The Selection, Promotion, and Reception of Translated Fiction in Wellington

<p>This is the first systematic study of the selection, promotion, and reception of translated fiction anywhere in New Zealand. The study has two phases. The first draws on the responses of 277 adult readers in Wellington to a questionnaire about their perceptions of translated fiction. The findings reveal that most Wellington readers say they enjoy reading books set in other cultures, but their actual reading is largely English-language oriented. While some respondents expressed a specific interest in reading translated fiction, most prioritised genre and content. Age and ethnicity correlate only weakly with perceptions of translated fiction, but knowledge of one or more second languages is a strong predictor of positive perceptions of translated fiction. The second phase of the study draws on seven semi-structured interviews with representatives from three major book-related entities in Wellington: New Zealand Festival’s Writers Week, Wellington City Libraries (WCL), and Unity Books. The interviews provided first-hand insights into each entity’s policies and practices for selecting and promoting translated fiction. Although its past and current coordinators speak highly of translated literature, Wellington’s Writers Week has seen a significant decline in the number of non-English-speaking writers in the last two decades. Similarly, Unity Books claims to treat all categories of books, including translated fiction, equally, but its commercial practice in fact prioritises certain other categories. Wellington City Libraries, on the other hand, has taken a proactive approach to the promotion of translated fiction, for example through blogs and physical displays. Combined with the survey data, the interview findings demonstrate both the complex nature of reading choices and the challenges of advocating for the enhanced visibility of translated fiction in a largely monolingual context. However, many signs also point to a growing recognition of translated fiction as an important element of eclectic reading. This recognition can lead to positive changes in the future.</p>

The Selection, Promotion, and Reception of Translated Fiction in Wellington

<p>This is the first systematic study of the selection, promotion, and reception of translated fiction anywhere in New Zealand. The study has two phases. The first draws on the responses of 277 adult readers in Wellington to a questionnaire about their perceptions of translated fiction. The findings reveal that most Wellington readers say they enjoy reading books set in other cultures, but their actual reading is largely English-language oriented. While some respondents expressed a specific interest in reading translated fiction, most prioritised genre and content. Age and ethnicity correlate only weakly with perceptions of translated fiction, but knowledge of one or more second languages is a strong predictor of positive perceptions of translated fiction. The second phase of the study draws on seven semi-structured interviews with representatives from three major book-related entities in Wellington: New Zealand Festival’s Writers Week, Wellington City Libraries (WCL), and Unity Books. The interviews provided first-hand insights into each entity’s policies and practices for selecting and promoting translated fiction. Although its past and current coordinators speak highly of translated literature, Wellington’s Writers Week has seen a significant decline in the number of non-English-speaking writers in the last two decades. Similarly, Unity Books claims to treat all categories of books, including translated fiction, equally, but its commercial practice in fact prioritises certain other categories. Wellington City Libraries, on the other hand, has taken a proactive approach to the promotion of translated fiction, for example through blogs and physical displays. Combined with the survey data, the interview findings demonstrate both the complex nature of reading choices and the challenges of advocating for the enhanced visibility of translated fiction in a largely monolingual context. However, many signs also point to a growing recognition of translated fiction as an important element of eclectic reading. This recognition can lead to positive changes in the future.</p>

Calling to Complain: An Ethnographic and Conversation Analytic Account of Complaints to an Industry Ombudsman

<p>Although the term complaining represents an ostensibly straightforward behaviour, it has come to obtain a range of meanings within academic and commercial works which have directed research toward understanding the behaviour and attempting to improve the way that it is undertaken, particularly in commercial environments where complaint handling constitutes an important field of commercial practice for many firms. It is proposed in this thesis that such variation in the way that complaining is approached is problematic, as it is treated ways that frequently underemphasise the fundamental point that it is overwhelmingly conducted in interpersonal interactions using language as its primary vehicle (Edwards, 2005). This thesis offers an approach to complaint handling and complaining that eschews such approaches in favour of an empirically grounded account based on the principles of ethnographic analysis, conversation analysis, and discursive psychology. Through investigating the complaint handling procedures as practiced by employees in an institution expressly dedicated to the receipt of complaints and enquiries from customers by employing participant observation and interviews, an account of complaint handling is developed that identifies how a range of forces works to impact on the way that it is performed in an institutional environment, furnishing complaint handling with a level of detail not currently offered in managerial literature dedicated to developing the practice. Next, two research chapters present the investigation of two different aspects of complaint interactions themselves. The first of these focuses on call openings as customers and institutional agents work to align themselves to the project of the call, demonstrating varying orientations to institutional complaining as callers demonstrate their own procedures for complaining (and enquiring) which may not match the institutional prerogatives and procedures of the agents receiving the calls. The final research chapter offers an analysis of a recurrent practice in the complaint calls themselves: callers’ use of self-disclosure in the service of rendering matters as problematic and warranting complaint. This finding adds to existing discursive understandings of how complaining is done. Taken together the findings offer an alternative approach to investigating complaint handling by treating it as an indexical practice bound to local demands. This offers a detailed depiction of complaint handling and complaining ‘in situ’ that may offer researchers and commercial entities a new approach to investigating how it is that complaining is done and how, in commercial or institutional contexts, complaint handling may be improved through the methods employed in the thesis.</p>

Calling to Complain: An Ethnographic and Conversation Analytic Account of Complaints to an Industry Ombudsman

