecision by Italian leaders during the critical campaigns of 1918 and disillusionment in Italy itself during the post-war era.

No description available.

This thesis takes as its point of departure the debate on federalism that emerged in Italy in the years preceding the unification of 1861 and that resumed in the early 1990s, a debate mainly revolving around the profound socio-economic differences between the North and the South of the country. Torn between continuous centripetal and centrifugal forces, but not characterized by ethnic connotations, the Italian regional model implemented with the 1948 constitution and strengthened in 2001 elicits questions that intersect with topical debates engaging scholars across the globe, and displays features that have the potential to stimulate fruitful discussions both inside and outside Italian borders. While the present state of Italian regionalism remains ambiguous, the Italian regional model distils lessons coming from different theoretical experiences, including federalism, sub-state nationalism, and the European unification process. Therefore, it can be seen as an innovative experiment crafted by those who were looking for a compromise between unitary and federal schemes. Adopting a theoretical framework combining literature on federalism, regionalism and sub-state national theory, this thesis addresses a number of questions that help fill a gap in scholarship. The thesis discusses the relationship between federalism and regionalism, arguing that regionalism is an overarching term that incorporates diverse experiences; consequently, the regional state paradigm to which Italy is usually associated is just one of the many shapes that regionalism can take. The research also identifies the elements enabling us to differentiate between a federal and a regional model, as well as the advantages of opting for a regional scheme (as opposed to a federal one). The socio-economic tensions between the North and the South of Italy offer the ideal basis to discuss non-national differences, an expression used to indicate political and socio-economic communities located within a geographical territory displaying some de facto asymmetries compared to the state-wide community, seeking some form of acknowledgement of their specificity. The thesis argues that national differences (e.g. differences based on linguistic, religious or other cultural issues) are not the only ones requiring attention, and it identifies a number of legal and constitutional stratagems that could be used to address non-national difference. Also, the recognition of non-national difference may also help find a solution to issues regarding sub-state national recognition. Finally, the thesis tries to find a point of reconciliation between federalism and solidarity, particularly in the context of non-national difference. The Italian regional experience serves once again as the point of departure to discuss whether federalism and solidarity are conflicting ideas, and to open a discussion regarding the exact contours of solidarity, especially in its horizontal understanding.

In this paper the sources and origins of the ornament on the west facade of Siena Cathedral are examined in order to find the artistic developments which influenced the Gothic style in Italy. The ornament on the Siena Cathedral facade can be subdivided into two stages, one of which was influenced by French Gothic art, and one by Italian art, both Classical and Tuscan Romanesque architecture. The form of the west facade wall at Siena Cathedral was modelled after French facade wall forms. Due to French influence brought into northern and central Italy by the constructions of the Cistercian monks, at Siena the Tuscan Romanesque, facade silhouette was abandoned for the French facade silhouette of a nave projecting above the aisle roofs. The first stage of ornament on the facade of Siena Cathedral is that of ornament which was influenced by French Gothic ornamental forms. The French Gothic ornamental forms which influenced the Siena facade ornament were not derived from French Gothic architectural ornament, but from the ornamental forms used to decorate the French Gothic carved ivory altarpieces. One such ornamental farm is the tourelle eg. Scenes from the Life of the Virgin and Childhood of Christ, French ca. 1300, Coll: Institutio de Valencia de Don Juan. That French Gothic ornament which was derived from an architectural source did not influence the Siena facade ornament is indicated by the fact that the role of the ornament on a French Gothic facade differs from that on the west wall of Siena Cathedral. The ornament on the west wall of Siena Cathedral creates a decorative screen which conceals the structure of the cathedral behind it. In French Gothic facades the purpose of the ornament is to create an easy transition from the sculpture to the structure of the facade, eg. the facade of Amiens Cathedral. The supposition that the architectural ornament which was used to decorate Gothic ivories influenced the ornament on the Siena facade is supported by the fact that at Siena there appear decorative schemes which appear only (at first) in ivory altarpieces, eg. the idea of the use of half-length figures in niches to create a border around a figure or scene of central importance is adopted at Siena to create a border around the west facade nave window. The third stage of ornament found on the Siena Cathedral facade was derived from Italian sources, from Classical art and Tuscan Romanesque architecture. The profiles of the stringcourse and gables on the Siena facade are similar to that of a Classical cornice. The three equal sized arches over the three west facade doors were derived from the decorative arcades of the Tuscan Romanesque facade. At Siena the retention of the Tuscan Romanesque concept of the facade as a screen wall made it possible to incorporate into the facade design the diverse ornamental forms mentioned. In conclusion, the form and ornament of the Siena Cathedral was found to be derived from primarily three sources, two of which were French, consequently the greater part of the Siena Cathedral facade design was influenced by French Gothic art. However, at Siena there occurs no imitation of the French Gothic. The French forms are joined with Italian ones into a homogeneous decorative surface. It may be concluded from the evidence of the sources of the ornament on the Siena Cathedral facade that the Gothic style in Italy was based on French Gothic developments which were fused with native Italian developments so that the Gothic style in Italy appears as it did in France, a new development based on the country's Romanesque tradition. / Arts, Faculty of / Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Department of / Graduate