Thesis (M. Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes special report study entitled: Streets: from street markets to shopping malls in Hong Kong. Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 193-199).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 359-385). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

This project combines elements of textual analysis, feminist criticism, and media reception studies to examine wedding-themed reality television programming. Drawing on feminist media studies, television studies, and new media studies, this project investigates identity construction through wedding-themed reality television in three case studies: the renegotiation of icons of traditional femininity on Say Yes to the Dress, the policing of female behavior and perceived unruliness through Bridezillas, and the depiction of female labor in celebrity culture through three weddings featured on Keeping Up with the Kardashians. These three case studies deal with unique yet ultimately interconnected themes of gender identity construction and management. I argue that post-feminist ideologies are instrumental in shaping the way that identity is constructed through advocating specific behaviors and shaming others in three key areas: hyper-consumerism, the pursuit of pseudo-celebrity status, and the reinforcement of traditional gender norms. These themes appear in varied forms and function in different ways across the three case studies. In addition, shaming is enacted in the programs and displayed in the audience response to those programs via social media in three ways: subtle discouragement, containment, and pseudo-resistance. This study begins with a close reading of the three television programs, followed by a reception study of the related conversations taking place on the social media platform Twitter to examine how the textual themes are being understood and discussed by viewers.

While same-sex marriage rights have expanded to twelve states, the time-lag in research and publishing has meant that most published studies on same-sex relationships has relied on a hodge-podge of same-sex relationship types. This study uses interview data with same-sex couples who have wed in the years after marriage became available and examines their incentives to wed and the decision making process they go about in planning their weddings. Against a backdrop of larger debates in the queer community surrounding assimilation and access to benefits, couples are changing how we must think about marriage and creating new norms for the institution. This study seeks to answer the following questions: This raises the following questions: How do a group of people previously barred from a legal institution make the decision to enter into that institution? Do they consciously see the act of marrying as a political decision, as a flouting of convention or as a reproduction of it? Does this shift to marriage represent an assimilationist tendency on the part of participants, or are they changing relationship norms and the institution of marriage itself? Studying the ways in which same-sex couples answer these questions allows us to see the meaning making that those couples do when engaging in public rituals and they will be shaped by access to this institution while changing marriage itself.

