This study examines the functions of the idealisation of Indigenous peoples around the world. It has its focus on imperial discourses (the 1850s-1945) in the German-speaking world. The research places the German-language discourses within transnational contexts of imperial image production and argues that racial idealisation served the construction of white hegemony in different political settings and ideological systems. Identifying a perceptible increase in idealised images of Indigeneity after the loss of the German colonies in 1918/19, the study explains the reasons for idealisation not as abstract expressions of European escapism within the tradition of the ‘Noble Savage’ discourse but as vested political reactions to colonial politics. Focussing on a period of heightened imperial image production from the 1850s to Nazism, the thesis outlines that images of Indigeneity derived their conceptual origin from transnational and transhistorical primitivism that became appropriated by different political currents, including colonial revisionism and Nazism. This study argues that racial idealisation and stigmatisation were both part of racist discourses of white dominance and knowledge regimes. Idealisation, the present research shows, is not an epiphenomenon or exception of racial domination in imperial discourse but a central mechanism of construing racial hierarchy. Ultimately, the study argues that Indigeneity should be considered a category similar to sexuality, gender and class that informed the construction of race. Racialised Indigeneity was a flexible construct that allowed the formation of idealisation and stigmatisation according to political necessities without altering racial hierarchies. The theoretical discussion suggests that Indigeneity in imperial discourse helped to establish such hierarchies.

I have lived through nineteen mergers and acquisitions and without moving companies, have signed eight employment contracts, all following M&As. Only two of the eight companies still trade, the others went bankrupt or shut down. My roles have been in engineering, sales, middle management and more recently a contributor at meetings where M&As were discussed and advisors attended. Despite professional advice, these M&As rarely turned out as planned including the envisaged growth and improvements. Often matters got worse, even for top executives. Yet, in both the literature and the way that people talk, businesses and individuals are portrayed as separate entities, M&As are aimed at changing only the businesses and are routinely associated with growth and improvements. My experience of M&As includes confusion about power and powerlessness, a sense of loss of valued relationships, identity issues and idealization of merged businesses. Using a narrative methodology and taking my experience seriously (Stacey and Griffin, 2005), I explore change and continuity through M&As and the experiencing of organizational upheavals. I also explore change in the idea of M&As and how we think of them. Drawing on complex responsive processes theory, I argue that we can enhance our understanding of change and continuity through M&As by exploring our experience of local interaction. Combined organizations as patterns of local interactions between people where these patterns emerge and evolve in the interplay of intentions, plans, actions and choices of all involved includes those between members of the merged organizations and between them and advisors, mediators, shareholders, competitors, customers, regulators and the media. To say that combined businesses emerge in this interplay is to understand change and continuity in terms of these evolving patterns of local interaction. These patterns include interpretations and conversations reflecting our ideologies, power relations, identities, idealizations and expectations about M&As. My expectations and reflections were influenced by and influence the discourse about M&As which I argue as social object evolves through our complex responsive processes of relating. Idealization of merged businesses, professional advice, the mainstream view of M&As as growth and improvement which amounts to ‘putting thought before action’ (Griffin, 2002: 25), all emerge and evolve through local interaction validating reflexive exploration of experience to enhance our understanding of change and continuity through M&As.

Women from across the globe purchase and consume cosmetics in order to achieve their appearance goals and it is generally agreed that a consumers’ goal orientation may influence their interpretation of advertising materials and thus the purchase decision-making process. The cosmetics industry promotes their products using almost exclusively images of attractive, young, highly idealised women, and thus has a significant influence on female appearance ideals worldwide. Extensive research connects viewing idealised images to negative outcomes for consumers’ self-concept, however there are mixed results regarding the effectiveness of idealised models in advertising. Moreover, there are mixed results regarding the effectiveness of different message frames. The overall aim of this thesis is to investigate the effects of possible selves and cosmetic advertising on the consumption of cosmetic products. This research draws together areas of literature which have been studied in varying settings in order to determine the individual and collective effects of these independent variables; possible selves, model idealisation and message framing, on women’s attitude toward cosmetic advertisements and purchase intentions in the cosmetic product context. To understand the effects that goal orientation, as well as the images and text of cosmetic advertisements have on cosmetics consumption, an online experiment was conducted using a 2x3x2 between-subjects factorial design. The study manipulated three independent variables, namely, salient possible self (hoped-for and feared), model idealisation (more idealised model, less idealised model and no model) and regulatory message framing (desired reference and undesired reference) and measured the impact of these variables on attitude toward the ad and resulting purchase intention. The final data set was comprised of 420 responses from 18-35 year old females. A series of ANCOVA analyses were used to determine the effects of possible selves, model idealisation and message frames on consumers’ attitude toward the ad and their purchase intention. The results indicate hoped-for selves, no model advertisements and desired message frames are independently the most effective in the cosmetics context. However, the goal-compatibility hypothesis was not supported. Furthermore, findings indicate an interaction between the image and the message of cosmetics advertising, which suggests cosmetic advertisers must carefully consider the combination of the images and messages they use to promote their brand and products. The theoretical and managerial implications, as well as direction for future research are discussed.

