Information technology in humanities scholarship: British achievements, prospects and barriers

Der vorliegende Beitrag resümiert die Ergebnisse eines gemeinsamen Projekts der Britischen Akademie und der Forschungsabteilung der Britischen Bibliothek zur Anwendung von Informationstechnologien in den Humanwissenschaften. Diskutiert werden Probleme der Informationssammlung, -aufbereitung, - speicherung und -wiedergewinnung im Zusammenhang mit den neuesten Möglichkeiten der elektronischen Datenverarbeitung und der Telekommunikation. Der zweite Abschnitt gibt einen knappen Überblick über den Einfluß der neuen Medien (Text, quantitative Daten, Ton, Bild und elektronische Kommunikation) auf die Forschungstechniken selbst und das traditionelle Selbstverständnis der Humanwissenschaften. Abschließend wird auf organisatorische Fragen wie Aus- und Weiterbildung des Personals, maschinelle Ausrüstung,- Zugang zu Netzwerken und die rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen des 'information handling' eingegangen. (pmb)'The British Academy and the British Library Research convened the Humanities Information Review Panel in April 1990. The Panel's brief was to examine all aspects of the generation, storage, and use of information in the humanities, and to look especially at the new methods of handling information provided by the use of computers, telecommunications, and other associated technologies. Section two of this concise report outlines the impact of new technology on scholarship (text, data, images, sound, combined sources, electronic communication, tools); section three discusses new developments and the change of the traditional image of the humanities scholar; section four describes training and support, network access and equipment, research infrastructure, information ressources, regulatory issues and funding; section five summarises the recommendations of the Panel.' (author's abstract

‘At the point of confluence of sociology and Indology’: Louis Dumont’s postulate reconsidered

In this article, I aim to show how Louis Dumont’s famous claim that ‘the condition for a sound development of Sociology of India is found in the establishment of the proper relation between it and classical Indology’ has become obsolete and was from the beginning a problematic postulate. I first develop the historical background of the denigration of anthropological approaches in India against the rise of an idealising Indology as a philological discipline. Then I discuss the structural, methodological and ideological problems that made it difficult to follow Dumont’s advice to search for the point of confluence of sociology and Indology. Finally, I place Dumont’s holistic approach in relation to the holistic structure of academic disciplines that emerged in the 19th century on the basis of the nation-state model and argue that it is misleading and reductive to think that ‘the construction of an Indian Sociology rests in part upon the existence of Indology’

Learning orientations of FET students: the case of the Applied Learning Programme in a Western Cape FET college

Magister Educationis - MEdThis study investigated the reasons why FET part-time students enrolled at a FET college by examining their learning orientations. Guided by the literature, the focus was on the vocational orientation to learning and orientations to learning were further investigated within the vocational orientation based on orientations developed for part-time students found in the literature. In addition, it was investigated whether students' expectations have been met and if they were satisfied with the college experience. Lastly, the study examined the relevance of college learning to the world of work and the contribution it made to the career development of learners in a globalising world. The research shows that part-time students enrol at FET colleges predominantly for vocational reasons and the majority of the students were enrolled in order to advance their careers and associated with a vocational orientation to learning. However, it emerged that reasons for learning within the vocational orientation to learning are often multi-faceted and complex. The most important findings are 3 new learning orientations for part-time students that were identified: 'education for a qualification', 'education for adults who previously made the wrong choice' and 'education for adults as a model for their children'. Furthermore, the findings indicate that learners were satisfied with the programme they were enrolled in because they believed that the qualification would enable them to achieve their vocational aims which were primarily to find a new job, to be promoted and to increase their income. The findings suggest that the programme that was examined was relevant to the world of work, promoted employability and that it made a significant and important contribution to students' career development in a globalising world.South Afric

Value change in adolescents: school effectiveness in the affective domain

Factors contributing to school effectiveness in the affective domain have been largely ignored in recent research in spite of a transnational concern about value disorientation. This thesis explores the influence a secondary school has on adolescent value formation. Current theories on "effective schooling" and "valuing" provide a framework for the research. Following an introduction to the issue of values in schools, the thesis reviews the literature on "values", "effective schools", and "school climate" before proceeding to a description of a two site, longitudinal study. The creation of a value change-effective schools (VCES) model enabled local school issues to be analysed in conjunction with an overarching theory and principles which are relevant to a broad educational community. The four complementary surveys of parents, students and staff included a wide range of items which address frequently voiced methodological criticisms of the "effective schools” approach. Subsequent chapters summarise and discuss the findings of the surveys and place them in the context of current research. The thesis demonstrates that a school has a significant, unique role to play in adolescent value formation. Value change did not emerge as a cause and effect phenomenon, but as a complex interaction of change agents operating within the terms of the value change-effective schools model. Programmes and strategies, which have meaning at the local level, can be developed for the affective domain based on insights provided by the model. The factors associated with effectiveness were determined and defined primarily by the local schools. They crossed over domains from the cognitive to the affective, coalescing to form an effective learning environment

