Purpose/Aim: The purpose of this thesis is to study the interaction between seller and buyer in a mobile phone store. The specific research questions under investigation are:Are there any underlying factors behind mobile purchase, and if so, what are they? Are mobile purchases driven by lifestyle factors and do customers try and create identities when purchasing new mobile phones? Material/Method: The study employs an ethnographic method when trying to answer the posed research questions. I have under a period of two weeks studied the seller-buyer interaction in a mobile phone store. In order to further increase the accuracy of my findings, I have complemented my observations with a sample of buyer and seller interviews. Main results: The observations and interviews were initially studied in isolation, resulting in different themes. These themes were then collapsed into some common themes pertaining to the different methods. Overall, I conclude three major findings from the seller-buyer interaction which I name, (1) context and influence, (2) status, and (3) social accepting.

The purpose of this article was to examine how students learn to use the Individual Development Plan (IUP) with written assessments as a tool for learning. The study is conducted according to an ethnographic approach. A total of 20 students, aged 13-14 years, participated. The production of data took place through participating observations, field notes and conversations. A qualitative content analysis was used for data analysis. The results of the analysis yielded the following codes: Clarification as a tool for learning; Difficult to understand as a tool for learning; Participation as a tool for learning and; Irrelevant as a tool for learning. Results of the study was coupled with an analytical model in which the concepts: integrated; mastered; and appropriated was in focus. The results showed that the students participated in the process of IUP with written reviews in varying ways. The type of participation they chose was dependent on how implemented, mastered and appropriated the practice with IUP with written judgments were.

Public library services are evolving in response to the changing informational needs and behaviours of the citizens of the knowledge society. Reference statistics are declining and the move to self-service, virtual reference and an increasing use of mediating information and communication technologies calls into question the ongoing role of human, face-to-face information interaction at the public library’s front-line reference “desk”. An ethnographic case study of face-to-face adult reference service was conducted in a large Canadian urban public library. Over 8 months during 2006, a pilot study was conducted, followed by 170 hours of observations at the reference desks in three branch libraries of varying sizes and semi-structured interviews with front-line reference staff, library managers and reference service clients. 480 reference interactions were documented and policy documents were reviewed. An inductive staged process of analytical abstraction, a narrative approach to the interpretations and a critical reflexivity as participant researcher were employed. The main contribution of this study is the articulation of a practice framework for understanding and studying the reference service within the public library as organization. Sharing knowledge, finding meaning and learning are the outcomes of this epistemic practice. A typology of four reference encounters characterized in three dimensions of interpersonal communication; information exchange and mode of practice is detailed. This study challenges previous interpretations of reference services as a transactional, unitized question-answer activity and depicts it in a larger context as an interactional, relational set of activities that altogether characterize an epistemic practice. The three dimensions of structure (library organization), agency (reference staff and clients) and objects (library collections) anchor this conceptual framework – they are interdependent dimensions interacting to illuminate a robust understanding of face-to-face reference service. This study responds to previous research in which the reference process is studied separately from its social practice and its structural-organizational contexts.

Presently, over five million English-language learners (ELLs) are being educated in U.S. schools, and by the year 2020, more than half of the public school system population in the U.S. will be from families whose native language is not English (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2005). Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) (Ladson-Billings, 1995) provides a framework for classroom teachers to meet the needs of diverse learners. This ethnographic case study describes what CRP looks like for young ELLs and how a pre-kindergarten school teacher and her bilingual paraprofessional successfully implement CRP. This study: (a) examined the manifestation of culturally relevant pedagogy in a pre-kindergarten classroom for English-language learners, and (b) investigated the ways two teachers promoted three central tenets of CRP in their pre-kindergarten classroom: (1) academic success; (2) cultural competence; and (3) critical consciousness. The research questions were explored by collecting fieldnotes during 20 classroom observations, 3 individual interview transcripts, 3 individual member-checking transcripts, and 15 classroom documents. Findings were based on an open-coding analysis process and a priori coding to demonstrate examples of culturally relevant pedagogical practices and beliefs. The data suggests five major principles of CRP for young ELLs: (1) Oral multilingual classroom language experiences for young children occurred frequently; (2) Monolingual and bilingual teacher collaboration was beneficial for teachers and young children’s language and cultural development; (3) Children’s funds of knowledge were employed and integrated into classroom learning experiences; (4) Peer-to-peer interactions promoted language learning, literacy, and cultural understandings; and (5) Teachers’ and children’s acknowledgement of cultural similarities and differences were built upon. Furthermore, teachers promoted academic success by not accepting student failure and making students responsible for the academic success of their peers; cultural competence is established when teachers encourage children to interact effectively with others from different cultures; and critical consciousness is fostered when children know their authentic stories, are able to stand up for themselves, and ask questions about the world around them. These findings provide a greater understanding of CRP for young ELLs, specifically in a pre-kindergarten context, and hold important implications on future research on CRP.

