Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / South Africa's health transformation blueprint is designed to replace apartheid's inequities and instill instead a new utilitarian approach by the health care sector. This study gives attention to the medical gaze and the body in hospitalisation. At macropolitical level the study focuses on the ways in which the new health policy impacted on power relations and multi-levelled subject positions of medical and nursing staff, as well as on patients in a hierarchy of spaces such as in the wards, in the institution and at a national level, in terms of policy implementation and the reconstruction of the health care services. It shows that policy and institutional discourses and arrangements were embedded in a regime of visuality which discursively homogenised people from different cultural realities. Yet, at the same time biases related to constructions of bodies in relation to class, age, gender and 'value' continued to exist. At the level of hospital protocols and structure the thesis examines the social, political and conceptual frameworks that conveyed, allowed or disallowed particular meaning to the institution. It describes the formal, dominant discourses and processes in the wards and show how these impacted on everyday interaction and relations of power, autonomy, authority, conflict and resistance. The study shows that for patients there often was a disjuncture between policy and practice, as biomedical practitioners and policy makers struggled to define the scope and implementation of health care services in response to pressures for change and concomitant fluctuation. By problematising the notion of the medical gaze and by giving attention to discourses and practices, which were not legitimated by it, the study draws attention to realities that were deemed largely irrelevant by western medical epistemology, such as subjective experiences and knowledge, which, though lacking the same legitimation as the gaze, did not disappear but only become less visible. In this way the study widens the social context in which medical practice can be perceived and understood within a transforming South African health care system.

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No / Since the introduction of the statutory recognition procedure the vast majority of new agreements have been voluntary in nature, yet increasingly employers are using this ambiguous state regulation as a means of avoiding recognition.The legislation allows for the game of voluntarism to be enshrined within the micro level politics and social relationships of work and employment: it crystallizes the culture and history of voluntarism in the regulation itself. It is, in effect, ironic in how it balances change with tradition. It makes the new regulation pliable and difficult to see as a step to a state-led approach.There is a resistant trend to unions generally even if recognition cases may vary in terms of employer orientations.This article focuses on such issues by addressing a broader understanding of regulation through an ethnographic case study analysis.

This thesis explores the mutual constitutions of visuality and empire from the perspective of gender, probing how the lives of China's ethnic minorities at the southwest frontiers were translated into images. Two sets of visual materials make up its core sources: the Miao album, a genre of ethnographic illustration depicting the daily lives of non-Han peoples in late imperial China, and the ethnographic photographs found in popular Republican-era periodicals. The study highlights gender ideals within images and aims to develop a set of 'visual grammar' of depicting the non-Han. Casting new light on a spectrum of gendered themes, including femininity, masculinity, sexuality, love, body and clothing, the thesis examines how the power constructed through gender helped to define, order, popularise, celebrate and imagine possessions of empire. In order to examine the visual transformations of images of non-Han, this study places the Miao albums and modern photographs side-by-side for comparison, revealing the different ways of seeing ethnic minorities when Han Chinese gender norms were de/reconstructed. The insights into the visual codes of gender also aim to place Chinese imperial models in a cultural context, testing how well the case of China fits into theories of empire generated mainly from European models. This thesis asks how imported imperial tools, in particular European technology and the science of human variations, were localised within the conceptualisation of nations in modern China. It also considers the relationship between text and image in historical analysis, uncovering the values of images to historians in novel ways. By taking an interdisciplinary approach, the thesis aims to contribute to the fields of gender, visual culture and imperial studies.

