The social and economic experiences of older people in Scotland over the past two centuries provides a particularised lens through which larger themes of change and adaptation may be analysed. Older age cohorts are examined as specific identity groups within the context of a society in rapid transformation. The years c. 1845-1999 represent a period of time in which almost every sector was affected by industrialisation, urbanisation, migration, economic developments, technological and medical progress, and social reform. In combination with historical interpretations, modern sociological theory concerning the aged as a distinct social grouping provides the basis for further inquiry. Concepts such as status, social capital, interdependency, paternalism and citizenship have been of major importance in structuring this research. By means of demographic analysis, readings of written biographical documentation, and the incorporation of over fifty oral histories conducted in Dundee and Edinburgh, the role of the family in older people’s lives has been explored. Nineteenth and twentieth-century population trends have been incorporated as an area for detailed investigation of long-term familial practices. An understanding of the older person’s role in the family over time suggests a formalised socio-economic stability based upon kinship ties, gender roles, and economic and social reciprocity. Stage theory allows for examination of the economics of ageing, particularly in regard to employed and retired older people. Original research covering older people’s experiences of work in Dundee and Edinburgh provides qualitative and quantitative data on paternalistic policies in the brewing and jute industries, promotion and retirement practices, and economic status among the working elderly. The experience of being retired has been evaluated in terms of economic independence, social capital, class and gender. Analyses of the experience of retirement in the post-war era are bound with the rise of the modern welfare state. Significant government commissions and acts provide scope and sequence in an analysis of the role of the state in old age. Principally, the New Poor Law of 1845 (Scotland), the Pension Acts of 1908 and 1925, the National Insurance Act of 1946, as well as the social welfare acts of 1948 have been studied. Particular focus on the influence of the Social Work Act 1968 (Scotland) complements an overarching argument concerning Scotland’s unique practices in the modern welfare state. Emphasis is on care in the community, using statutory and voluntary services provided at the local level as case studies. Interpretations of older people in terms of their various roles in the welfare state, their communities and places of work, and within their families indicate that throughout the period, older populations have distinctively adapted to the long-term effects of modernisation in Scottish society.

Ernest “Dutch” Morial’s 1977 grassroots mayoral campaign disrupted the political status quo in New Orleans with his message of citizen participation. Morial’s citizen-driven campaign reached over the constituencies of established Black Political Organizations, capturing an eager audience with his message of political, social, and economic equality. With the help of volunteers and other community organizations, Morial created a grassroots campaign that focused on making city government more inclusive. Unattached to the traditional patronage structure, Mayor Morial empowered the black community, reducing the constraints of their political access. Although his legacy is difficult to discern in New Orleans current political realities, Morial’s first campaign and administrations represent a departure from the political status-quo and the powerful patronage structures critical to their status.

In my dissertation I survey the historic progress of the reality TV and the reality show, focussing on the specific genre of the talent shows, which stands for the current phenomenon of the entertainment industry in TV broadcasting. Using the method of the oral history I'll explain in detail the principals of running these shows on chosen formats and point out how different or same strategies can appear in shows all over the world. Further I'll focus on the structure and the level of a production, main features of the audience personality and behaviour, for example forming the relationship between the viewer and the participants on the basing on personal stories or praising and idealising the competitors. The next step of my analysis will be a depiction of the economic thesis and rules, which run the talent shows, which give them a direction and drive them on the TV market. I'll give an insight into the terms as the affective economics, building lovemarks or an inspiring fan, which are characteristic for the era of the convergence of media, which are considerably covered by talent shows. In the end my work depicts also the role of the jury and their specific trail, which are necessary for the viewer ratings and potential success of the certain show. Further my work will point out the typical marks...

The objective of the present thesis is to describe the situation in the interpreting industry in Czechoslovakia before the change of regime in 1989. The thesis specifically focuses on self-taught interpreters. The primary objective of the thesis is to collect and present, in a comprehensive way, personal memories of such interpreters. At present such memories are diffuse in texts on various topics or in personal, more or less extensive, memoirs of some of these interpreters. In addition, the thesis aims to present such memories against the background of the general developments in institutional interpreting in Europe and Czechoslovakia during the relevant period. With this thesis being the first domestic study of this kind, the method of oral history has been used and complemented with the analysis of archive materials. The empirical part of the thesis is mainly based on 12 interviews with self-taught interpreters, who were active interpreters in the second half of the twentieth century in our country. Furthermore, it compares and complements this information with written sources from that period (in particular Ad notam, the bulletin of the Czech Union of Interpreters and Translators) and outlines the practical and theoretical aspects of the then interpreting activities outside institutional...

