This is a study of architectural competitions as they engage with the design practices of architects within the UK and Europe. Since only one firm or one design emerges at the end, and the project programme exists prior to the submissions, there tends to be a gap between programme and practice, past and future, language and situation. It is the aim of this research to investigate what changes in our understanding of architectural practice when we acknowledge that architects work to linear programmes and submit deliverables within the set of relations that make up the competition. In conducting this research I address a gap in the social scientific understanding of architectural practice. While ethnographies of architectural studios have described the way design emerges through an interplay of humans and nonhumans, formats or structures like the competition have not yet become analytical categories in the ethnographic literature. To bridge what seems like a gap between the immaterial world of the competition and the material world of the studio, I draw from actor-network theory to view the competition as a set of relations that include objects and practices. Considering the technology of the competition, I follow five different strands of research. I identify the matters of concern that architects talk about when they talk about competitions; examine the documents involved in administering a competition; follow an atelier at an architectural school where students participate regularly in competitions; observe the Office of Metropolitan Architecture prepare a concept design; and visit an exhibition of submissions. Here I describe the ways in which competitions come together within the practice of architects. This study makes three contributions. First, the study adds to our understanding of architecture as a set of relations, rather than a stable identity. The second contribution has to do with language and practice, demonstrating that ‘big’ categories like ‘building’ nevertheless act within collectives of architects, clients, contractors and so on. A final implication is for methods. Since certain categories exist between sites, organising the activity of actors in different offices across what might be hundreds of miles, ethnographic fieldwork on architecture can become fragmented and multi-sited. The implications of the architectural competition for an ethnographic understanding of architectural practice, then, are to see more and ‘bigger’ collectives within the lives of architects.

The purpose of this study is to formulate criteria for the evaluation of the declamation, the selection of material for declamation, the method of coaching, the method of delivery, and the value of the declamation contest as a method of teaching.

Part of the importance of the problem can be seen through the value of speech contests. One of the various means of realizing the purposes of speech education is through the speech contest, the practice of getting together with others for the comparison of formal speaking activities. The value of the speech contest was recognized centuries ago by the Greeks. “Speech contests are old devices; that stimulate a student to his greatest endeavors by a desire to win approval or victory over his fellows in not a product of this mad, modern naturalistic age.” From that early beginning contests have had an eventful history, hitting many rough spots on the way. From the depression to the post-war period of World War II there was a trend toward abandoning speech contests.

Yes / In recent years, constructionist methodologies such as discursive psychology (Edwards & Potter, 1992) have begun to be used in sport research. This paper provides a practical guide to applying a discursive psychological approach to sport data. It discusses the assumptions and principles of discursive psychology and outlines the stages of a discursive study from choice of data through to transcription and analysis. Finally, the paper demonstrates a discursive psychological analysis on sport data where athletes are accounting for success and failure in competition. The analysis demonstrates that for both success and failure, there is an apparent dilution of personal agency, to either maintain their modesty in the case of success or to manage blame when talking about failure. It is concluded that discursive psychology has much to offer sport research as it provides a methodology for in-depth studies of supporting interactions.

The purpose of this study was to assess on a national level, high school band directors' reasons for their bands' participation in six different types of competitive music activities, identify important reasons for participation in competitive music activities, and examine if statistically significant differences existed between the magnitudes of importance reasons for participation when subjects' responses were grouped by type of competitive activity, frequency of participation in a competitive activity, and by groupings of U. S. states similar in terms of general participation in competitive music activities, emphasis upon ratings or rankings as an indication of a high school band directors' success, and emphasis upon participation in competitive music activities.

