Thesis (M.Phil.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-114). Also available in electronic version.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of California, San Diego, 2010. / Title from 1st page of PDF file (viewed July 21, 2010). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Includes bibliographical references: Leaf 31.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2007. / Title from PDF title page screen. Advisor: Darrell Spells; submitted to the Dept. of Chemistry. Includes bibliographical references (p. 46-47).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in electronic version.

Thesis (M.Com.(Economics))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Texte remanié de: Th. Ph. D.--London school of economics. / Notes bibliogr.

The thesis deals with the concepts of Millenarianism and the witnessing of Faith through costume, textiles and related arts. The responses of five religious sects, Amish, Shaker, Puritan, Quakers and Mennonites, are examined. This text falls into two discrete sections. Chapter One details the historic background of the sects. Subsequent chapters outline the Millennial impulse of the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries and resulting emigration to the New World. These chapters detail Utopian social models and a discussion of textiles and clothing as indicators of history and human experience. Chapter Three is an overview of religious iconography in this area of American art, touching on themes and the role in society of both the art and the artist. It discusses allegory and symbolism in the visual arts. The second half of the thesis focuses on the costume and textiles of each group. Particular consideration is given to the use of iconography, symbolism and allegory in their visual creations. Internal doctrinal differences are examined such as interpretations of the Biblical injuction to be 'plain', and the central role that the concept of being 'not conformed to the World' plays in the social/aesthetic/religious development of the sects. Apparent theological contradictions are highlighted and addressed. Pressures on each sect to adapt to the cultural norm that have resulted in change and disintegration are detailed.

Orientador: Armen Mamigonian / Banca: Miguel Gimenez Benites / Banca: Tania Maria Fresca / Resumo: A indústria têxtil do Vale do Itajaí, em Santa Catarina, teve sua formação com a chegada dos imigrantes alemães, no final do século XIX, através da instalação de uma pequena fábrica de camisetas, em Blumenau, atual Cia Hering. A empresa, por sua vez, passou por transformações ao longo de sua história, chegando a investir, após o processo de reestruturação administrativa e produtiva, acarretada pela abertura econômica dos anos 90, do século XX, em recursos humanos, ou seja, em valorização e qualificação da mão-deobra, por meio de cursos especializados em áreas produtivas. Investiu também na distribuição dos produtos no varejo, pois, atendendo aos pequenos mercados (de forma indireta, através das franquias), a empresa conseguia ficar mais perto do consumidor. As grandes empresas passaram a terceirizar boa parte da produção, principalmente nas áreas de costura, possuindo as facções em municípios vizinhos (Rodeio, Ascurra, Ibirama, Gaspar), mudando, assim, a organização do processo produtivo, haja vista que a desintegração vertical implica estruturas elaboradas na produção, na informação, como também na transformação do espaço regional, garantindo a qualidade dos produtos, principalmente, com a utilização de tecnologias flexíveis e redes de franquias. / Abstract: The industry textile of the Valley of the Itajaí, in Santa Catarina, had its formation with the arrival of the immigrants German, in the end of century XIX, through the installation of a small t-shirt plant, in Blumenau, current Cia Hering. The company, in turn, passed for transformations throughout its history, arriving to invest, after the process of administrative and productive reorganization, caused for the economic opening of years 90, century XX, in human resources, or either, in valuation and qualification of the man power, by means of courses specialized in productive areas. She also invested in the distribution of the products in the retail, therefore, taking care of to the small markets (of indirect form, through the surmountings), the company obtained to be more close to the consumer. The great companies had started to terceirizar good part of the production, mainly in the sewing areas, possessing the factions in neighboring cities (Rodeio, Ascurra, Ibirama, Gaspar), moving, thus, the organization of the productive process, have seen that the vertical disintegration implies structures elaborated in the production, the information, as also in the transformation of the regional space, guaranteeing the product quality, mainly, with the use of flexible technologies and nets of surmountings. / Mestre

The main aim of this project was to find new tools and finishing techniques for designing recyclable, aesthetic ‘surfaces’ within the context of a ‘closed cycle polyester economy’ (Livingston, 2003). This can be explained as a mechanism of industrial ecology where all waste can be reused in a perpetual material metabolism or system. Of the total textile fibre produced globally, up to 65% is lost, post-consumer, to landfill, incineration or composting. Of this, at least 50% is said to be recyclable (Laursen et al, 2005). In particular polyester, a synthetic fibre group derived from oil, is responsible for as much as 79% of the global synthetic fibre market, at 31.9 million tonnes in 2009 (Engelhardt, 2010), and therefore represents a significant proportion of this textile waste. Polyester is a thermoplastic material and as such is fully recyclable, thus making a closed cycle polyester economy a theoretical possibility. Therefore sending it to landfill is an unnecessary waste of a non-renewable resource. However, if this textile fibre is used without an understanding of its material make-up, this inherent recyclability can be inhibited. Many design approaches to recycling are end-of-life interventions that can be described as ‘extended life techniques’ rather than ‘design for recycling’. In order to design fully recyclable polyester textile products, potential barriers to recycling needed to be identified and ‘designed out’ at the production stages. Current processing and finishing methods such as chemical coatings or lamination, commonly used in the industry’s ever growing desire for performance and functionality, often create barriers to this continuous cycle, by mixing materials with different reprocessing needs into an irreversible state. These complex hybrid materials leave a legacy of waste and prevent inclusion in future fabrications (Allwood et al, 2006). If polyester textile products are preserved as monomaterials during their production they can be returned for reprocessing into virgin quality material over several cycles through chemical repolymerisation. The research set out to find new, technological alternatives to these traditional finishing techniques which could be employed to preserve monomateriality in polyester materials in order to work within the boundaries of a Cradle to Cradle metabolism (McDonough & Braungart, 2002). Laser processing was selected as the most appropriate tool for development, because of its ability to manipulate thermoplastic materials through heat and its potential for flexible control through digital means. The resulting prototypes showed that several finishes which would normally need chemical coatings or adhesives could be achieved without any added agents. In summary, this research contributes to knowledge firstly by proposing a new model for designing ‘Cradle-to-cradle (C2C) textile products’ that can contribute to a future closed- loop material economy and secondly by presenting a new application of laser-welding technology as a tool for the finishing of 100% polyester textiles which can be repolymerised at end-of-life.