David Wood has been called by the London Times "the national children's dramatist." Presenting theatre for children as a separate art form, Mr. Wood here draws upon his experience as a magician, actor, director, producer, composer, and playwright, and analyzes the skills involved in entertaining and involving audiences of children everywhere. He reveals his special techniques for catching and holding a child's attention, provides a practical handbook illustrated with excerpts from his plays, and offers a behind-the-scenes look at the work that goes into them. He also examines the business side of children's theatre, showing exactly how a good synopsis will help to sell an idea. "The challenge," he writes, "is to give a unique theatrical experience to an audience, many of whom will be first-time theatergoers, to involve them emotionally, to sustain their interest in a story, to inspire and excite them using theatricality, to make them laugh, to make them think, to move them, to entertain and educate them by triggering their imaginations." This comprehensive guide written with Janet Grant is essential reading for professionals and amateurs alike and for anyone wishing to be involved in the theatre for children.

As well as fulfilling a functional need, furniture has always been an index of status. From the throne of Tutankhamen or the bed of State of Louis XIV to the austere Shaker chest or the Charles Eames chair and later modern pieces from Europe, the Far East and the United States, the style of each piece tells much about the outlook of the makers and the needs and skills of the time. This absorbing history traces the development of furniture design and production, from the days of ancient Egypt to the present, describing what articles were made in each period, how they were made, and what were the social and economic conditions that affected style and finish. The author discusses techniques such as joinery, turning, veneering, marquetry, polishing, upholstery, bentwood work and lamination. Many examples are shown in the illustrations, which are invaluable recognition sources and a lively visual accompaniment to the text.

Believe it or not, the 1990s are history. As historians turn to study this period and beyond, they will encounter a historical record that is radically different from what has ever existed before. Old websites, social media, blogs, photographs, and videos are all part of the massive quantities of digital information that technologists, librarians, archivists, and organizations such as the Internet Archive have been collecting for the past three decades. In History in the Age of Abundance? Ian Milligan argues that web-based historical sources and their archives present extraordinary opportunities as well as daunting technical and ethical challenges for historians. Through case studies, he outlines the approaches, methods, tools, and search functions that can help a historian turn web documents into historical sources. He also considers the implications of the size and scale of digital sources, which amount to more information than historians have ever had at their fingertips, and many of which are by and about people who have traditionally been absent from the historical record. Scrutinizing the concept of the web and the mechanics of its archives, Milligan explains how these new media challenge, reshape, and enrich both the historical profession and the historical record. A wake-up call for historians of the twenty-first century, History in the Age of Abundance? is an essential introduction to the way web archives work, what possibilities they open up, what risks they entail, and what the shift to digital information means for historians, their professional training and organization, and society as a whole.

This open access book explores the challenges society faces with big data, through the lens of culture rather than social, political or economic trends, as demonstrated in the words we use, the values that underpin our interactions, and the biases and assumptions that drive us. Focusing on areas such as data and language, data and sensemaking, data and power, data and invisibility, and big data aggregation, it demonstrates that humanities research, focussing on cultural rather than social, political or economic frames of reference for viewing technology, resists mass datafication for a reason, and that those very reasons can be instructive for the critical observation of big data research and innovation. The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by Trinity College Dublin, DARIAH-EU and the European Commission.

Through the use of eight original metaphors for understanding what may happen in interviews and what may guide the interviewee (more than telling the truth or revealing experiences), the reader is encouraged to do interviews in clever ways. This text enables you to question the interpretive nature and theoretical underpinnings of the interview method, and of the knowledge which is conveyed through it. The updated second edition includes new content on: • How to avoid traps in interviews  • How to use interviewees with experience and insight  • How to work creatively with generative material • The value of repeat interviewing over time  • The importance of supplementing interviews with other methods • Possibilities of interview-based research accompanied by examples This text is essential reading for upper undergraduate and postgraduate students of qualitative methods, and researchers looking to more clearly conceptualize their interviewing practice and explore its theoretical basis. Mats Alvesson is professor at University of Bath and is also affiliated with Lund University, Stockholm School of Economics and Bayes Business School.

In order to successfully complete a research project on social issues, as part of your education or social science degree, you will need a confident understanding of often challenging and nuanced topics. This book provides an overview of how to approach researching issues relating to key social justice issues including: race, sex and gender, disability and mental health. It will help you to understand important concepts, how to avoid hidden biases and how to use appropriate terminology in each area. It combines this thematic approach with accessible guidance on the research process, from initial design and formulating your research question, through to data collection and analysis. Helena Gillespie is Professor of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education at the University of East Anglia.

This new textbook focuses on how data and analytics can be used to help inform organisational decision-making across the business by complementing human judgement. Taking a highly practical approach, it covers major use cases for analytics across different business areas, including marketing analytics, HR analytics, operational analytics and financial analytics. This concise and readable book grounds discussion in the fundamentals of data, analytics and data visualisation, and in an understanding of the legal and ethical responsibilities that come with working with data. Key features include: • Analytics in Practice vignettes show how data and analytics have been applied in real organisations • Video interviews with industry professionals bring examples to life • A running case study and accompanying dataset allow you to apply what you have learnt Suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying business analytics. Mary Ellen Gordon is Senior Professional Teaching Fellow/Senior Lecturer in the School of Information Systems at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

This book guides you through designing and implementing an online experiment in social science research in a clear and straightforward manner.  At an approachable pace, it covers foundational principles of good experimental design before setting out best practice for how to design and conduct web experiments, taking into account the specific methodological challenges of working online with digital tools. The book: Offers practical advice for approaching every stage of the research process Breaks real-world examples into easy to follow steps Focuses on how to make good decisions and choose the right design for your research project This pragmatic guide helps beginner researchers get started with online experiments confidently. It is supported by online resources such as case studies which allow you to see the concepts in practice, and weblinks to tools and resources to aid you.