The research in this thesis was motivated by an interest in understanding the work and effort that goes into organising family homes, with the aim of informing the design of novel information technology for the home. It was undertaken to address a notable absence of in-depth research into domestic information and communication technology in the fields of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). To that end, this thesis presents an ethnographic study of everyday routines in thirteen family homes. Following an established tradition within HCI and CSCW, the study applies qualitative fieldwork methods as a means to investigate and interpret the empirical materials. Periods of extended observation and semi-structured interviews with the thirteen families over a three-year period form the basis of the empirical material. The materials are analysed using a hybrid perspective composed of a combination of influences from the study of material culture, to interaction analysis and ethnography. The hybrid analytical perspective draws out insights regarding the families’ mundane practices and the artfully devised solutions they use to organise daily life. Four household activities and artefacts are given specific focus: (i) household list making, (ii) the display qualities of refrigerator doors, (iii) the organisation of household clutter, and (iv) the devising of bespoke solutions in organising home life. Broader findings include the observations that people tailor solutions to meet their needs, that optimum efficiency is not the pre-eminent determinant in what method or artefact people choose to organise themselves and their homes, and that homes determine their individual characters in part by how everyday tasks and organisation are accomplished. In short, the personal qualities of these mundane practices are part of what makes a home a home. These findings are used to elicit implications for information technology design, with the aim of encouraging designers of domestic technology to be aware of and respectful towards the idiosyncratic nature of the home, and, wherever possible, to design in such a way as to allow the technology to be appropriated for families’ bespoke tailoring. To evaluate and address this point, two design projects, one on augmented magnets and another on a “media bowl”, are used to develop and test out this approach. Both projects are critically examined to reflect on the efficacy of the design approach and what lessons might be learnt for future studies and design exercises. The combination of detailed ethnographic fieldwork on family homes combined with the development of experimental design projects is intended to deepen the understanding of the mundane behaviours and everyday routines of family homes, in order to better inform the design of information technology for the home.

Observation of children, based upon careful watching and listening, is a key aspect of effective early childhood pedagogy, and yet research shows that early years practitioners struggle to observe children satisfactorily and find difficulty in planning provision based upon their observations. This finding is unexpected as there is a focus upon child observation in practitioners‘ initial training. This study set out to consider this anomaly through exploring new practitioners‘ understandings and uses of child observation during their first year of employment. The study took the form of a collective case study involving ten newly qualified early years practitioners. Taking an ethnographic approach, the project used participant observation in three early years settings, combined with semi-structured interviews with new practitioners and their mentors, to collect evidence of child observation in practice. Thematic content analysis of data, supported by the use of NVivo2 software, focused upon three aspects of the research question: firstly, new practitioners‘ understandings of the nature and purpose of child observation; secondly, why and how they use it; and, thirdly, observation as an aspect of their work within early years settings. Findings indicate that new early years practitioners demonstrate both informal practice, underpinned by an ethic of caring which guides observant, responsive work with young children; and formal practice, rooted in a developmental view of childhood leading to conscientious recording of predetermined, sequential, learning outcomes. The former is an intrinsic, connected response whilst the latter results from implementation of external policy requirements. Drawing inspiration from Dewey‘s pragmatist philosophy of education and from notions of wise practice, a new dynamic and relational approach to child observation is proposed, which may unite these dichotomous modes of thought and action and so enhance early years care and education.

The thesis and the two films form a practice PhD in drama exploring ethnofiction - an experimental ethnographic filmmaking approach pioneered by visual anthropologist Jean Rouch. In the mid-1950's Rouch started to experiment with fiction and 'projective improvisation' in ethnographic films such as Jaguar (1957-1967), Moi, unnoir (1957) and La pyramide humaine (1959). Film critics would call these films 'ethnofictions'. After agreeing a story outline, the camera simply follows the subjects' improvisations of their own, and others', lived experiences. The aim is to show aspects of ethnographic research otherwise hard to represent. A key question of the doctoral research has been whether a nuanced understanding of foreign cultures can be created and mediated by combining ethnographic research methods with the processes of dramatic work. Even though Rouch made ethnofictions as part of his ethnographic research, he infused the genre with elements of surrealism and poetry, and often opposed anyone trying to establish theories about his films. Defying Rouch's view on this matter, this thesis explores ethnofiction as an ethnographic filmmaking method by drawing on the experiences from fieldwork and filmmaking among transgendered Brazilians living in São Paulo. The fieldwork resulted in a feature-length ethnofiction and an ethnographic documentary short: Transfiction focuses on identity and discrimination in the daily lives of Brazilian travestis and transsexuals. Informed by transgendered artists, prostitutes, healthworkers and political activists, Fabia Mirassos projected her life through the role of Meg, a transsexual hairdresser confronting intolerance and re-living memories of abuse. Savana 'Bibi' Meirelles plays Zilda who makes her living as one of the many transgendered sex workers in São Paulo, as she struggles to find her way out of prostitution. Drama Queens is an ethnographic documentary short and contains four scenes from the over 200 hours of rushes that were recorded during the fieldwork. The scenes are from São Paulo's annual Pride Parade and present Bibi, Fabia and Phedra who were the main informants of the research conducted at the theatre Os Satyros in central São Paulo.