Esta dissertação aborda a relação entre os conceitos de fronteira e de extinção na representação da tradição e da modernidade rural no romance de Thomas Hardy, Tess of the DUrbervilles, publicado em 1891. Em três partes, a pesquisa busca conhecer e indicar alguns limites e problemas de dois elementos da estética hardyana apresentados pela crítica como fundamentais: a idealização romântica do espaço natural e da personagem rústica por meio do uso de alegorias (bíblicas, mitológicas), apelo ao sentimento da natureza, recurso às fantasias e crenças locais , bem como o realismo empregado pelo autor na representação do cotidiano da vida e do trabalho rural que se conjuga com as prerrogativas da modernização, comuns de seu tempo. A pesquisa, então, chama a atenção para uma via estética singular nesse romance de Hardy, que parece bascular as fronteiras das duas medidas mencionadas e dá ao autor uma posição artística não exclusiva, mas bastante interessante e rica, que coopera para a compreensão das formas de representação e interpretação da realidade rural no fim do século XIX. / This dissertation approaches the relationship between the concepts of border and extinction on the representation of the traditions and the rural modernity in the romance written by Thomas Hardy, Tess of the DUrbervilles, published in 1891. Divided in three parts, the research seeks to know and point some limits and problems in two elements of Hardys aesthetics presented by the critic reviews as fundamentals: the romantic idealisation of the natural space and of the rustic personage through the usage of allegories (biblical and mythologys), appeal to the nature sentiment, recourse to fantasies and local behaves as well as realism employed by the author in the representation of the quotidian of life and rural work which marries with prerogatives of common modernisation at his time. The research, so, claims the attention to a singular aesthetic path in this Hardys romance that seems to tilt the boundaries of the two mentioned measures and gives the author an artistic position, non-exclusive, but interesting and rich enough to cooperate to the comprehension of representation models and interpretation of the rural reality at the end of the nineteenth century.

The concept of the croft (Sw. torp) is complex. From the 17th century crofts were small tenant holdings on a farm or estate. Along with changes in society since c. 1850, they were converted into freehold farms, second homes or left to ruins. They acquired new functional, social and symbolic values and today the croft is mostly associated with a rural idyll. The aim of the thesis is to study the transformations of the croft since1850 in order to understand how and why it has survived as a place and acquired the meanings it has. Thus the construction of place is in centre of attention. This process is approached from three angles: the materiality of the croft, ideas and representations of it and various practices relating to it. This is studied through historical documents and maps, text analysis and interviews, in part through three case studies in Uppland, Småland and Värmland. The main conclusions are that great changes notwithstanding, there are continuities in all three dimensions of the croft. This combination of inertia and change is central to how and why the croft has survived. The study also shows the importance of timing between available rural dwellings and a demand for such dwellings. Another conclusion is that the idealisation of the croft is old and not only a present day phenomena. Further, the different dimensions of the croft and the relations which can be found between them have been important for the transformation and survival of the croft. The materiality, immateriality and practices of the croft in the past remain parts of what constitutes it today, together with those dimensions in the present. The study shows the possibilities inherent in focusing on the intertwining of various dimensions and periods of time for the understanding of the processes of place construction.

Esta dissertação aborda a relação entre os conceitos de fronteira e de extinção na representação da tradição e da modernidade rural no romance de Thomas Hardy, Tess of the DUrbervilles, publicado em 1891. Em três partes, a pesquisa busca conhecer e indicar alguns limites e problemas de dois elementos da estética hardyana apresentados pela crítica como fundamentais: a idealização romântica do espaço natural e da personagem rústica por meio do uso de alegorias (bíblicas, mitológicas), apelo ao sentimento da natureza, recurso às fantasias e crenças locais , bem como o realismo empregado pelo autor na representação do cotidiano da vida e do trabalho rural que se conjuga com as prerrogativas da modernização, comuns de seu tempo. A pesquisa, então, chama a atenção para uma via estética singular nesse romance de Hardy, que parece bascular as fronteiras das duas medidas mencionadas e dá ao autor uma posição artística não exclusiva, mas bastante interessante e rica, que coopera para a compreensão das formas de representação e interpretação da realidade rural no fim do século XIX. / This dissertation approaches the relationship between the concepts of border and extinction on the representation of the traditions and the rural modernity in the romance written by Thomas Hardy, Tess of the DUrbervilles, published in 1891. Divided in three parts, the research seeks to know and point some limits and problems in two elements of Hardys aesthetics presented by the critic reviews as fundamentals: the romantic idealisation of the natural space and of the rustic personage through the usage of allegories (biblical and mythologys), appeal to the nature sentiment, recourse to fantasies and local behaves as well as realism employed by the author in the representation of the quotidian of life and rural work which marries with prerogatives of common modernisation at his time. The research, so, claims the attention to a singular aesthetic path in this Hardys romance that seems to tilt the boundaries of the two mentioned measures and gives the author an artistic position, non-exclusive, but interesting and rich enough to cooperate to the comprehension of representation models and interpretation of the rural reality at the end of the nineteenth century.

