This thesis explores the ways in which an actor training scheme can be constructed to allow the participants to directly apply the principles of training to their work in the moment of performing. Subsequently, my aim is to employ this actor training approach alongside or as an alternative to the current acting courses in undergraduate drama programmes in Thai universities. Three practical projects were carried out as part of the research. In the first project, I attempted to identify essential areas of enquiry in a psychophysical actor training approach, and the tasks that needed to be tackled by an actor in rehearsal and performance that allow what may be considered the quality of an actor’s presence to emerge. In the second practical project, I examined the function of meditation in motion as an actor training tool that enables the participants to tackle their performance tasks. In the third practical project, I explored the ways in which meditation in motion can be employed in a university actor training course in Thailand to enhance the students’ mindfulness in performance. This thesis argues that Buddhist concepts of meditation and mindfulness are beneficial to the course facilitator in terms of the structuring of an actor training course, and to the students when approaching performance tasks. The main result of this research is a psychophysical approach to actor training, focusing on the practice of meditation in motion and the Buddhist concept of mindfulness of the present, designed specifically for Thai undergraduate drama programmes. Moreover, this thesis demonstrates a move away from the East-West binary towards a more localised and customised approach to actor training in Thailand and the utilisation of resources within the Thai or the broader Asian culture. It also opens up other possibilities of applying Thai or Asian philosophies to performance training, without relying on the Western perspectives on theatre and performance.

Corporate codes of ethics (CCEs) have become increasingly prevalent as overarching ethical guidelines for multinational corporations doing business around the globe. As formal documents, governing corporations’ work, policies, and ways of doing business, CCEs are meant to guide all business activities and apply to all of the corporation’s employees, suppliers, and business partners. In multinational corporations, this means that diverse countries, cultures, and a myriad of heterogeneous actors are expected to abide by the same standards and guidelines, as stipulated in the CCE. Despite this empirical reality, CCEs have previously been approached by academics mainly as passive company documents or as marketing or management tools, in the contexts of their country of origin. Building on Actor-Network Theory this thesis applies an interactionist ontology, and relational epistemology, seeing the code as a sociomaterial object with both material and immaterial characteristics, and moving in a global arena. Furthermore, the CCEs are assumed to be susceptible to change, i.e. translations. With these assumptions, the CCE of a multinational corporation is followed as it travels between its country of origin (Sweden) and another country (China) and goes to work in different contexts. Heterogeneous empirical materials such as interviews, company documents, observations, shadowing, and emails are used to present stories from different contexts where the CCE is at work. The overall purpose of the thesis is to contribute to the theorizing of CCEs, thereby providing further understanding of the possible consequences of CCEs in contextually diverse settings. By following traces of a CCE, this study posits the need for a simultaneous understanding of three dimensions of CCEs for CCEs to be understood in contextually dispersed settings. The three dimensions are a) material translations of the code, b) enactments of these translations, and c) ideas associated with the material and enacted code.  The study contributes to the understanding of CCEs by highlighting a specific country-context (China), by putting together knowledge from codes in various contexts, and the overarching contribution lies in highlighting codes as different kinds of objects and adding to the existing literature – specifically, contextualizing the CCE as a vaporous object.

Despite the broad discourse on fragile states and the threat they pose to the contemporary world order, the literature on the subject does to a large extent ignore the material factors behind the causes of state fragility. Scholars and organizations in the field have almost exclusively adopted the Social Contract Theory (SCT) in order to explain state fragility as a problem caused by social factors. This study broadens the discourse by applying SCT as well as the Actor-Network Theory (ANT) on the case study of Sudan, in order to do a deductive theory testing of the added value of each theory. The results of this study show that while the Social Contract Theory does explain many factors behind state fragility, the application of the Actor-Network Theory adds to this by also incorporating the networks between the social and material determinants in societies. This research contributes to the debate on fragile states by adding to the scarce research on the materiality of fragility through the use of the Actor-Network Theory. The positive results of this thesis encourage future use of this theory in the field as it has the potential to give new insights in how to deal with fragile states.

The purpose of this study was to discover what relationship, if any, exists between the actor's perception of audience feedback concerning his portrayal of a character in a drama and the audience's perception of that particular character.

