The South African Library as a state-aided national library in the era of apartheid : an administrative history

The Public Library in Cape Town was founded in the earliest days of British civil rule in Southern Africa, as a Government-funded free library of reference with the purpose of educating and enculturating the 'youth' of the Cape Colony along European (especially English) lines. Government funding being withdrawn in 1829, the Library became an autonomous subscription library while continuing to provide access to its reference collections free of charge. During the ensuing 125 years the Library (known as the South African (Public) Library) becameincreasingly dependenton Government financial aid to provide certain 'national' functions. By 1954 it was the pre-eminent research library in sub-Saharan Africa and enjoyed total autonomy within the limits of its 1893 Act of the former Cape Colonial Parliament. This study follows the transformation of the South African Library into a Stateaided national library after it had divested itself of its local circulating services in 1955 and its subsequent existence with limited autonomy and increasing financial difficulties. During the transformation process, the National Party came into office in 1948 and introduced its authoritarian, centralizing style of administration. Many of the new Government's policies conflicted with the ethos and practices of the South African Library, particularly the promotion ofWhite Afrikaner culture in the place of the Library's generally White Anglophile culture, and the implementation of racial policies in the place of the Library's non-racialism. By the time the implications of National Party 'apartheid' policies became evident, it was too late for the Library to revert to its previous state. The scope of this administrative history of the Library in this era is limited to an analysis of themes which illuminate the relationship between the State, the Library, the Library's users, and the library profession at large during the development and eventual downfall in 1994 of National Party rule. The central themes are the Library's struggle to retain maximum professional autonomy in the context of its almost total dependence upon the State for its funding; the degree of State funding being determined by Government's perception of the Library's legitimacy and contribution to its policy priorities. Despite providing distinguished services to research (both formal and informal), especially in the humanities, and having perhaps the best collection in the country of published and manuscript material relating to Southern Africa, the South African Library was unable to attract the funding needed to sustain its rapidly growing collections and overwhelming amount of use. When the National Party left office in 1994, the Library was already on the point of financial collapse, and the incoming African National Congress Government had more pressing priorities. The South African Library failed, and in 1999, together with the State Library in Pretoria (which was itself in difficulties), became part of the National Library of South Africa in a development which, fifteen years later, must still be considered a compromise. Since the author considers the two-site compromise to be unsustainable, the study concludes with a review of various proposals which were put forward by library professionals between 1955 and 1994 which may profitably be revisited. The research was based on documentary records in the extensive administrative archive of the South African Library. This has been supplemented from published sources and recollections of the author and former colleagues

Sixth form colleges in England with particular reference to the reorganisation of secondary education in the County Borough of Darlington

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The dynamic nature of risk practice: A study of youth practitioners’ accounts of risk in work with young people

The concept of risk has played an increasingly dominant role in policy and practice around children and young people over the past twenty-five years. From risk-factor based ‘prevention’, ‘early intervention’ and surveillance, to the identification of young people as ‘vulnerable’, ‘at-risk’ or ‘risky’, risk has become central to the planning, management and delivery of youth practice. This has taken place in a changing organisational and professional context, where neo-liberal managerialism has led to confidence-based standardised bureaucratic systems, while notions of risk- management, blame, and mistrust have displaced trust in organisations and in professionals. The research that informs this thesis draws upon semi-structured interviews with twenty-eight front-line youth practitioners from across England in order to explore how those working with young people in informal youth contexts engage with ‘risk’ and risk discourses on a day-to-day basis. The study finds that practice is infused with different risk-based decisions and actions, and that practitioners employ complex ‘situational practices’ in order to navigate this ‘risk- world’, balancing the needs of young people, the organisation and their own interests and safety. Their decisions are multi-faceted, informed by bureaucratic processes, the perceived interests of young people, notions of humane practice and personal experiences and drivers. The study also identifies that, with organisational risk- and responsibility-aversion and a retreat from practice, the front-line practitioner is often expected to operate in a responsibilised grey area in order to respond to young people, potentially subject to individual blame or personal harm if problems arise. Young people’s risk construction is also malleable in the context of situational rationalities and, particularly with austerity-driven service cuts and risk-based prioritisation, practitioners are faced with amplifying (and at times attenuating) young people’s risk biographies in an attempt to meet needs. This, it is argued, leads to a commodification of young people, and youth in general

Analyse bibliométrique des revues Canadian Journal of Communication et Communication 1974-2005