Ett beteende som vi kan återfinna hos många människor är tendensenatt idealisera tidigt uppstigande genom att tillskriva det positivaegenskaper, något vi valt att benämna morgonidealisering. Deninfluerar våra attityder gentemot såväl morgon- som kvällsmänniskoroch kan bidra till uppfattningar som saknar förankring i verkligheten.I en tvärsnittsstudie där vi samlade in data från enkäter ifyllda avrespondenter som var 15 år eller äldre (N = 246), undersökte vi hurutbrett morgonidealisering är i stickprovet, hur det påverkarvälmående, och huruvida det prediceras av kapitalistisk anda (attman besitter kapitalistiska värderingar), tillmötesgående ochsamvetsgrannhet. Vi fann att morgonidealisering inte har någotsamband med välmående, att samvetsgrannhet och kapitalistisk andapredicerar morgonidealisering till viss del och att morgonidealiseringexisterar i vårt stickprov. Vi bör uppmärksamma attmorgonidealisering existerar för att skydda oss mot den snedvridninggentemot olika kronotyper som den medför. Ett sätt att göra detta äratt upplysa allmänheten om att attityden existerar, att den inte ledertill mer välmående och vilka som är särskilt troliga att anammaattityden / The tendency to idealise getting up early in the morning by attributingit with positive qualities is a behaviour we can observe in a lot ofpeople. We call this behaviour morning idealisation. It permeates ourattitudes toward morning people as well as evening people andcontributes to certain prejudice against both. In a cross-sectionalstudy we gathered data from questionnaires completed by respondentsolder than 15 (N = 246). By analyzing the data we looked into howprevalent morning idealisation is in our sample, how it influenceswellbeing, and to what extent it is influenced by spirit of capitalism,agreeableness and conscientiousness. We found that there is noconnection between morning idealisation and wellbeing, that morningidealisation exists in our sample and that morning idealisation couldpartially be explained by spirit of capitalism and conscientiousness.We should acknowledge the existence of morning idealisation in orderto protect ourselves from biases towards different chronotypes. Oneway to do this is to inform people about the existence of morningidealisation, to show that it doesn’t lead to wellbeing and to show whoare particularly prone to pick up the attitude.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

This thesis explores the experiences of an educational project manager/team leader, and at some point job-seeker, mostly in foreign countries. The focus lies, in conclusion, on developing awareness of everyday politics, brought about mainly by a significant change in the understanding of three closely related concepts: culture, language and identity. The understanding of culture developed into a notion of culture of groups - part of complex networks of other groups - simultaneously formed by and forming interdependent people who are interrelating according to evolving/emerging, explicit/implicit customs, norms, values and ethics. The exploration of language revealed patterns of conversation, common to specific groups, allowing co-creation of significant symbols, of which appropriate use enabled communication, establishment and mutual recognition. Identity became recognised as a social construct - dynamically adapting to specific local circumstances (groups), to social acts, which it forms and is formed by at the same time. In researcher's management practice and career-coaching-trajectory rather abstract and idealised text and talk describing people and/in organisations was encountered frequently, seemingly aimed at reducing the inevitable uncertainty that results from the complexity of human relating. Attention is paid to ways in which people speak and write about them-selves and/at work and how this influences the experience of self and/at work, which revealed a relation between abstract and idealised conversational patterns and impacted sense of self. The career-coaching experience in particular exposed how these conversational patterns in/and the strategic construction of 'glossy' identities (of organisations and people) do not reflect everyday perception of self and/at work, as work is developed in social interaction, of which meaning is negotiated and evolves through people's differing intentions, expectations and emerging insights; through everyday politics. Becoming 'politically savvy', acquiring awareness of everyday politics, is necessary for our functioning in organisational life. The argument is that developing 'political savvy' - becoming self-conscious in complex organisational environments where strategically co-created idealised images of self, organisations and work are common practice - is increasingly taxing, as glossy identities 'airbrush' away the messiness of everyday work life. The challenge for managers is to endeavour to see beyond these images, explicit strategies and certain conversational patterns, and develop their ability to make sense - by reflecting and taking a reflexive stance - of what it is people are doing together. Taking seriously everyday experiences may provide choice, options to proceed, possibly to develop (trust in) 'political savvy', and may increase awareness of how people adapt, change and develop (in) social acts because of and despite this.