The primary aim of this practice based project is to promote debate and alter perceptions of second-hand materials and ReFashion concepts. The work is positioned between the developed world business model extremes of overproduction, and over-consumption, in clothing manufacture. Practical work which represents 80% of this thesis, pitches discarded clothing as an untapped commodity. The investigation poses questions and possibilities with respect to applying the ReFashion concept to a potential business model. By developing prototypes through deconstruction and reconstruction processes, reflection upon current practices of the secondary textile industry has been possible, highlighting ReFashion as a potential ‘Materials Recovery’ process. The second outcome for the research is to provide contextualised information for the fashion manufacturing industry and government agencies, in order to develop innovative applications for new markets.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis investigates the situated knowing-in-practice of locally-based community organisations, and studies how this practice knowledge is translated and contested in inter-organisational relations in the community services field of practices. Despite participation in government-led consultation processes, community organisations express frustration that the resulting policies and plans inadequately take account of the contributions from their practice knowledge. The funding of locally-based community organisations is gradually diminishing in real terms and in the competitive tendering environment, large nationally-based organisations often attract the new funding sources. The concern of locally-based community organisations is that the apparent lack of understanding of their distinctive practice knowing is threatening their capacity to improve the well-being of local people and their communities. In this study, I work with practitioners, service participants and management committee members to present an account of their knowing-in-practice, its character and conditions of efficacy; and then investigate what happens when this local practice knowledge is translated into results-based accountability (RBA) planning with diverse organisations and institutions. This thesis analyses three points of observation: knowing in a community of practitioners; knowing in a community organisation and knowing in the community services field of practices. In choosing these points of observation, the inquiry explores some of the relations and intra-actions from the single organisation to the institutional at a time when state government bureaucracy has mandated that community organisations implement RBA to articulate outcomes that can be measured by performance indicators. A feminist, performative, relational practice-based approach employs participatory action research to achieve an enabling research experience for the participants. It aims to intervene strategically to enhance recognition of the distinctive contributions of community organisations’ practice knowledge. This thesis reconfigures understandings of the roles, contributions and accountabilities of locally-based community organisations. Observations of situated practices together with the accounts of workers and service participants demonstrate how community organisations facilitate service participants’ struggles over social justice. A new topology for rethinking social justice as processual and practice-based is developed. It demonstrates how these struggles are a dynamic complex of iteratively-enfolded practices of respect and recognition, redistribution and distributive justice, representation and participation, belonging and inclusion. The focus on the practising of social justice in this thesis offers an alternative to the neo-liberal discourse that positions community organisations as sub-contractors accountable to government for delivering measurable outputs, outcomes and efficiencies in specified service provision contracts. The study shows how knowing-in-practice in locally-based community organisations contests the representational conception of knowledge inextricably entangled with accountability and performance measurement apparatus such as RBA. Further, it suggests that practitioner and service participant contributions are marginalised and diminished in RBA through the privileging of knowledge that takes an ‘expert’, quantifiable and calculative form. Thus crucially, harnessing local practice knowing requires re-imagining and enacting knowledge spaces that assemble and take seriously all relevant stakeholder perspectives, diverse knowledges and methods.

The primary aim of this practice based project is to promote debate and alter perceptions of second-hand materials and ReFashion concepts. The work is positioned between the developed world business model extremes of overproduction, and over-consumption, in clothing manufacture. Practical work which represents 80% of this thesis, pitches discarded clothing as an untapped commodity. The investigation poses questions and possibilities with respect to applying the ReFashion concept to a potential business model. By developing prototypes through deconstruction and reconstruction processes, reflection upon current practices of the secondary textile industry has been possible, highlighting ReFashion as a potential ‘Materials Recovery’ process. The second outcome for the research is to provide contextualised information for the fashion manufacturing industry and government agencies, in order to develop innovative applications for new markets.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis investigates the situated knowing-in-practice of locally-based community organisations, and studies how this practice knowledge is translated and contested in inter-organisational relations in the community services field of practices. Despite participation in government-led consultation processes, community organisations express frustration that the resulting policies and plans inadequately take account of the contributions from their practice knowledge. The funding of locally-based community organisations is gradually diminishing in real terms and in the competitive tendering environment, large nationally-based organisations often attract the new funding sources. The concern of locally-based community organisations is that the apparent lack of understanding of their distinctive practice knowing is threatening their capacity to improve the well-being of local people and their communities. In this study, I work with practitioners, service participants and management committee members to present an account of their knowing-in-practice, its character and conditions of efficacy; and then investigate what happens when this local practice knowledge is translated into results-based accountability (RBA) planning with diverse organisations and institutions. This thesis analyses three points of observation: knowing in a community of practitioners; knowing in a community organisation and knowing in the community services field of practices. In choosing these points of observation, the inquiry explores some of the relations and intra-actions from the single organisation to the institutional at a time when state government bureaucracy has mandated that community organisations implement RBA to articulate outcomes that can be measured by performance indicators. A feminist, performative, relational practice-based approach employs participatory action research to achieve an enabling research experience for the participants. It aims to intervene strategically to enhance recognition of the distinctive contributions of community organisations’ practice knowledge. This thesis reconfigures understandings of the roles, contributions and accountabilities of locally-based community organisations. Observations of situated practices together with the accounts of workers and service participants demonstrate how community organisations facilitate service participants’ struggles over social justice. A new topology for rethinking social justice as processual and practice-based is developed. It demonstrates how these struggles are a dynamic complex of iteratively-enfolded practices of respect and recognition, redistribution and distributive justice, representation and participation, belonging and inclusion. The focus on the practising of social justice in this thesis offers an alternative to the neo-liberal discourse that positions community organisations as sub-contractors accountable to government for delivering measurable outputs, outcomes and efficiencies in specified service provision contracts. The study shows how knowing-in-practice in locally-based community organisations contests the representational conception of knowledge inextricably entangled with accountability and performance measurement apparatus such as RBA. Further, it suggests that practitioner and service participant contributions are marginalised and diminished in RBA through the privileging of knowledge that takes an ‘expert’, quantifiable and calculative form. Thus crucially, harnessing local practice knowing requires re-imagining and enacting knowledge spaces that assemble and take seriously all relevant stakeholder perspectives, diverse knowledges and methods.