Unison and Harmony, Dissonance and Dissolution: German Choral Societies in an Age of Rising Nationalism, Mass Culture, and Social Conflict, 1870-1918

This dissertation is a study of choral societies, emotions, and German national identity during the German Empire (1871-1918). Using journals, memoirs, letters, lyrics, banners, postcards, and festival programs, I argue that singing creating overlapping emotional communities in spite of palpable social, economic, and political tensions that intensified in the late nineteenth century. The choral movement that originated in the early nineteenth century was heavily influenced by the early Romantics. Theories of the nation that were wrapped up in the ancient poetry and songs of the Germanic people led to the development of the Lied—an art form that was believed to represent the nation itself. The Romantics also prescribed an aesthetics of music that elevated it to the highest art form. An embrace of the Lied and absolute music fostered the notion that Germans were “the people of music.” Themes of myth, history, nature, and a synthesis of all these with science and politics permeated the choral movement. Choral performances created unique bonds among singers but also drew in instrumentalists, conductors, audiences, and stage hands. Each performance created new emotional connections, and a movement that began in a narrow bourgeois realm gradually filtered into all layers of German society creating complex webs of connection. Over the course of a century, war and music created a German nation and a nation of Germans

Networks of Print, Patronage and Religion in England and Scotland 1580-1604: The Career of Robert Waldegrave

This thesis seeks to examine the nature of the intertwined networks of print, patronage and religion that existed within and across England and Scotland between 1580 and 1604, through the career of the English printer Robert Waldegrave. Multifaceted and complex, Waldegrave’s career spanned two countries, four decades and numerous controversies. To date scholars have engaged in a teleological narrative of his career, culminating in his involvement with the Marprelate press between April 1588/9. This focus on Waldegrave as a religious radical has coloured accounts of his English business and resulted in his Scottish career being disregarded by many. This thesis adds to the growing body of scholarship concerning printers and the print trade, illustrating the varied role Waldegrave played, both in relation to the texts he produced and within a broader trans-national context of print There are three major thematic areas of enquiry; whether Waldegrave’s characterization by contemporary commentators and subsequent scholars as a Puritan printer is accurate; what his career in Scotland between 1590 and 1603 reveals about the Scottish print trade, and finally the role and significance of the various networks of print, patronage and religion within which he operated in regards to his own career as well as in the broader context of early modern religious and commercial printing. Challenging the reductive interpretation of Waldegrave’s life and career, this thesis places the Marprelate episode within the wider framework of his English and Scottish careers, enabling traditional assumptions about his motivation and autonomy to be questioned and reevaluated. It will be shown that the accepted image of Waldegrave as a committed Puritan printer, developed and disseminated by his representation within the Marprelate tracts was actually a misrepresentation of his position and that the reality was far more nuanced. His choices were informed by commercial concerns and the various needs of the networks of print, patronage and religion within which he worked, which often limited his ability to promote the religious beliefs he held. The study of Waldegrave and his English contemporaries within the Scottish print trade expands our knowledge of the relationship between the print trades of England and Scotland and highlights how intertwined they were during this period. Waldegrave’s Scottish career, and the significance of his complicated relationship with his royal patron, James VI will be established and the wider impact and significance of Waldegrave’s appointment as Royal printer demonstrated. As he worked as a minor jobbing printer, a fugitive on a clandestine press and as the Royal Printer in Scotland Waldegrave is one of a small number of stationers whose career was extremely varied. Through the study of Waldegrave’s unique and multifaceted career it is therefore possible to trace and analyse the complex networks within which he, and his fellow stationers operated during the late-sixteenth century.HuMP

Supporting working carers of people living with dementia: The potential of technologies for combining work and care

Background: Carers of a person with dementia are faced with unique challenges when combining paid work and unpaid care. Technology can address some of these challenges. This PhD project aims to explore and identify technologies which have the potential to support working dementia carers and to map these technologies onto the work-care reconciliation challenges they express. Methods: Scoping reviews and a participatory design approach were used to explore A) the problem, and B) the solution. Semi-structured interviews with 16 working dementia carers helped to identify what work-care-reconciliation challenges carers wanted solutions for. A comprehensive review of the technology landscape then identified technologies – currently available and emerging – which could address these work-care reconciliation challenges. Technology experts from academia, industry, and social care commission validated the findings. Finally, a custom-built website was used to get feedback from those intended to use these technologies. Findings: Work-care reconciliation challenges carers wanted solutions for included i) care management, ii) attending appointments, iii) entertainment and companionship, iv) psychological and psychosocial stress, v) safety concerns, vi) accessing information, and vii) personal care. A total of 83 technologies, deemed to address the work-care reconciliation challenges carers had identified, emerged from the technology landscape review. These were mapped onto carers' work-care reconciliation challenges (technology map). Most of these technologies were thought to be useful by participants of the online technology evaluation. However, technologies’ effects on other stakeholders, especially people with dementia, were important considerations. Conclusion/implications for practice: The technology map can be used as a reference by working dementia carers and those aiming to support them (i.e., their employers, carer or dementia support organisations, and local authority adult social care departments) to identify technological solutions to their challenges. Furthermore, it could be used by technology providers as a guide for further research and development