Public library services are evolving in response to the changing informational needs and behaviours of the citizens of the knowledge society. Reference statistics are declining and the move to self-service, virtual reference and an increasing use of mediating information and communication technologies calls into question the ongoing role of human, face-to-face information interaction at the public library’s front-line reference “desk”. An ethnographic case study of face-to-face adult reference service was conducted in a large Canadian urban public library. Over 8 months during 2006, a pilot study was conducted, followed by 170 hours of observations at the reference desks in three branch libraries of varying sizes and semi-structured interviews with front-line reference staff, library managers and reference service clients. 480 reference interactions were documented and policy documents were reviewed. An inductive staged process of analytical abstraction, a narrative approach to the interpretations and a critical reflexivity as participant researcher were employed. The main contribution of this study is the articulation of a practice framework for understanding and studying the reference service within the public library as organization. Sharing knowledge, finding meaning and learning are the outcomes of this epistemic practice. A typology of four reference encounters characterized in three dimensions of interpersonal communication; information exchange and mode of practice is detailed. This study challenges previous interpretations of reference services as a transactional, unitized question-answer activity and depicts it in a larger context as an interactional, relational set of activities that altogether characterize an epistemic practice. The three dimensions of structure (library organization), agency (reference staff and clients) and objects (library collections) anchor this conceptual framework – they are interdependent dimensions interacting to illuminate a robust understanding of face-to-face reference service. This study responds to previous research in which the reference process is studied separately from its social practice and its structural-organizational contexts.

The object of this master’s dissertation has been to investigate one-person enterprisers’ (OPE) experiences of conducting both personal identity and brand at social network sites (SNS). The purposes of this research have been to elaborate on sociological theories of brand and identity in a network society context and to present hypotheses on how SNS can be developed to empower all OPEs. Since this field is rather unexplored in sociological research, and because it is the experiences of the OPEs that are the focus of the research, ethnographic methods, i.e. qualitative interviews, were chosen. These interviews were then analysed, primarily through Erving Goffman’s theory of self-presentation, Manuel Castells’s theory of identity, and the sociological concept of life-conduct deriving from Max Weber. The findings provoked both theoretical and empirical conclusions. The theoretical hypothesis is that Castells’s and Goffman’s respective theories should be used as back and front end interpretations of everyday life conduct. The empiric hypothesis provoked is that some OPEs have a strategic (as opposed to a sincere) approach to SNS. These OPEs are experiencing alienation and anomie. To manage this, SNS need to focus more on tools for social communication and less on methods for making SNS ends in and of themselves.

This study examines the watercolor drawings of indigenous Americans in the Trachtenbuch, a small sixteenth-century manuscript by Christoph Weiditz. The manuscript was titled as a trachtenbuch by the Germanisches National Museum Library when cataloged in 1868, and Theodor Hampe published the first facsimile under this title in 1927. As this title suggests, the manuscript has long been narrowly defined and examined by scholars as a costume book. I argue instead for broadening the reading of the Trachtenbuch from a costume book, a subset of ethnographic documents that identify individuals based solely on systems of dress, to a visual ethnographic collection, which documents individuals in a more holistic fashion; examining them not only through their systems of dress, but also through their customs, actions, and societal roles. By addressing the Trachtenbuch as a visual ethnographic collection, I argue that Weiditz's manuscript visually frames the indigenous Americans as performers and laborers in their new context in Imperial Spain. The Imperial Spanish court was deeply affected both by the discovery and subsequent invasion of the previously unencountered Americas, and it became a site where the flow of new information from the Americas to Europe could be organized and managed. This study suggests that Charles V's presentation of the American natives as his court performers reflects one strategy for propagandizing his control over the Americas and managing the influx of new information by placing the exotic indigenous Americans in the familiar role of court performer, thus neutralizing their foreignness. Weiditz accompanied the court of Charles V as it traveled throughout most of the Iberian Peninsula and on through the Netherlands during the years 1529-1532, and he had the opportunity to view the indigenous Americans first-hand in a setting governed by the emperor. Reading the Trachtenbuch as an ethnographic document allows for broader interpretations based on both the dress and action portrayed in these likely eye-witness images. These depictions indicate that Weiditz internalized Charles V's strategy by juxtaposing the indigenous Americans as performers with Europeans of various occupations or roles, thereby visually assigning the role of court performer to the indigenous Americans. However, through imbuing the images of American natives with similar bodily composition, action, and dress to his depictions of laborers, Weiditz enhances the indigenous American role in Imperial Spain from mere curiosity to both performer and laborer.

