Freie Univ., Magisterarbeit, 1989--Zugl.: Berlin, 1989.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1982. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 159-163).

Precious Wedding is a professional wedding favors company in Taiwan which aims at helping every groom and bride create an unforgettable wedding experience through ideal wedding favors. As wedding favors is neither a brand-new nor prevalent product concept for most Taiwanese, coupled with the fact that there are fewer than 20 competitors selling on a large scale, we assume that the wedding favors industry in Taiwan is currently at the late introduction stage of a product life cycle. To test whether the wedding favors market in Taiwan will be profitable or not, we performed an online survey with 111 valid responses collected. The survey result turned out to be extremely positive as 88% of respondents claimed they will or they are likely to purchase wedding favors ( or recommend others to do so), implying that huge sales and growth potentials are awaiting us to explore. In terms of finance, we acquired NT$5,250,934 in our NPV calculation from year 1 to year 5, while the sensitivity analysis also generated positive outcomes even in the most pessimistic scenario, ranging from the lowest of NT$3,411,729 to the highest of NT$6,734,601.These figures all can be served as strong evidences that Precious Wedding is a great company to be invested on.

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on March 10, 2010). The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Thesis advisor: Dr. Laurel Wilson. Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

Zugl.: Berlin, Univ., Diss., 2007

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references.

M. Tech. (Department of Visual Arts and Design: Photography, Faculty of Human Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / The study explores an alternative approach to Christian wedding photography that draws on the ritualistic narrative of the wedding as “social drama” (Turner.1974:54). Wedding photographers of the past have captured and illustrated the wedding story, with key moments, in a logical order reflecting a timeline showing the day’s events. The goal of the study is to investigates beyond the identified key moments and timeline of the Christian wedding so as to create awareness and develop understanding of the ritual and its phases and in turn, use this as a source to inspire, initiate and develop a method for the capture and production of the Christian wedding narrative in a new visual way. ‘Traditional’ Christian wedding photographers, brides-to-be and grooms-to-be are exposed and influenced by wedding photography styles of the past (which depict staged, static and controlled visual moments) or visual references from glossy magazines which place emphasis on branding, fashion-styled imagery and advertising, and lead to a romanticised and glamorised vision of possibility. The full Christian wedding narrative ritual is lost in visual representations that contain only a few glamorised and romanticised moments. This dissertation argues that the emotional, atmospheric and narrative moments of transformation of the couple on the day can be captured visually. The main research question of this study asks how one can use photography to capture that visual atmosphere and emotional underpinning of the various stages of the marriage ritual so that these images can be seen as trigger mechanisms for memories of the event. The study firstly engages with the Christian wedding as a ritual. Following Turner’s (Deflem 1991:3) conceptualisation of the four phases of a ritual (breach, crisis, liminal space and reintegration) the dissertation divides the wedding into these four phases. It also argues that the post-wedding events (the reception) follow the same trajectory, and present Turner’s (1974) liminoid dynamics. Working from several transformation narratives that use this approach, critical descriptive words that capture the narrative, the emotion and the atmosphere of the transformation are collected and clustered into categories. Following this, a tentative shooting schedule is proposed for each cluster/category. A method for the analysis of the photographs emerging from the testing of each cluster’s shooting schedule is determined, using Barrett’s subdivisions (Barrett 2006:65). The framework, composed of clusters, shooting schedule and analytical frame, is then tested on random appropriate photographs. The main body of work then applies the framework to 7 Christian weddings, and examples from each ritual phase are described and analysed to determine whether the photographs can be seen to capture the narrative events, the emotions and the atmosphere of each phase. The study argues that this is an effective alternative approach to Christian wedding photography practice. The study set out to develop an understanding of ritual and its various phases filled with emotion, atmosphere and life-changing practices. The wedding ritual identified followed a similar, if not the same path, of action of a life changing event and could be linked to the ritual and its four phases as per Turner’s discoveries and methodologies. Through literature of peoples’ life-changing experiences a databank of words describing the various phases of the ritual by means of emotion, atmosphere and meaning were identified and put into clusters of similar characteristics. These clusters, totalling seven, are representative of the four phases in the ritual that were used as a brief for the researcher/photographer. Barrett’s picture categories allowed one to decipher and develop a shooting schedule using these clusters with collective themes as briefs. The shooting schedule, which was speculative in design, was a method to illustrate the descriptor visually. Barrett’s methods supported the analysis and assessment of visuals captured in the field of the study of the Christian wedding. The visuals could be linked to descriptors and clusters which, in turn, could be linked to various phases in the ritual. The shooting schedule tested developed a visual capture framework (ritualised approach) which displayed images with a complete narrative filled with emotion and meaning, of the ritual in all four phases of the Christian wedding.

The main purpose of the study is to explore how certain socio-economic determinants shape the way consumers behave in the consumption of wedding goods and services. These socio-economic determinants include: price, education, family tradition, social constraints and self-expression. A set of questions related to the main research question was raised in order to better illustrate the relationship between these determinants and the consumption action, as well as to discover, reveal and comprehend the complexity of the Chinese wedding industry. Both a self-completion web-administered online survey and electronic interviews were carried out to collect primary data in order to get a confirmatory set of results. The results from both of the survey and the interviews have shown that these socio-economic factors are related to the individual behaviour in the consumption of wedding goods and services. But the impact is not as strong and obvious as expected. Respondents’ perceived satisfaction differ from each other but not necessarily link to their consumption tendency according to the survey. It also revealed the fact that social convention and family tradition can help shaping the decision-making process to a certain extent. However, interviewees showed their enthusiasm to the concept of self-expression and autonomy. They found the self concept more important than tradition and convention when making choices, despite that they admitted that it would be impossible to completely discard the traditions.

In contemporary Damascus, the modern oboe and an instrument known as its predecessor, the zurna, are heard on a daily basis as they continue to be employed in Syrian popular and folk music practices. After observing the pervasiveness of the sounds of these instruments in Syria, I proceeded to investigate the socio-cultural processes surrounding their usage. This study provides a history of the zurna, traces its development in Europe into the modern oboe, and explores the oboe's re-entry into musical practices in the Middle East. Through empirical fieldwork, I collected data that allowed me to observe the social significance of the sounds of these instruments for musicians and listeners alike in the Greater Damascus area. Using Jonathan Shannon's modernity improvisation model (Shannon 2006) as a departure point, I analyze the way Syrians use instruments such as the zurna and oboe in seemingly diverging ways to create their own "modern" subjectivities. Additionally, I demonstrate how these sounds reflect what Clifford Geertz refers to as the inevitable struggle between essentialism and epochalism in post-colonial nations such as Syria (Geertz 1971) through the analyzation of discourse surrounding instruments so deemed "modern" or "authentic" (such as the oboe and zurna, respectively) in contemporary Syrian society. Musical examples are included in order to demonstrate performance practice and provide perspective on the music theory behind the ways composers and musicians include the sounds of the oboe and zurna in particular works and genres.