This D.Phil constitutes an investigation led by studio practice and supported by archival and desk-based research into knowledge production through the building of complex cosmologies; specifically those created de novo in visual art practice and 'outsider science' oeuvres. It considers how these cosmologies relate to mainstream science, definitions of outsider art, and other complex cultural systems such as alchemy. Through a more detailed analysis of the work of the British artist John Latham and American outsider cosmologist James Carter, the thesis undertakes this investigation through discussions on the development of these systems and a consideration of the epistemologies these cosmologies reveal. The studio practice elements drive this investigation forward by interrogating themes including the relationship between culture and complex systems, alchemical epistemology, and the struggle to relate to unintuitive science.

Os pregoeiros são os servidores responsáveis pela condução dos processos licitatórios de aquisições e contratações dos órgãos públicos no Brasil. A função de pregoeiro, apesar de sua complexidade e importância à eficiente utilização dos recursos públicos, vem sendo negligenciada pelo Estado. Até o momento não há uma carreira específica ou remuneração condizente ao risco dessa atividade. Os métodos e análises realizadas por este estudo, à luz dos Estudos Baseados em Prática (EBP) e do knowing-in-practice, permitiram melhor visibilidade aos elementos tácitos que compõem os saberes os pregoeiros desenvolvidos no seu cotidiano de trabalho. Partindo da identificação e descrição de suas práticas de trabalho, a função pregoeiro caracteriza-se pelo acúmulo e sobreposição de atividades, dificultando assim desenho de um perfil para a mesma. Outra característica inerente a função é a presença de uma forte estrutura normativa a qual norteia e permeia esse trabalho. A partir dos discursos dos entrevistados, constatou-se que o Curso de Formação de Pregoeiros demonstrou-se insuficiente para desenvolver as habilidades de negociação e conversação e os aspectos atitudinais da atenção, equilíbrio e retidão necessários à sua prática. Assim, a aprendizagem no cotidiano de trabalho dos pregoeiros ocorreu de forma situada através dos conhecimentos informais e tácitos, compartilhados por meio das interações sociais entre os servidores, facilitada pela estrutura em rede dos Institutos Federais de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia (IFs) (instituições pesquisadas), fóruns e comunidades de praticantes, confirmando assim a perspectiva do knowing-in-practice. Afirma-se então que o desenvolvimento dos saberes do pregoeiro não está descolado de suas práticas de trabalho. A partir dos elementos identificados neste estudo, sugerem-se ações para melhoria das condições de trabalho, desenvolvimento e reconhecimento profissional do pregoeiro. Um olhar mais sensível da sociedade e dos representantes políticos é necessária, dada a importância estratégica do papel do pregoeiro na garantia da qualidade do gasto público. / Public Procurement Officers are the public servers responsible for conducting bidding processes of acquisition and hiring for public organs in Brazil. The main duty of the Public Procurement Officer, despite its complexity and importance to the efficient use of public resources, has been neglected by the state. Still, there is no specific career or equitable salary which represents the risks of this activity. The methods and analysis made by this study, considering Practice-Based Studies (PBS) and of knowing-into-practice, allowed a better visibility in the tacit elements that build the knowledge Public Procurement Officers have developed in their daily work. Starting with the identification and description of their practices at work, the Public Procurement Officer function is characterized by the accumulation and overlapping of activities, making it difficult to draw a proper profile to the function. Another intrinsic characteristic of the Public Procurement Officers' function, which directs and permeates this paper, is the presence of a normative structure. Through the speech of the interviewees it was possible to state that the Basic Training Course Public Procurement Officers take is not sufficient to develop the negotiation and reasoning skills and the attitude of attention, balance and rectitude needed to the practice of this function. Therefore, the Public Procurement Officers’ learning process happens throughout informal and tacit knowledge, shared through servers’ social interaction – facilitated by the structure in network from Federal Institutes of Education, Science and Technology (FIs) (institutions where the research took place), online forums and communities, corroborating the knowing-in-practice perspective. It can be stated that the knowledge development of Public Procurement Officers is not disconnected to their practice. Based on the elements identified in this study, some actions are suggested to improve the working conditions, development and recognition of the Public Procurement Officers. A more sensitive consideration from society and from political representatives is necessary, given the strategic importance of Public Procurement Officers’ role in assuring the public money is being well spent.

