Through the use of semi-structured and narrative interviewing, this study considers the perspectives of twelve newcomer women engaged in organizing and facilitating community activities with other newcomer women. The participants shared their views on the challenges faced by newcomer women, and the strength that these women access through community support. The study is grounded in an analysis of literature derived from such interdisciplinary sources as Peace and Conflict Studies, feminism, anthropology, and community-development. While newcomer women are faced with numerous hardships and losses, the participants – everyday peacemakers – emphasize the importance of empowerment. They engage in creating spaces for women to gather, form relationships, and benefit from economic and social development. Through this work, the women foster a form of ‘constrained empowerment’ that exists within the context of various structural barriers to well-being. Despite being constrained, this form of empowerment provides the foundation for social change, and social justice.

Why do seventy percent of Canadian Aboriginal students drop out of school? Although the literature focuses on reform to schools, school systems, and to the formal relationships that govern Aboriginal education, there is, as yet, a lack of empirically-based evidence from the perspectives of the people who have dropped out. The research was conducted in an adult education centre located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and combines semi-structured interviews with an innovative Bead Workshop field-tested in other areas of identity conflict. The study asked 22 Aboriginal people how they make sense of their education experiences, inquired about why they dropped out of school, and invited them to share their hopes for the future. The trans-disciplinary nature of peace and conflict studies offers a new analysis when data were applied to Lederach’s (2003) conflict transformation framework. The findings showed that the participants quit school in the midst of very difficult and strikingly similar life circumstances, and they did not attribute dropping out to inadequacies in education or schooling, or to the effects of colonialism. The study expands the peace and conflict literature into the Canadian Aboriginal context while establishing a new research design and methodology. The study respects Indigenous research principles and combines them with conflict transformation principles to provide empirical evidence about why Aboriginal students drop out of school, and then extends the theoretical literature with a framework for exploring the role of deeper beliefs like love, courage, and hope in personal conflict transformation. Future research can be undertaken with larger groups of Aboriginal people to better understand their experiences in education and in other important areas of life, and to inform and advise Aboriginal policy and practice.

The aim of this thesis was to find out how the teachers I have interviewed, felt that they worked with and looked at conflict management. The aim was also to find similarities and differences in teachers' ways of working with conflict. With the help of my questions, I got answers to what I wanted to explore in my essay. I used these questions: What strategies do the teachers I interviewed for managing conflicts in preschool? What tools do the teachers I interviewed see as most effective in the process of conflict management? Are there differences and similarities in the way that the teachers I interviewed work with current conflict? What factors, according to the informants starts a conflict? What is the teachers’ definition of a conflict and how does their definition affect their approach when working with conflicts?In my study, I have used a qualitative approach in the form of structured interview, to get material for my thesis. In my interviews, I used an interview guide and a tape recorder.I analyzed my material using three different theories. The first theory is Vygotsky's theory of learning and development from a sociocultural perspective, the other is Skinner's theory of positive feedback and the third is Freud's psychoanalytic theory. I have also used the previous research to analyze my empirical material. Previous research describing various approaches to working with conflicts. I have also used the book Solution -oriented pedagogy as a tool to analyze my material.      The study shows that it seems as the most important thing in one's work with conflict, is the way a teacher look at and relate to a conflict. Many of the teacher see a conflict as something constructive and positive. There is a different approach and strategies in the way the different pre-schoolteachers work and help the kids to take on and resolve a conflict. The similarities in the teachers work with conflict is that they find dialogue as an important tool and that the language is important in resolving a conflict.

The purpose of the study was to assess the impact of structural violence and the spread of HIV/AIDS among women and girls in Bulawayo. It is noted that the spread of HIV/ AIDS is high among women and girls in Bulawayo, similarly to the rest of the world. There have been a number of studies that were carried out seeking to find out what causes the spread among women, but it seems as if there has not been a substantial solution to the problem, as the rate of infection is still escalating. There has not been much work done in connection with the causes of the spread of HIV/AIDS among in Bulawayo. A qualitative method of collecting data was used; these are structured individual interviews and focus group interviews. An interview guide was designed for individual interviews, who were informants in the city working directly with affected and infected women. To complement the interviews, focus groups interviews were held with two groups of people, “Touch the Hem” (HIV) support groups and a group of commercial sex workers in the city. An interview guide was also designed for the focus group interview, based on issues that needed clarity and verification from the individual interviews. Permission was granted by individuals involved and ethical considerations of conducting the study were carefully considered. The findings of the study indicated that the spread of HIV among women is caused by high levels of concurrent sexual partners, early sex by girls with older men who are already infected with HIV, gender imbalances, commercial sex work, domestic violence, imbalances in sexual relationships, lack of health information and poverty. It was indicated by the findings of this study that some of these causes have links with structural violence. It is recommended that both men and women should be educated on health and HIV related issues, and that exploitative and unjust, cultural, political and socioeconomic structural systems should be eradicated in order to establish positive peace. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2009. / HEARD Division.