This thesis investigates the cultural uses and implied signifying practices of the work of actors who are popularly and frequently described as 'Shakespearean.' Though ubiquitous figures within culture, there is a dearth of criticism which questions what qualities are invoked in the use of the term ‘Shakespearean’ and what implicit judgements of value or taste, class or cultural function are at work in its attribution. Although works such as Carol Chillington Rutter’s Clamorous Voices have analysed the figure of the female Shakespearean, moreover, the male Shakespearean remains largely an unexplored site of meaning and definition. It is this focus on the body of the actor which represents my original contribution to knowledge. Indeed, despite the preponderance of actor-based studies in Film Studies or, indeed, Theatre Studies, Adaptation Studies has been slow to locate the body as an adaptive site; concentrating instead upon themes, authors, the work of directors or, more recently, the influence of production factors. My thesis argues for the Shakespearean actor as a site of adaptation, positing it as a conduit for the transferable commdity value which is ‘Shakespeare’ and thereby considering the differences which may occur in the production of meaning as the Shakespearean actor moves between cultural hierarchies: from ‘high’ to ‘low’, or mainstream culture. An essential part of this thesis and an aspect which further argues for its contribution to this field is, therefore, analysis of popular cultural texts which have largely been ignored by adaptation critics. Although figures such as Richard Burt have recognised the value of popular or counter-cultural texts for an understanding of Shakespeare’s far-reaching and often surprising influence, the more tangential work in the Shakespearean actor’s filmography provide equally valuable ground to mine. An understanding of a Shakespearean actor’s cultural function is thus served by critiquing their mainstream films as well as their more documented Shakespearean oeuvre. By focusing on the implicitly multidirectional possibilities of adaptation as a process, I explore what values the ‘Shakespearean’ holds in contemporary culture and whether these maintain a popular perception of the Shakespearean actor as a representative of conservatism, elitism and ‘high’ culture. Or, whether the Shakespearean actor contains the potential for subverting some of the associations which Shakespeare’s legacy has accrued over time.

Biofuels have caught the attention of the world as a source of renewable energy which can provide energy security, advance rural development, mitigate climate change, and foster international trade. India developed the National Mission on Biodiesel (NMB) as a rural development policy option to produce biodiesel from Jatropha curcas and promoted it as a pro-poor and pro-growth initiative. This thesis examines the emergence, trajectory, and the consequences of the NMB to assess how the NMB worked as a test development policy programme in India. The thesis focuses on the policy-making process in India, particularly the role of narratives in development policy-making and how it leads to blueprint development. It argues that the narratives supporting the NMB were based on shaky scientific facts and did not represent the needs of the rural people. The thesis takes into account that policy processes involve various actors, networks, their interactions and their knowledge, communication of knowledge and politics. It traces the role of various actors such as policy-makers, bureaucrats, researchers, professionals from private companies and NGOs, farmers, and landless labourers involved in the biodiesel mission. This thesis is anchored in the discipline of Science and Technology Studies (STS) and it draws from Actor Network Theory (ANT) and Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) to analyse how the NMB progressed as a test policy model and whether it really was a ‘pro-poor’, ‘pro-growth’ development initiative. Hence this thesis studies how development narratives were used to promote the biodiesel initiative, how networks were created to establish the biodiesel mission as a policy option and advocate its adoption, and in turn how the NMB progressed as a development initiative. As the thesis draws from SCOT the discussion will emphasise on the practices of a society adopting a technology/development initiative, the importance of users (scientists, policy-makers, farmers, labourers, representatives from the industry and NGOs), how users are represented, and in turn how the NMB had an impact on the people adopting it. This thesis contributes to the understanding of the policy-making process of development renewable policies in India and it also examines the apparent inevitability of technological solutions to development challenges. It also contributes to the literature of narratives serving as ‘blueprints’ for development policy-making. Additionally it adds to the literature on biofuels and reveals the complex nature of regional and national networks that comprise a part of the rising Global Biofuel Network.