本研究旨在探討準新人通過婚禮消費來實踐家庭和婚姻關係。通過研究準新人如何商議和安排婚禮樣式、相關的消費項目和財務安排，從而剖析新婚夫婦在婚禮籌備期間如何維持父母與子女的關係和建構未來的姻親和婚姻關係。本研究研究方法是民族誌，資料是從與三十三位新娘和二十一位新郎進行深入訪談並參與了他們的婚禮所獲得。 / 選購浪漫的、具風格的和舖張的婚禮的讓準新人展示品位，也表示準新人的結合是以自由戀愛為基礎的；但同時，婚禮也是結二姓之好的儀式，在中國傳統上公告新娘納入新郎的家族，這賦予準新人的父母參與婚禮形式和相關消費決策的過程。在此情況下，現代婚姻追求高獨立性與父母的期望為兩代關係帶來緊張和矛盾。另一方面，現代親子關係強調和諧融洽，對兩代透過商議婚禮消費來實踐帶來另一種挑戰，這些包括了兩層面：(1)親子和姻親關係；(2)維持婚姻的獨立性。 / 從探討準新人和其父母商議婚禮消費、財務安排和有關的分工，本研究得出以下發現：從家庭層面，基於道德倫理責任，準新人購買舖張婚宴以維持和建構兩代關係。同時，為突顯新婚夫婦的自主性，他們購買了不同的新興婚禮服務。而且，這些家庭關係和社會角色的定位也反映在兩代商討聛禮和嫁妝之上。 / 另外，從夫婦層面上，準新人透過選購具風格的婚禮物品和服務來體現二人結合為一個共同決策的消費單位，這個決策過程受雙方的性別態度和角色所影響；這些影響也反映夫婦的財務負擔和婚禮分工上。整體而言，儘管新婚夫婦在建構維持、婚姻、姻親和親子關係在婚禮籌備上有不同的矛盾，但在表面上皆能保持和諧的關係。 / This research studies how marrying couples do marital and family relationships through wedding consumption. By analyzing data obtained from an ethnographic study based on in-depth interviews and participant observations from a sample of 33 brides and 21 grooms, I analyze how marrying couples do marital and family relations, i.e. how they create, maintain and transform both familial and marital memberships and boundaries through the narration and reasoning of their wedding choice and relevant monetary practices. Even though public perception dictates that a wedding is owned by the couple to publicly display their independent coupledom in a romantic, stylistic and lavish ways, it is also an important family occasion that incorporates the bride into the groom’s family. These two contradictory conceptions of independent marriage and harmonious family relations put the couple and their parents into a dilemma in whether to define the wedding as jointly or solely owned by the couple. / I probed into the negotiation of lavish and stylistic weddings and the relevant money management and division of wedding labor to examine relationship making processes. The data shows that, on the family level: 1) the couple incorporates itself into the larger family network based on perceived moral obligations, the desire to maintain parent-child relationship and also to establish in-laws relationships, (e.g. through buying a lavish wedding banquet); 2) the couple also purchase various wedding consumption goods and services to differentiate the coupledom from the family network, (e.g. through wedding photography); 3) negotiation of new and existing family roles are also reflected through the couple’s negotiation of bride price and dowry with their parents. On the couple’s level, they work towards the creation of an independent coupledom a joint decision-making and consumption unit - through variously embracing and resisting stylistic consumption goods and services in the wedding market. Last but not least, the couple also negotiates the pattern of financial responsibility and division of labor based on gender ideology and “marriage ideal“. In general, couples mostly manage to create and maintain harmonious marital and family relationships despite undercurrents of tension. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Tso, Ho Yee Vienne. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 242-255). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese. / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Background of this Study --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- The Significance of Wedding Consumption --- p.2 / Chapter 1.3 --- Doing Weddings --- p.4 / Chapter 1.4 --- Outline of the Thesis --- p.6 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- The Social Relational Approach to Understand Wedding Consumption --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction --- p.8 / Chapter 2.2 --- Rational Choice Theory of Consumption --- p.9 / Chapter 2.3 --- The Structural Relational Embedded Consumer Market --- p.12 / Chapter 2.4 --- Wedding Consumption --- p.18 / Chapter 2.5 --- The “We“ and the “Bigger We“ --- p.29 / Chapter 2.6 --- Chapter Summary --- p.43 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Research Methods --- p.45 / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.45 / Chapter 3.2 --- Participation Observations --- p.46 / Chapter 3.3 --- Profile of Informants --- p.58 / Chapter 3.4 --- Types of In-depth Interviews --- p.63 / Chapter 3.5 --- Leaving the Field --- p.70 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- The Negotiation of Wedding Arrangement --- p.74 / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.74 / Chapter 4.2 --- The Characteristics of the Respondents’ Weddings --- p.75 / Chapter 4.3 --- Between the “We“ and “Bigger We“: Demarcation of Wedding Ceremonies --- p.77 / Chapter 4.4 --- Organization of the Wedding Banquet --- p.89 / Chapter 4.5 --- Chapter Summary --- p.112 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Bride Price and Dowry --- p.116 / Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction --- p.116 / Chapter 5.2 --- The Wedding Expenditures --- p.118 / Chapter 5.3 --- The Practice of Bride Price and Dowry. --- p.124 / Chapter 5.4 --- Practicing the Idea of Filial Daughters --- p.132 / Chapter 5.5 --- Negotiation of Bride Price: the Traditional Route --- p.141 / Chapter 5.6 --- Negotiation of Bride Price: the Transitional Route --- p.150 / Chapter 5.7 --- Chapter Summary --- p.162 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- The Making of the Coupledom --- p.167 / Chapter 6.1 --- Introduction --- p.167 / Chapter 6.2 --- Building up the “We“ in the Wedding Market --- p.168 / Chapter 6.3 --- The Public Display of the “We“ --- p.179 / Chapter 6.4 --- The Making of the Ideal Wedding. --- p.188 / Chapter 6.5 --- Chapter Summary --- p.225 / Chapter Chapter 7 --- Conclusion --- p.229 / Chapter 7.1 --- Introduction --- p.229 / Chapter 7.2 --- Wedding Consumption --- p.229 / Chapter 7.3 --- The Formation of the Coupledom and Wider Family Network --- p.230 / Chapter 7.4 --- Implications for Future Research and Limitations --- p.236