Pour Boltanski et Chiapello (1999), la critique artiste a été récupérée par le capitalisme. La motivation repose aujourd’hui grandement sur certains principes au nom desquels il était critiqué dans les années 60. Pourtant n’existe-t-il pas dans certaines organisations artistiques des grandeurs, valeurs ou pratiques, des modes d’organisation et de vie commune, constituant un ferment critique qui n’a pas été récupéré par le capitalisme contemporain ? Une exploration de type ethnographique a été menée au sein d’Odin Teatret, au Danemark, une organisation où la critique artiste s’élabore et se vit. Nous avons observé et participé au total pendant six mois aux créations et activités de ce groupe hors norme. Dans un premier temps, en nous inspirant de la description dense de Geertz, nous avons constaté que, bien que parfois avec des formes et une acuité particulière, bien des ressorts décrits par Boltanski et Chiapello étaient à l’oeuvre mais que cependant certaines énigmes demeuraient. Abandonnant l’approche cognitive de Geertz pour celle plus réflexive et tournée vers les affects de Stewart, nous avons ensuite entrepris de poursuivre et re-décrire notre expérience en insistant sur le désir, la transformation, la présence, pour chercher une autre manière de faire sens, riche et affective, de l’activité à Odin. Dans un troisième temps, cette expérience à Odin est réfléchie grâce aux concepts de Stiegler. Nous comprenons alors que ce lieu est le théâtre de certains processus différents de l’entreprise capitaliste, fut-elle organisée en réseau. L’individuation psychique, collective et technique, le rôle du désir et d’une certaine économie libidinale, le rôle du non calculable, l’insistance de la recherche non de motivations mais de ce qui fait que la vie mérite d’être vécue… sont autant de facettes qui ne peuvent être que partiellement récupérées par l’économie capitaliste. Par ailleurs la présence, l’ouverture au possible, la créativité, peut-être même l’authenticité, demandent un entraînement long, répété et épuisant (exigeant). A la différence de la standardisation et de la pulsion dans la consommation, il s’agit de mettre son être en mouvement – non pour devenir une forme précise, mais cherchant le mouvement pour lui-même qui ouvre à la présence et à une intensité de vie. Une critique artiste, réinterrogeant ces éléments, peut toujours être présente, même virulente contre un capitalisme qui fait de nous des endormis et des corps stupides / [non communiqué]

This thesis is about the process of becoming, or not becoming, a primary school mathematics teacher. The aim is to understand and describe the professional identity development of novice primary school mathematics teachers from the perspective of the novice teachers themselves. The study is a case study with an ethnographic direction where seven novice teachers have been followed from their graduation and two years onwards. The ethnographic direction has been used to make visible the whole process of identity development, both the individual and the social part. The empirical material in the study consists of self-recordings made by the respondents, observations and interviews. The empirical material is analysed in two different but co-operating ways. First a conceptual framework was developed and used as a lens. Second, methods inspired by grounded theory are used. The purpose of using them both is to retain the perspective of the respondents as far as possible. At the time of graduation the respondents are members in a community of reform mathematics teaching and they want to reform mathematics teaching in schools. In their visions they strive away from their own experiences of mathematics in school and practice periods. Four cases are presented closely in the thesis as they show four various routes into, and out of, the teaching profession. These four cases make visible that the respondents’ patterns of participation regarding teaching mathematics changes when they become members in new communities of practice with mathematics teaching as part of the shared repertoire. But, the four cases also make visible that the existence of such communities of practice seems to be rare and that the respondents’ different working conditions limit their possibilities of becoming members in those that exist. During the time span of this study, the respondents hardly receive any feedback for their performance as mathematics teachers. Even if they teach mathematics they don´t teach it as they would like to and they don´t think of themselves as mathematics teachers. Two years after graduation none of the respondents has developed a professional identity as primary school mathematics teacher. A primary school teacher in Sweden is a teacher of many subjects but they are the first teachers to teach our school children mathematics. For the respondents to develop a sense of themselves as a kind of primary school mathematics teacher, mathematics teaching has to become part of their teacher identities. For this to become possible, mathematics must become a part of their image of a primary school teacher as an image of a primary school mathematics teacher. Furthermore memberships in communities of practice with mathematics in the shared repertoire must be accessible, both during teacher education and after graduation. Then professional identity development as a primary school teacher would include becoming and being a teacher of mathematics.

Given the proliferation of technological tools, environments, and supports within the field of education, and the predominant investigative orientation of educational technology researchers being intervention-focused, a minority of scholars have called for other ways of understanding the nuance and contours of educational interactions and technology. This study explores the possibilities for such an orientation at the public elementary school level by maintaining a non-traditional theoretical and wide contextual focus. Toward this end, this study performs and constitutes an experimental mode of address meant to further considerations of educational technology use and educational technology discourse in and around school libraries, second, third, fourth, and fifth grade bilingual, ESL, and regular classrooms. This work is a Deleuzian experiment in New Ethnographic Writing and New Ethnography that also explores aspects of critical design ethnography and the affinity-based design of an educational mashup. Ethnographic attentions were applied over four-year period concentrating on language arts, ESL, and literacy activities. Through performative writing, loose networks of individuals, artifacts, places, processes, movement, and machines are explored. / text