Migration has become a topical theme both in academia and in public discourses across the media which have contributed to create a highly political and visual 'migrant subject'. However, the highly mediatized figure of the migrant has left crucial aspects of migration underrepresented and unrecognised. What is normally concealed and left to the margins of public debate is the individual experience of the protagonists, their imaginative lifeworlds and the complexity of their stories. This practice-based research has centred its inquiry on the relationship between the lived experiences and the imagination of past, present and future existential possibilities, by engaging three Egyptian migrants through the creative processes of theatre improvisations, storytelling practices, participatory photography, collaborative filmmaking and animation. It recognizes the fundamental role that imagination and future existential possibilities play in people’s perceptions of reality, in their decisions and actions, and finally in the way they narrate their experiences. In order to better understand how individuals make their choices, interact with each other, understand themselves and the world around them, I have argued that we need to take into account their biographies and imaginative inner lives as the ways people retell their stories allow space for contradiction, feelings of ambivalence and uncertainty, unlaced and unfinished thoughts and existential dilemmas. Imaginative realms of existence are ever-changing and ungraspable, posing a challenge to conventional methodologies in the social sciences which rely heavily on observation, interviews and text. The thesis is divided into two parts. By using the ethnographic material that emerged during fieldwork and from the creative processes, in the first part I look at the role imagination and the future play in Ali’s, Mohamed’s and Mahmoud’s relationships to their origins, and to their decisions and experiences of illegally crossing the Mediterranean Sea in order to reach Milan (Italy). The second part describes and reflects upon the performative and audio-visual collaborative practices that involved my participants in producing their own narrations and theoretical reflections on their experiences, aspirations and memories. It is thanks to the ‘subjunctive possibilities’ enabled by performative improvisations, creative storytelling and the animation that my participants and I could explore their mnemonic and imaginative processes. Finally, the thesis concludes by arguing for social research to engage participants in more collaborative and creative practices in the study of migration, as a necessary way of involving the protagonists in producing the questions and counter-narratives that reclaim their acts of struggle and their creative imaginative abilities to contrast objectifying political discourses and exclusionary legal and bureaucratic procedures.

Dentre as variadas abordagens de Aprendizagem Organizacional, uma que vem ganhando destaque desde o início deste século é a vinculada aos Estudos Baseados em Prática. Entretanto, essa abordagem, por vezes, ao focar-se na noção de prática como rotina ou como o que os agentes fazem, perde seu poder crítico. Na presente tese busca-se resgatar na praxeologia de Bourdieu algumas contribuições para os estudos de Aprendizagem Organizacional. Para tanto, foi realizado um estudo qualitativo que objetivou analisar as práticas que visam a captação de recursos financeiros no campo do teatro adulto em Porto Alegre à luz da praxeologia de Bourdieu e da Aprendizagem Organizacional Baseada em Prática. Por meio desse estudo, utilizando-se as formulações propostas de Bourdieu como sistema de análise, descrevem-se os tipos de capitais efetivos no campo, a estrutura deste, as principais posições nele e os princípios de divisão utilizados, destacando-se o papel da linguagem no desempenho destes. Também são discutidos os impactos que as leis de incentivo (municipal, estadual e federal) causam no campo, tanto no que diz respeito a alteração na estrutura deste quanto em relação ao que é proposto nos projetos. Com base nas análises foi possível revisitar a relação entre knowing e prática, e reconceituar prática como um locus de disputa pelos diferentes tipos de capitais e pelas taxas de conversão a partir de diferentes posições em um campo. E, a partir dessa visão de prática, fica mais evidente o poder crítico de uma abordagem baseada em prática para os estudos de Aprendizagem Organizacional, pois incita a discussão dos processos de produção e reprodução da sociedade. / Among the various approaches to Organizational Learning, one that has been gaining attention since the beginning of this century is steaming from Practice Based Studies. However, this approach by focusing on the notion of practice as routine or as what agents do, loses its critical power. This thesis seeks to redeem in Bourdieu's praxeology some contributions to the study of Organizational Learning. To this end, we conducted a qualitative study that sought to examine the practices aimed at raising funds in the field of adult theater in Porto Alegre based on Bourdieu's praxeology and a practice based approach on Organizational Learning. Through this study, using the proposed formulations of Bourdieu as a system for analysis, we describe the types of capital effective in the field, the structure of the main positions in it and the principles of division utilized, emphasizing the role of language in the performance of these. Also we discuss the impacts that the incentive laws cause in the field, both with regard to the change in the field’s structure as to what is proposed in the projects. Based on this analysis it was possible to revisit the relationship between knowing and practice, and to (re)conceptualize practice as a locus of dispute for different types of capital and for the conversion rates from different positions in the field. From this, it is more evident the critical power of a practice based approach to Organizational Learning, by accessing the processes of production and reproduction of society.

