Author Sandra Karlsson E-mail: s.e.karlsson@gmail.com, skaiv02@student.vxu.se Institutional affiliation Växjö University School of Social Sciences Academic adviser: Associate professor Per Dannefjord Level: Bachelor’s thesis in sociology Title Alcohol Abuse Reproduced by Structural Inequalities: A Case Study in rural Mexico Description The purpose of this case study is to reveal the social structure determining the state of alcoholism in a particular society. The Case Study area is a marginalized rural and indigenous village, highly interconnected with the modern world through non-indigenous presence and because of its geographic location, situated close to a highway. The research is a result of a perceived local acceptance and naturalness of a highly destructive alcohol intake, which penetrates the whole society. The theoretical focus is drawn from the theories Durable Inequality developed by Charles Tilly and Stigmatization of Outsiders developed by Norbert Elias. The study is empirical and presented in a narrative structure introducing the reader to both the particularities of the Case Study area as well as the focal problem. The method used is Participant Observation. The crucial finding of the study is that an adaptive structure has evolved around the alcohol abuse, normalizing its existence and hazardous side effects, hindering any form of active resistance, and therefore reproducing or even strengthening the abuse.

In this dissertation, I address the distribution and conservation of the Amazonian avifauna at several different scales. In Chapter 1, I looked at how the spatial bias in ornithological collections affects our understanding of the patterns of diversity in Amazonia. I showed that Amazonia is massively under-collected, that biological collection sites cluster around points of access, and that the richness at collection localities is higher than would be expected at random. This greater richness in collected areas was associated with a higher proportion of species with small geographical ranges as compared to uncollected areas. These small range species are relevant for conservation, as they are especially prone to extinction. I concluded that the richness of the uncollected areas of Amazonia is seriously underestimated, and that current knowledge gaps preclude accurate selection of areas for conservation in Amazonia. With this in mind, I modeled the impacts of continued deforestation on the Amazonian endemic avifauna. To overcome knowledge gaps, I complemented bird range maps with a "bird-ecoregions." I identified several taxa and bird-ecoregions likely to face great threat in the near future, most of them associated with riverine habitats. To evaluate these predictions, I conducted a detailed study on two riverine species: the Rio Branco Antbird (Cercomacra carbonaria) and the Hoary-throated Spinetail (Synallaxis kollari). Both are threatened and endemic to the gallery forests of Roraima, Brazil. I predicted that both would lose critical habitat in the near future. I concluded that neither is categorized correctly in by The World Conservation Union and recommend the down-listing of the Rio-Branco-Antbird and the up-listing of the Hoary-throated Spinetail. I also explored the importance of indigenous reserves for the conservation of both species and emphasized the need for greater involvement of conservation biologists in the social issues related to their study organisms. / Dissertation

The purpose of this study was to explore th relationship between urban indigenous students¡¦ creativity and their growing environments. One hundred and two junior high school students, 52 senior high school students, and 126 vocational high school students were selected by convenience sampling. The participants complete the ¡§Creativity Environment Scale¡¨ and ¡§Torrance Creativity Thinking Test¡¨. Descriptive statistics, t tests, and analysis of variance were conducted on the quantitative data. In addition, 4 targeted students with the high creativity scores were tested for performance assessment and were interviewed after the survey. The main findings in this study were as follows: 1. Urban indigenous students in junior and senior high school has significantly higher scores in creativity than urban indigenous students in vocational high school. 2. Urban indigenous girl students has significantly higher scores in creativity than urban indigenous boy students. 3. Urban indigenous students of junior high school reported that their ¡§family provided creativity opportunities¡¨ score was significantly higher than senior and vocational high school indigenous students. 4. Urban indigenous girl students¡¦ scores of ¡§emotion support in family¡¨, ¡§emotion exchange in school¡¨ and ¡§encourages exchange in school¡¨ were significantly higher than boys¡¦. 5. The urban indigenous students whose parents has high education level scored higher in the category of ¡¥¡¦family provided opportunity¡¦¡¦ than students whose parents were less educated. 6. Urban indigenous students whose teacher were non-indigenous has higher scores in ¡§school provided opportunity¡¨ than urban indigenous students with indigenous teachers. 7. Urban indigenous students has significantly higher scores in ¡§fluency¡¨,¡§originality¡¨, and ¡§elaboration¡¨ than non-indigenous students, while non-indigenous students has significantly higher scores in ¡§verbal¡¨ than urban indigenous students. 8. After interviewing and performance assessment, it was found that there was significant relationship between their early childhood upbringing environment and creativity. 9. The urban indigenous students from better family and school environment has significantly higher scores in creativity than those from less fortunate environment. . The findings and suggestions from this research may be used for future researches on urban indigenous students.

<p>Author</p><p>Sandra Karlsson</p><p>E-mail: s.e.karlsson@gmail.com, skaiv02@student.vxu.se</p><p>Institutional affiliation</p><p>Växjö University</p><p>School of Social Sciences</p><p>Academic adviser: Associate professor Per Dannefjord</p><p>Level: Bachelor’s thesis in sociology</p><p>Title</p><p>Alcohol Abuse Reproduced by Structural Inequalities: A Case Study in rural Mexico</p><p>Description</p><p>The purpose of this case study is to reveal the social structure determining the state of alcoholism in a particular society. The Case Study area is a marginalized rural and indigenous village, highly interconnected with the modern world through non-indigenous presence and because of its geographic location, situated close to a highway.</p><p>The research is a result of a perceived local acceptance and naturalness of a highly destructive alcohol intake, which penetrates the whole society.</p><p>The theoretical focus is drawn from the theories Durable Inequality developed by Charles Tilly and Stigmatization of Outsiders developed by Norbert Elias.</p><p>The study is empirical and presented in a narrative structure introducing the reader to both the particularities of the Case Study area as well as the focal problem. The method used is Participant Observation.</p><p>The crucial finding of the study is that an adaptive structure has evolved around the alcohol abuse, normalizing its existence and hazardous side effects, hindering any form of active resistance, and therefore reproducing or even strengthening the abuse.</p>

Thesis (M.A.) - Simon Fraser University, 2006. / Theses (Dept. of Psychology) / Simon Fraser University. Also issued in digital format and available on the World Wide Web.

Project (M.P.P.) - Simon Fraser University, 2006. / Theses (Master of Public Policy Program) / Simon Fraser University. Also issued in digital format and available on the World Wide Web.

Project Thesis (D. Min.)--Denver Seminary, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [200]-206).

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv., 2004. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Master's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2009. / Title from file title page. Gregory C. Lisby, committee chair; Kathryn Fuller-Seeley, Svetlana V. Kulikova, committee members. Description based on contents viewed Feb. 22, 2010. Includes bibliographical references (p. 158-167).