Dutch connections:

Throughout his career, Herman van Bergeijk built his own unique expertise on the Dutch 19th and early 20th century architectural history. He has become an inspiration for scholars in the Netherlands, Europe and beyond. The extraordinary response of colleagues when asked to contribute a chapter in this Festschrift stands as an example of Herman’s widespread influence. Invitations for keynotes and lectures or courses keep reaching him, and he will continue to teach and write. He has an open invitation to teach in China and still bubbles with ideas for yet another new publication series or journal. Several PhD students continue to rely on his guidance and will keep him engaged at the faculty. Herman thrives on lively discussions, in which he often plays devil’s advocate and tries to be as contrary as possible. I am convinced that we will continue to collaborate and battle on diverse topics, notably the role of history in the design of future architecture. Retirement is just another step in Herman’s career

The Elizabethan Protestant Press: A Study of the Printing and Publishing of Protestant Religious Literature in English, Excluding Bibles and Liturgies, 1558-1603.

Uninterrupted for forty-five years, from 1558 to 1603, Protestants in England were able to use the printing press to disseminate Protestant ideology. It was a period long enough for Protestantism to root itself deeply in the life of the nation and to accumulate its own distinctive literature. English Protestantism, like an inf ant vulnerable to the whim of a parent under King Henry VIII, like a headstrong and erratic child in Edward's reign, and like a sulking, chastised youth in the Marian years, had come of age by the end of the Elizabethan period. At the outset of Elizabeth's reign the most pressing religious need was a clear, well-reasoned defence of the Church of England. The publication of Bishop Jewel's Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae in 1562 was a response to that need and set the tone of literary polemics for the rest of the period. It was a time of muscleflexing for the Elizabethan Church, and especially in the opening decades, a time when anti-Catholicism was particularly vehement. Consistently throughout the period, when Queen and country were threatened by Catholic intrigues and conspiracies, literature of exceptional virulence was published against Catholicism. But just as the press became an effective tool for defenders and apologists of the Church of England, it soon was being used as an instrument to advance the cause of further reform by more radical Protestants. Puritans, Familists and Separatists resorted to the printing press to publicize their particular brand of Protestantism. Puritans, especially, used the press to put pressure on Parliament by arranging the publication of their demands to coincide with the calling of Parliament. Stinging attacks on the established church were met with stout resistance; authors, printers and booksellers often were imprisoned and the literature suppressed. The radicals then turned to secret presses, or to presses outside of England, and continued their onslaught against the "half" reformed Church of England. The bitterness and pugnacity once reserved for the popes of Rome now became, for the dissidents, appropriate sentiments to be levelled at English bishops. Religious polemics, however, though most eye-catching and revealing from the historian's viewpoint because they reflect pressing issues and concerns, were only one aspect of Elizabethan literature. While the polemicists crossed swords, the great majority of authors and translators busied themselves in producing works designed for general Protestant edification. These were the devotional, didactic and exegetical works that went into multiple editions and were in constant demand throughout the reign. Polemical and controversial writings were published from time to time, but works of edification issued from the press in a continuous stream throughout the reign. The constant repetition of Protestant doctrine and attitudes reinforced the Protestant policies consistently laid down by the government. For moral and financial support in publishing their literature, Elizabethan Protestant authors relied heavily upon a relatively small group of persons. The great majority of dedications in Protestant literature were addressed to no more than a dozen or so patrons, and, except for a few, tended to sympathize with moderate Puritanism. Furthermore, the Elizabethan period was a watershed in the history of literary patronage and this was reflected in Protestant literature. Printers and publishers became more important to the author than the patron in getting his manuscript into print and furthering his literary pursuits. And it was a relatively small number of printers and publishers (no more than twenty-five) who bore the brunt of financing the lion's share of Protestant literature. With such a powerful and relatively new medium as print to disseminate ideology, it is not surprising that strong censorship was exercised. From the Queen's Injunctions of 1566, when the Vestments controversy was at its height and offensive Puritan tracts were being published, control of the press tightened as Catholics and radical Protestants became more adept at clandestine printing and at smuggling their literature into the country. Officers of the government, the church and the Stationers' Company worked so effectively together in their "search and destroy" missions for printing presses used in illegal publishing ventures that, by the end of the period, almost all offensive religious literature had to be printed abroad. The role of the printing press in Elizabethan England is comparable to that of television in the 20th century. As television revolutionizes the art of politics, from political party conventions to national elections, so the printing press affected politics and religion in the last half of the 16th century. The most effective way for Puritans, for example, to attack and embarrass the Establishnent -- and for the Establishment to defend itself -- was to use the medium of print. So much more efficient than preaching -- with much less risk of detection -- the press replaced the pulpit as the main instrument of religious education and of religious reform