<p>Although the term complaining represents an ostensibly straightforward behaviour, it has come to obtain a range of meanings within academic and commercial works which have directed research toward understanding the behaviour and attempting to improve the way that it is undertaken, particularly in commercial environments where complaint handling constitutes an important field of commercial practice for many firms. It is proposed in this thesis that such variation in the way that complaining is approached is problematic, as it is treated ways that frequently underemphasise the fundamental point that it is overwhelmingly conducted in interpersonal interactions using language as its primary vehicle (Edwards, 2005). This thesis offers an approach to complaint handling and complaining that eschews such approaches in favour of an empirically grounded account based on the principles of ethnographic analysis, conversation analysis, and discursive psychology. Through investigating the complaint handling procedures as practiced by employees in an institution expressly dedicated to the receipt of complaints and enquiries from customers by employing participant observation and interviews, an account of complaint handling is developed that identifies how a range of forces works to impact on the way that it is performed in an institutional environment, furnishing complaint handling with a level of detail not currently offered in managerial literature dedicated to developing the practice. Next, two research chapters present the investigation of two different aspects of complaint interactions themselves. The first of these focuses on call openings as customers and institutional agents work to align themselves to the project of the call, demonstrating varying orientations to institutional complaining as callers demonstrate their own procedures for complaining (and enquiring) which may not match the institutional prerogatives and procedures of the agents receiving the calls. The final research chapter offers an analysis of a recurrent practice in the complaint calls themselves: callers’ use of self-disclosure in the service of rendering matters as problematic and warranting complaint. This finding adds to existing discursive understandings of how complaining is done. Taken together the findings offer an alternative approach to investigating complaint handling by treating it as an indexical practice bound to local demands. This offers a detailed depiction of complaint handling and complaining ‘in situ’ that may offer researchers and commercial entities a new approach to investigating how it is that complaining is done and how, in commercial or institutional contexts, complaint handling may be improved through the methods employed in the thesis.</p>

The Personal Albums Of Samuel Bourne At The National Media Museum And The Art Gallery Of Ontario

This paper analyzed a group of seven photographic albums belonging to the personal collection of British photographer Samuel Bourne (1834-1912), which are now split between two public collections, the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, Canada, and the Royal Photographic Society at the National Media Museum in Bradford, England. The project includes: contextual research on Bourne's commercial practice and nineteenth-century colonial photography in India, and an extensive literature survey discussing both primary and contemporary sources on Bourne and colonial photography, documentation of the albums' history and provenance, and a detailed analysis of the organization and contents of the albums as a complete and coherent record of Bourne's photographic achievement in India. Furthermore, the applied component of the project, which entailed the substantial documentation of all seven albums, in the form of a catalogue of their 705 albumen prints, is included an appendix. The paper also describes the collections management strategies used to reunite the collection and facilitate future access and research.

The Personal Albums Of Samuel Bourne At The National Media Museum And The Art Gallery Of Ontario

This paper analyzed a group of seven photographic albums belonging to the personal collection of British photographer Samuel Bourne (1834-1912), which are now split between two public collections, the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, Canada, and the Royal Photographic Society at the National Media Museum in Bradford, England. The project includes: contextual research on Bourne's commercial practice and nineteenth-century colonial photography in India, and an extensive literature survey discussing both primary and contemporary sources on Bourne and colonial photography, documentation of the albums' history and provenance, and a detailed analysis of the organization and contents of the albums as a complete and coherent record of Bourne's photographic achievement in India. Furthermore, the applied component of the project, which entailed the substantial documentation of all seven albums, in the form of a catalogue of their 705 albumen prints, is included an appendix. The paper also describes the collections management strategies used to reunite the collection and facilitate future access and research.

Using change detection to objectively evaluate whether novel over-the-counter drug labels can increase attention to critical health information among older adults

Over-the-counter (OTC) drugs have many benefits but also carry risks, such as adverse drug reactions, which are more prevalent in older adults. Because these products do not require the oversight of a physician or pharmacist, labeling plays a key role in communicating information required for their safe and effective use. Research suggests that current labels are not terribly effective at communicating potential risk. One reason for their lack of effectiveness is that few consumers attend to critical information (active ingredients and warnings) when making purchases. In two experiments, we used a change detection task to objectively evaluate how novel label designs that employ highlighting and a warning label placed on the package’s front impact attention to critical information among older participants (65 and older). The change detection task is a unique form of visual search which allowed us to assess the attentional priority of critical information among participants who were not explicitly instructed to search for this critical information. This unique aspect of the task is important given research suggesting that consumers rarely have the explicit goal of seeking out warnings and active ingredients when making OTC selections. Our results provide empirical support that both highlighting critical information and positioning it on the package’s front increase its attentional prioritization relative to current, commercial practice. Given that attending to the critical information is prerequisite to utilizing that information, strategies that elicit attention in this way are likely to reduce medication errors.

Care to value. Preservation strategies in the Art Market’s context

In the art market, it is a real possibility that the conduct to be adopted in the preservation of contemporary art cannot be put into practice without secession with the conservation and restoration guidelines. The aim of this study is to analyse if the most prominent professional guidelines fit into the market framework, or if it is possible to find divergences or reasons to lay aside in commercial practice. The work compared the fundamental guidelines with the practical objectives of the art market, qualitatively analyzing the results with the personal testimony collected from the agents of the national market on the issue raised. From this analysis, it was possible to identify the need for diagnostic models balanced with the safeguard of the commercial circumstance of the assets, seeking to develop a line of diagnostic guidelines that offer analytical usefulness to the conservator, in actions in the context of the contemporary art market in Portugal.