The sociotechnical system of print-on-paper for the dissemination of textual information prevails despite widespread concerns about its sustainability. On the basis of sociotechnical transitions theory the print-on-paper system is perceived as a regime. Information technology is identified as one of the generic technologies that has the potential to address the unsustainability of the incumbent regime. Its potential effects are examined through the development of the electronic book, which is defined as those IT applications providing an alternative form of textual display to printed paper. Yet, such applications have remained marginal. According to sociotechnical transitions theory the electronic book can be seen as a niche in relation to the print-on-paper regime. An alternative conceptualisation of transitions as a process of network reconfiguration is suggested. On that basis, the electronic book is depicted as a number of emergent innovation networks. Social Network Analysis methods informed by network approaches to innovation theory are applied to visualise and discuss these emergent networks. In one of the representations, the electronic book is mapped as a sociotechnical network including organisations, users and technologies. It emerges that network formation often transgresses a distinct niche-regime divide. Patterns of network interaction are explored and assessed as to whether they represent a sociotechnical transition in progress. The analysis reveals different patterns of network formation which are indicative of prospective sociotechnical trajectories where different concepts of the electronic book are emphasised. It emerges that the discussion of sustainability and the emergence of the electronic book remain largely unlinked.

Over the course of the past ten years, both studying and teaching Voice & Speech for the Actor, I have become frustrated with the status quo of so called 'standard speech'. The two dialects that I have studied in depth are Edith Skinner's 'American Classical Stage Standard' and Kenneth Crannell's 'Career Speech'. I have found something lacking in both the Skinner dialect and Crannell's 'Career Speech'. Yet, I believe that each has a strength from which the other could benefit. The specificity of the Skinner dialect makes 'American Classical Stage Standard' not only easy to learn but also an excellent tool in ear training. The problem with this dialect is that before its artificial creation, it did not exist in the American English language. Additionally, 'American Classical Stage Standard' is not appropriate for theatrical works in a contemporary setting. Conversely, the 'standards' that have been formed in reaction to Skinner's method, such as Crannell's 'Career Speech', are rooted in American English Speech. But since Crannell's 'Career Speech' relies heavily on observation, the resulting paradigm avoids specificity because in the real world not everyone speaks in the same way. The dialect that I am setting forth in this project is my attempt to combine the Skinner dialect and Crannell's 'Career Speech' to create a dialect that is contemporary but non-geographic specific in sound. My American Actor's dialect will be simple and efficient to learn and teach and will provide the student with a base dialect for further study in voice and speech for the stage and for contemporary American theatrical works set post 1980 if there is no dialect called for in the script or if the director chooses not to include dialect work in that specific production.

Implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) goes beyond a technological modification to automate the identification of US clients and report their information to the IRS. FATCA implementation requires foreign financial institutions (FFIs) to learn the new requirements, to modify their organizational structures and their employees’ relationships and responsibilities, and to adjust the technology that helps the employees collect new FATCA-related information and to process that information so that it can be reported to the IRS in the correct format. In spite of that, research on FATCA implementation has focused on studying each constituent separately. However, according to the information systems (IS) body of research and from a systems thinking perspective, the whole (the bank that is complying with FATCA as a system) is more than the sum of its parts (the information, technology, and social structures that it includes). For this reason, this dissertation argues that in order to achieve an effective FATCA implementation and reduce tax evasion activity, FATCA implementation should be studied from an IS perspective. This will assist in appreciating the complexity of FATCA implementation and compliance and will help practitioners to better anticipate future uncertainties. The dissertation uses actor-network theory (ANT), as it is a socio-technical theory, to investigate the implementation of and compliance with FATCA in a Jordanian local bank. Our interpretation revealed a number of problems in the bank’s compliance initiative; among them were the issues of overlooking technology, information, and the bank’s customers as actors with interests of their own. Accordingly, we provide eight propositions that can enhance the effectiveness of FATCA compliance. Tax-evasion has been shown in the literature to be a predicate crime involving money laundering (ML), i.e., a crime that generates proceeds that need to be treated in secretive ways so that they can be falsely legitimized. We argue in this dissertation that the findings of our case study could provide lessons for the anti-money-laundering (AML) domain in relation to its structurally coupled domain of ML. Thus, we presented some lessons that can be tested in the ML/AML domains.

The diploma work deals with the transformation process of amateur theatre into the regular professional company in Příbram. The main interest is given to the period beginning with the foundation of official amateur societies after 1867. The first part of the work deals with amateur societies acting in the area of Příbram. A sort of transition from amateur to pro-fessional theatre is described in the chapter about the Society for Building the Town Theatre at Příbram. The second part of the work covers the beginning and later destiny of the profes-sional scene in Příbram. For a better idea on the situation of Příbram theatre groups a general development of both the amateur and the professional theatre is drawn up for comparison. Appendix to the work helps the reader to gain a better image of the atmosphere and circum- stances of the development of play-acting in Příbram from the second half of the 19th century till today. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)