Submitted in fulfilment or partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education in Music in the Faculty of Education at the University of Zululand, 1993. / A big question for the researcher is whether the current school choir competitions have positive or negative effects on the choristers and the rest of the community. Therefore the aim of this study is to look for the possibilities of enriching this choral practice or drawing everyone's realisation to the effects that exist in choral competitions. The procedure of interviews and questionnaires has been employed because not much information about this study has been investigated and preserved. The habit of competitions is retraced back from the Zulu culture, where there exists a non-musical competition. Speech and melody, harmony and rhythm is cited with the nature and African tendencies in mind. The NATAL AFRICAN TEACHERS' UNION is an organisation that has made and kept school competitions going. Four regions of NATAL have been used as a field of study. This is because each of these regions has a college, and colleges also serve as a source of information. Questions used during research have been justified with an intention of making it possible for the researcher to get information related to attitude, experience, amount of participation and the level of literacy.

Thesis (MMus (Music))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die Kersfeesorkeste is ‟n Christelike tradisie binne die Kleurling-gemeenskap van die Wes-Kaap wat dissipline en goeie waardes by lede van hierdie gemeenskap inboesem en musiek in voorheen benadeelde en minderbevoorregte sektore van die samelewing bevorder. Die geskiedenis en agtergrond van die Kersfeesorkeste is soortgelyk aan dié van die Kaapse Klopse en die Maleierkore, wat veral prominent na vore kom tydens die Kersfees- en Nuwejaarsfeestelikhede in die Kaap. Alhoewel hierdie drie groepe ‟n nou verbintenis tot mekaar het en dikwels deur die publiek saamgroepeer word, funksioneer hulle onafhanklik van mekaar en is daar beduidende verskille in kultuur, repertoire, kleredrag, organisatoriese struktuur en samestelling. Hierdie studie fokus op die Perseverance Kersfeesorkes en ondersoek dié orkes in sy vele fasette binne die raamwerk van wat in die musiekwetenskap deesdae “gemeenskapsmusiek” genoem word. Die kenmerke van die begrip “gemeenskapsmusiek”, soos dit in die laaste 15 jaar in ander lande geformuleer is, word aan die hand van die Perseverance Kersfeesorkes getoets om uit te vind of die Perseverance Kersfeesorkes as ‟n voorbeeld van gemeenskapsmusiek beskou kan word en, omgekeerd, of die begrip “gemeenskapsmusiek” aan die hand van hierdie geval in alle opsigte gepas is of dalk aangepas moet word. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Christmas Bands are a Christian tradition within the Coloured community of the Western Cape that instils discipline and values amongst members of this community and promotes music within previously disadvantaged and under-privileged sectors of society. The history and background of the Christmas Bands is similar to that of the Cape Minstrels and Malay Choirs, who are very prominent during the Christmas and New Year festivities in the Cape. Although these three groups have a close connection they function independently of each other. There are significant differences amongst these groups in respect of culture, repertoire, uniform, organisational structure and composition. This study focuses on the Perseverance Christmas Band and examines this band in all its different facets within the framework of what, in current musicological terminology, is called “community music”. The characteristics of the concept of community music, as they have been formulated in other countries over the last 15 years, are tested against the Perseverance Christmas Band to determine whether the Perseverance Christmas Band should be understood as a example of community music and, vice versa, whether the concept of community music itself is valid when measured against the Perseverance Christmas Band or whether it needs adjustment or expansion.

No description available.

The conviction that the music competition festivals should be better organized and better administered has led to the study of this topic by many serious-minded music leaders.The present study will deal with this all important phase of the contest or festival--the organization and administration of a vocal competition festival. The writer has no intention of setting down a set of rules and regulations to be followed by all directors of contests in all situations. He rather would suggest the use of a set of findings which should help contest directors to organize and administer an event which should be of great educational value both to the directors and the students.

This work deals with the Mathematical Olympiad competition, and it is divided into two sections. The first section focuses on the history, organizational structure and the results of pupils in each year, comparing them. Part of this section also discusses and summarizes the International Mathematical Olympiad, mainly the achievements of our competitors. In the second section of the work is my own research on teachers' knowledge of Mathematical Olympiad. The research was focused mainly on the base of the competition at schools, what teachers know about its structure and most importantly what they think about the whole competition, how teachers and their pupils evaluate it.