Partnering between municipalities within a city-region is not an easy task. Often there are challenges in the partnering process especially in relation to balancing planning and governance. This research examines how city-region partnerships can move beyond conflict to position themselves to be more successful, both locally and globally. The Calgary Regional Partnership (CRP) serves as the main case study. Located in one of Canada’s fastest growing regions, both in terms of population and resource development, the Calgary region is struggling to move forward as a city-region partnership. The struggle appears to be rooted in past regional planning conflicts that have never been adequately resolved. Based on CRP experience, the project examines how city-regions in Canada can move beyond such conflict and associated challenges with particular interest in: the role of planners, the case for collaboration, and the pursuit of a ‘new regionalism’ approach.

Anecdotal information indicates that conflict exists between Adventure Tourism Operators (ATOs) and snowmobilers in the backcountry of British Columbia. Focusing on the Sea-to-Sky Corridor, a survey was conducted among winter ATOs to determine the extent of the conflict, the role of land management policies as well as the proposed Off-Road Vehicle (ORV) Management Framework in managing such interactions. Initial conclusions suggest that: 1) conflict does exist; 2) existing structure for managing interactions is inadequate; 3) ATOs consider it the responsibility of the BC Government to manage interactions, and; 4) ATOs have a low level of confidence in the BC Government to effectively manage interactions. This study presents five recommendations for government regulators to consider if or when the ORV Management Framework moves forward.

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No description available.

This dissertation builds on two recent developments in attitude research, first the distinction made between two types of attitudes, i.e., explicit (deliberate, controlled) and implicit (unconscious, automatic) attitudes, and second, that made between two types of attitude conflicts, i.e., ambivalence (conflict between strong explicit positive and negative evaluative basis of the same attitude object) and duality (conflict between explicit and implicit attitudes). It uses the context of food for both its theoretical and empirical developments because there were reasons to expect that, in Western cultures, explicit attitudes are often ambivalent (i.e. positive on taste but negative on health dimensions), but might also be dual (e.g. for restrained eaters, resulting from the motivated overriding of positive attitudes toward tempting but forbidden food). / A first study (N = 199) focuses on the differences between ambivalent and dual attitudes and the influence of these conflicts on spontaneous and deliberate behavior. Results demonstrate that holding dual and ambivalent attitudes are two different constructs, although both ambivalence and duality lead to a subjective experience of conflict. Also, attitudes are weaker when ambivalent (i.e. less accessible, less stable and held with less certainty), and duality is a moderator at high levels of ambivalence, with explicit attitudes being even less accessible but nonetheless more certain when dual. Finally, the influence of, on one hand, both implicit and explicit attitudes in driving spontaneous choice and, on the other hand, the explicit attitude in determining deliberate choice (behavioral intention as proxy) is corroborated. It also appears that the influence of the implicit attitude on spontaneous behavior is increased in presence of an attitude conflict. In a second study (N = 120), the hypothesis that the existence of dual attitudes stems from inhibitive processes is tested in the context of restrained eating, through a cognitive load manipulation. Results demonstrate that the influence of the implicit attitude on spontaneous choice is stronger for restrained eaters when cognitive capacities are impaired. The second study also highlights that implicit attitudes are stable and resistant to change despite direct experience manipulations (i.e. comparative and repeated tasting). Theoretical, methodological and practical contributions are discussed.

One of the most concerning trends associated with the ongoing problem of civil wars is that conflicts often flare-up a short period after they appeared to have ended. While significant progress has been made in the study of post-civil war peace building and the causes of civil wars, the tendency for civil wars to recur is one factor which has been largely overlooked. This thesis addresses this shortcoming by analysing the causes of recurring civil war using statistical methods. Relevant civil war research was consulted and hypotheses pertaining to the variables which might influence civil war recurrence were formulated. These factors are organised in a contingency framework which suggests that conflict recurrence is dependent on both pre- and post-conflict environments as well as factors associated with how the original conflict was fought. The Uppsala Conflict Data Program/Centre for the Study of Civil War Armed Conflict Dataset was used to produce a dataset of 238 civil wars which were fought between 1946 and 2004. Additional data pertaining to specific hypotheses was collected from a range of other sources. Statistical analysis was conducted to determine the strength and direction of relationships between different variables and civil war recurrence. Several factors were found to have a significant relationship with civil war recurrence: ethnic diversity, conflicts which were fought over territorial issues and conflicts which were not ended by military victory, particularly those which ended as a result of low or no fatalities. These findings are discussed with reference to improving civil war management and policy recommendations are presented.