This thesis discusses the topic of the organized translation activities in the second half of the 20th century. It focuses especially on translators of technical texts. The purpose of the thesis is to provide the basic overview of organizations and institutions which operated in Czechoslovakia, and to which the translation activities were concentrated. There is no similar systematic overview in the home professional literature yet. The research method of the oral history was realized via interviews with witnesses. Case studies, dealing in detail with one or another of the examined organizations or institutions, like International Federation of Translators, Translation Department of the Czechoslovakian Writer's Union, translation department in Škoda Auto a.s., International Organisation of Journalists, Prague City Tourism and World Federation of Trade Unions, resulted from the interviews. The information from the interviews was compared and general conclusions about the translating work in the second half of the 20th century were stated. KEY WORDS extern translator, institution, intern translator, technical translation, oral history, organization, organized activities, case study

The thesis "Czech music journalism focused on rock music during the period of normalization" reflects the position and importance of Czech rock music journalism within the structure and development of normalization of the media system. It is brought back through the oral historical research based on authentic evidence of their protagonists. It defines the initial prerequisites (ideological, political and socio-cultural) which are important to understand the circumstances under which rock music could be created and developed into an institution. It all depended on the confrontational attitude of communist power towards rock music generally. The next methodic element how to fulfill the defined goals is descriptive and comparative perspective. On this basis there is confronted official and samizdat's area of magazine production on the example of chosen periodicals. There also belong other qualitative aspects of music journalism (personalization, professionalization and every day editorial job). At the end the accepted conclusions are supported by the analysis and interpretation of chosen cultural and music events. They are divided by the method of their media coverage from official and samizdat periodicals.

This thesis deals with the life and work of two pastors of the Evangelical Church of the Czech Brethren, Alfréd Kocáb and Jiří Doležal, between 1968-1989. For this research the oral history method was used. The thesis contains a selection of interviews, which the author conducted with the pastors in spring 2013, and an interpretation of them according to the rules of the discipline of oral history. Preceding to the interviews available materials related to both pastors were studied, which are mainly documents in church and state archives, but also interviews with contemporaries of both pastors. The aim of this thesis is to create a platform to the pastors to speak, so that they can present their life and work according to their memories and comment various events, which constituted them. The two pastors represent two different wings in the ECCB in that period. In this way, these two concepts and accents of life and theology are entering into a mutual dialog. Through two life testimonies we can pars pro toto observe the life of the church and the country in the difficult years 1968-1989. The second aim of the work was to create new historical sources in the form of recordings of interviews and transcriptions of them.

Throughout World War II, the belligerent countries took enemy civilians, as well as soldiers, prisoner. The majority of the camps created to hold these prisoners were located in the European and Asian theaters of battle, but the United States operated prisoner of war camps and civilian internment camps as well. American internment camps, administered by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), imprisoned persons from the Axis countries of Japan, Italy, and Germany, deemed a threat to national security and categorized as a group as “enemy aliens.” Generally, these individuals were not threats, and a sizable number were legal U.S. citizens. Crystal City Internment Camp, located in Crystal City, Texas, interned individuals from all three enemy national backgrounds and allowed entire families to reside with the arrested family member. This research will attempt to highlight the daily experience of the internees in the Crystal City Internment Camp through internees’ oral histories and official camp reports, with a focus specifically on the German prisoners. Although scholars have examined these internment camps, little attention has been given to daily life in these camps.

The master thesis Bedřich Kocek and Czech Press Photography is concerned with the life and work of Bedřich Kocek - Czech photojournalist who worked in the renowned journal Svět v obrazech (translated as World in Pictures) for over thirty years. The theoretical part specifies the genre of journalistic photography and its development from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries to the 1980s. Furthermore, the development of the journal Svět v obrazech serves as an example for outlining the media and political context in Czechoslovakia since the end of World War II, when the periodical was established, until the 1980s, when Bedřich Kocek left the profession of a photojournalist. An especially valuable and vital part of the thesis is a chapter about the life of Bedřich Kocek, which has not been previously researched and described in detail. That section is based on personal interviews with the photographer using the oral history method. Moreover, the thesis explores the photographic work of Bedřich Kocek through the use of compositional analysis as well as the characteristic features of his pictures, which were part of the reports produced for Svět v obrazech.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Film and Television, August 2017 / Located in the town of Nieu Bethesda in the Karoo desert, the Owl House is a fascinating heritage museum that was once the home to outsider artist, Helen Martins. Much work has been created about the eccentric Helen Martins and her unusual home, and appears in the form of books, films, music and plays. The content of these works follow a similar pattern, and it is the aim of this research and film to explore a less literal interpretation of the Owl House, and its creators, Helen Martins and Koos Malgas. The Owl House is re-imagined through the lens of an experimental essay film, juxtaposing footage of the creative eastern imagery of the Owl House (in South Africa) with actual footage of the east (India, Thailand and Laos). In exploring these binaries, an investigation of theory of the landscape, home, mobility and hermeneutics takes place. Furthermore, these theories and concepts are looked at in relation to the politics of an apartheid, and later, a democratic South Africa. The Owl House is therefore analysed as the collaboration of the white, female Helen Martins, and the coloured, male Koos Malgas. / XL2018