Bordados e bordadeiras, um estudo etnográfico sobre a produção artesanal de bordados em Caicó/RN tem objetivo investigar como o bordado uma prática artesanal, doméstica, feminina permite acessar questões de ordem social, econômica, histórica e cultural de uma determinada região do nordeste brasileiro. As redes sociais, tecidas em torno da produção do bordado, são hábeis para recriar relações várias em função das necessidades, das influências, das confluências, das apropriações e das transformações em torno da prática artesanal. Por isso, esta tese se dedica a apresentar, descrever e analisar o bordado como um eixo das relações sociais, fornecendo, ainda, pistas para novas leituras sobre uma região estigmatizada pelas ideias que cercam a sua geografia e sua história. Para investigar esse processo, a etnografia foi utilizada como método (incluindo: entrevistas, foto-entrevistas, acompanhamento do processo de produção e de comercialização de bordados). E, a fim de percorrer as múltiplas relações que se tecem nesse contexto, foram priorizados: (a) apresentação da região e da cidade, (b) descrição dos bordados, (c) elaboração da rede composta pelas bordadeiras e (d) bordados em circulação. / Embroidery and embroider, an ethnographic study on the craft production of embroidery in Caicó/RN aims at investigating how the embroidery, a handcraft, domestic and female practice, allows the approaches of questions about certain part of the Brazilian northeast regarding its social order, its economy, its history and its cultural factors. The social networks, woven around the embroidery production, are capable to recreate several relationships regarding the needs, the influences, the confluences, the appropriations and the transformations around the handmade practice. Therefore, this thesis has the purpose of presenting, describing and analyzing the embroidery as a spindle of the social relationships, which also provides leads to new readings about a stigmatized region regarding the ideas related to its geography and history. To investigate this process, the ethnographic method was used (including: interviews, photographic-interviews, monitoring of the production process as well as the embroidery commercialization). In order to wander the multiple relationships that weave in this context, the following has been prioritized: (a) the presentation of the region and the city, (b) the description of the embroideries, (c) the elaboration of embroiders network and (d) the embroidery in circulation.

Lolita fashion is a small youth fashion that originated in Japan but is inspired by historical western clothing. The clothing is not sexual in nature. Most studies look at the style in Japan, but the fashion has also found popularity overseas. This paper takes an ethnographic approach to studying the Lolita community in the United States by comparing two regional communities, Houston and South Florida. The research found that the largest difference between the two groups was size and community involvement, with Houston as the larger group and the smaller South Florida group being more concerned with group activity. The study found that compared to the strong subversive element of the wearers in Japan, the United States community at large appears to be motivated by Lolita as a creative outlet. There was no support of the idea that aging played a role in what kind of Lolita fashion was worn. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The purpose of the ethnographic narrative project was to understand ourselves and our students in a more in-depth manner. The ethnographic narrative project has allowed me to explore myself, my students, my classroom, the community I teach in, and the link each of these has to social justice. In order to best serve our students as educators, we must comprehend all of the funds of knowledge our students possess and utilize these facets to aid their learning. I have found that understanding my students cultural, social, academic assets is critical to fulfilling their needs both as students and individuals. I have also explored my own strengths and areas of growth as an educator and solidified my teaching identity. As educators we must not only teach our students academic skills teach social and emotional assets as well.