Devido a meu interesse pelo setor de aeroportos, sobretudo pela atuação dos agentes aeroportuários e pelos saberes inerentes a seu trabalho, bem como através do contato com a abordagem dos estudos baseados em práticas (NICOLINI; GHERARDI; YANOW, 2003), foi delineada a seguinte questão de pesquisa: “Como se configura o trabalho e a articulação dos saberes dos agentes aeroportuários, à luz da noção de knowing-in-practice?”. O método foi construído com base em técnicas etnográficas, como observação participante, entrevistas informais e pesquisas em arquivo, juntamente com a etnonarrativa. Esta proposta é importante para transcender a hierarquização presente entre os diversos tipos de saberes envolvidos na concepção do trabalho, atribuindo ênfase a uma atividade profissional que tem papel fundamental, social e econômico, no setor brasileiro de aviação civil, a qual, porém, ainda é pouco explorada em pesquisas acadêmicas. Concluiu-se que as práticas de trabalho, embora fortemente regulamentadas e padronizadas, podem ser sucessivamente alteradas e, a partir daí, novos saberes e novas práticas se constituem com base em um julgamento ético, estético e emocional, inserido no contexto de trabalho situado. / From my interest in the airports sector, especially for the performance of airport staff and know-how inherent in their work, as well as through contact with the approach of practice-based studies (Nicolini, Gherardi & Yanow, 2003), the following was outlined research question: "How is configured the work and integration of knowing of airport agents in the light of the notion of knowing-in-practice?”. The method was built based on ethnographic techniques such as participant observation; interviews; searches on file, and the ethnonarrative approach. This proposal is important to transcend the hierarchical arrangement present between different types of knowledge involved at work giving emphasis to an occupation that has fundamental role, social and economic, in the Brazilian sector of civil aviation, which, however, is still little explored in academic research. It was concluded that working practices, though heavily regulated and standardized, can be successively altered and, from there, new knowledge and new practices are constituted based on an ethical, aesthetic and emotional trial, placed in the context of work located.

Aim: Despite the growing trend in offering online therapy to young people this area has received little attention to date. This project therefore aims to systematically explore work in this territory by investigating the types of goals that young people approach online services with, and the challenges and opportunities that online counsellors have experienced when working with them. Methods: Initially 1,137 client articulated goals which were collated by an online youth counselling service in England between December 2013 and July 2014. Secondly, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six online counsellors who have utilised a goal-based approach to therapy with young people. Both data strands were examined by utilising the Grounded Theory Methodology. Results: The goals young people brought into therapy were conceptualized under three core categories: (1) "Intra-personal goals", (2) "Inter-personal goals" and (3) "Goals on Self relating to others". Findings from the experience of online practitioners have provided four further core-categories: (1) "The impact of goals as an ingredient of the online therapy", (2) "The effect of virtual environment working towards goals", (3) "Key themes around youth goals", and (4) "The evolution of a practitioner's therapeutic identity". Discussion: The codified types of goals proved similar to the taxonomy of goals articulated within the Berne Inventory of Therapeutic Goals. Nuances related to the online environment and age group of the clients appeared to be present and are considered. In particular, the concept of goals on "Self relating to others" provided some interesting discussion points on the nature of services provided in both online and face-to-face youth services. The practitioner views echoed the published literature reflecting on the broader experiences of working with therapeutic goals. However the lack of research into the experiences of counsellors working with therapy goals is noted. Further reflection on the findings suggested a four stage working model for goal oriented online therapy. Reflections upon the limitations of the work, implications for therapists, researchers and service providers interested in online therapeutic work are outlined.