L’objectif de cette étude est de saisir une image des éléments explicitement reconnaissables de la recherche en communication visibles dans les revues savantes Canadian Journal of Communication et dans Communication de 1974 à 2005. Il s’agit d’une analyse bibliométrique des articles publiés par les chercheurs d’institutions canadiennes et de leurs références bibliographiques. La bibliométrie est « l’application de méthodes statistiques aux livres et aux autres moyens de communication » (Pritchard, 1969: 348-349). C’est la première fois qu’une analyse de ce type est tentée dans ce corpus particulier. Nous nous sommes appuyés sur des postulats théoriques provenant de la sociologie des sciences et des études en communication scientifique. L’idée maîtresse est la suivante : l’activité scientifique est un « continuum de création de nouvelles connaissances » (Vassallo, 1999), dont l’organisation est basée sur l’échange d’information (Price, 1963; Crane, 1972), qui se traduit en reconnaissance sociale, en autorité scientifique, et constitue un investissement pour l’acquisition de crédibilité (Merton, 1938; Hagstrom, 1965; Bourdieu, 1975; Latour et Woolgar, 1986). À partir de l’analyse des articles, nous identifions s’ils sont le résultat de recherches empiriques ou fondamentales, ou le produit d’une réflexion critique. Il s’agit aussi de détecter les approches méthodologiques et les techniques d’investigation utilisées, ainsi que les sujets qui y sont abordés par les chercheurs. Nous détectons également les principaux lieux de recherche (universités et types de départements). Nous analysons aussi les thématiques des articles. Enfin, nous analysons des références bibliographiques des articles afin de cerner les sources d’idées qui y sont décelables. Notre corpus principal comporte 1154 articles et 12 840 titres de documents en référence. L’analyse bibliométrique des articles révèle ainsi une recherche canadienne en communication d’emblée qualitative, intéressée pour les spécificités historiques, le contexte social et la compréhension des interrelations sous-jacentes aux phénomènes de communication, en particulier, au Canada et au Québec. Au cœur de ces études se distingue principalement l’application de l’analyse de contenu qualitative dans les médias en général. Cependant, à partir de 1980, l’exploration du cinéma, de l’audiovisuel, des nouvelles technologies de l’information et de la communication, ainsi que la multiplication des sujets de recherche, annoncent un déplacement dans l’ordre des intérêts. Communication et le CJC, se distinguent cependant par l’origine linguistique des chercheurs qui y publient ainsi que dans les thématiques. L’analyse des références bibliographiques, et de leurs auteurs, met en relief l’intérêt partagé des chercheurs d’institutions universitaires canadiennes pour les agences de réglementation et les politiques gouvernementales canadiennes s’appuyant souvent sur l’analyse de documents législatifs et de rapports de diverses commissions d’enquête du gouvernement canadien. L’analyse révèle aussi les principales inspirations théoriques et méthodologiques des chercheurs. Parmi les plus citées, on voit Innis, McLuhan, Habermas, Tuchman, Bourdieu, Foucault, Raboy, et Rogers. Mais ces références évoluent dans le temps. On voit aussi une distinction relativement claire entre les sources citées par la recherche francophone et la recherche anglophone.The aim of this study is to obtain an image of the recognizable elements of communication research visible in Canadian Journal of Communication and Communication from 1974 to 2005. This is a bibliometric analysis of the scientific papers and their bibliographies published in these journals by researchers from various Canadian Universities. Bibliometry is "the application of mathematics and statistical methods to books and other media of communication" (Pritchard, 1969). This is the first time that such analysis is attempted with this particular corpus. We based ourselves on theoretical postulates from the sociology of science and scientific communication studies, that indicate that the scientific activity is a « continuum de création de nouvelles connaissances » (Vassallo, 1999), where the organisation is based on the exchange of information (Price, 1963; Crane, 1972), and is in turn translated in social recognition, scientific authority, and is an investment to acquire credibility (Merton, 1938; Hagstrom, 1965; Bourdieu, 1975; Latour et Woolgar, 1986). Based on the article analysis, we can identify if they are empirical, theoretical or methodological researches. We can also detect the scientific methods applied by the researchers and their objects of study. Likewise, we observe the most common places to do research (universities and departments). Finally, we do a citation analysis to find the most important sources used by the researchers. Our corpus includes 1154 articles and 12 840 titles of referenced documents. The bibliometric analysis of the articles published in Canadian Journal of Communication and Communication from 1974 to 2005 shows that the Canadian communication research is qualitative in essence, interested in the historical particularities, the social context and the understanding of the underlying interrelations of the communication phenomenon, especially in Canada and Quebec. The application of content analysis to the media in general is dominant. However, since 1980, the exploration of cinema, audiovisual, internet and the multiplication of objects of study foreshadow the move in the research communication agenda in Canada. Communication and the CJC, however, differ by their thematics, and by the linguistic origin of the researchers who publish in them. The citation analysis shows the shared interest of researchers from different Canadian universities for regulatory agencies and Canadian government policies, which is often based on content analysis of legislative documents and reports of various commissions of inquiry of the Canadian government. The citation analysis also reveals the most importat theoretical and methodological research influences. Among the most cited, we see Innis, McLuhan, Habermas, Tuchman, Bourdieu, Foucault, Raboy, and Rogers. But these references are evolving over time. We see as well as the distinctions between French and English Canadian communication research traditions

Language as Ritual: Saying What Cannot Be Said with Western and Confucian Ritual Theories

This dissertation addresses one of the classical philosophical and theological problems of religious language, namely, how to speak meaningfully about matters that appear to be inexpressible. While addressed extensively in a variety of literatures across cultures, the problem persists, particularly in regard to harmonizing theological, philosophical, and linguistic perspectives. The dissertation argues that (i) language is best understood as a species of ritual; (ii) so understood, religious language speaks to and about religious realities subjunctively, that is, as if such realities could be talked about; and (iii) this way of understanding language achieves greater harmony among philosophical and linguistic approaches while achieving some degree of cross-cultural generality. The argument begins with a cross-cultural comparison between modern social scientific ritual theories, especially that of Roy A. Rappaport, and the Confucian ritual theory of Xunzi. This generates a novel theory of ritual capable of engaging theories of language that have emerged in modern linguistics, philosophy of language, logic, and hermeneutics. The semiotics of Charles Sanders Peirce provides the unifying framework for the theory, which leads to the first conclusion that language can be understood as a species of ritual. When language is understood as ritual, there are several options for interpreting religious speech as meaningful. An analysis of these alternatives on terms semantically demarcated by Hilary Putnam leads to the conclusion that language expresses theological insights in the same way it expresses anything else: as if reality and its elements were the way the language form and process construes and renders them. This analysis both advances critiques of language as understood under the linguistic turn, especially by Terrence W. Deacon and Daniel L. Everett, and establishes the second and third conclusions of the thesis