The primary goal of the study was to identify key success factors for the management of wedding tourism in South Africa. This goal was achieved by firstly conducting a literature study to determine the key success factors of strategic management for special events as stated in books, articles and other sources. Secondly, wedding tourism was analysed to provide an overview of the wedding tourism industry and weddings as tourism products. Thirdly, the results of the empirical research were discussed followed by the conclusions and recommendations made with regard to further research. From the literature study, aspects regarding strategic management were discussed namely, the strategic management process, marketing for special events, human resource management, financial management and operational management. These aspects were included in the questionnaires for the empirical research. Two different questionnaires were developed, one for wedding planners and one for owners/managers of wedding venues in the Gauteng and North West provinces. The purpose of the questionnaires was to gather information on the key success factors for wedding tourism and to gain insight of the wedding tourism industry. Personal interviews were held with wedding planners and owners1 managers of wedding venues; questionnaires were also distributed via email. All the data was processed by the North-West University's Statistical Consultation Services. A confirmatory factor analysis was done to produce a small amount of factors. The following factors were identified: strategic planning; SWOT analysis, human resources, financial management, market segmentation, promotion and operational management. After analysing the data it was clear that operational services like ensuring high levels of hygiene, having a liquor license, accessibility, secure parking and that services must meet the needs of guests were considered extremely important aspects for a wedding venue. The following aspects were considered extremely important by wedding planners: services must meet the needs of guests, offer unique products and develop a checklist as control mechanism. Owners of wedding tourism products and wedding planners have to consider and apply the key success factors in order to grow the industry and create sustainable products. / Thesis (M.Com. (Tourism))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

This diploma thesis is focused on the arrivals of the first two wives of William of Rožmberk, namely of Katherine of Brunswick and Sophie of Brandenburg, to the domain of the latter. The arrival was a complicated procedure with a whole range of economic, social and cultural aspects and many people were involved in it as well. This work deals with a broad spectrum of related issues: first of all it examines, step-by-step, the whole process of courtship and it describes the wedding rite in general. The aim of the core section of the thesis is to describe some practical measures, such as staff and food supplying and accommodation capacities providing. The attention is also drawn to the invitation letters and written instructions given to the burghers and castel staff in respect of the guests' comfort and public security maintaining. The final part of the work deals with the journey itself of the two brides to Český Krumlov.

In this paper, I will detail the process that went into the making of my thesis film, Out of True. The areas I will cover include Writing, Directing, Production Design, Cinematography, Editing, Sound, as well as Technology and Workflow. Special emphasis will be given to Directing and the new directing style I experimented with in an effort to create not only believable but engaging performances. I will then assess the success of this experiment through the use of audience questionnaires.

Este estudo consiste em apresentar aspectos da poesia de Mahmud Darwich e também em propor uma tradução, do árabe ao português brasileiro, de seu livro Ars (Bodas). Para tal, descrevemos a vida do autor, seu contexto histórico-cultural, sua linguagem e seu fazer poético, coletando as imagens e metáforas mais recorrentes na sua obra. / This study aims at presenting aspects of the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish. It also proposes a translation, from Arabic to Brazilian Portuguese, of his book Aras (Weddings). We describe the author\'s life, his historical and cultural context, his language and his poetry making, collecting images and recurring metaphors in his work.