Magister Artium - MA / This paper examines selected discourses found in the journals kept by 21 working-class women during a training course for domestic workers in South Africa. The principal aim of the paper is to examine how emotion, voice and agency are expressed through literacy practices such as writing. With critical discourse analysis, the existing literacy levels of these women are revealed as well as the way in which women express identity, agency and emotion through the act of writing and reflecting on their experiences. A secondary aim is to uncover those recurrent discourses and attitudes that either empower or disempower these women. This is done to showcase how women's perception of themselves and their opportunities help them become active or inactive agents in their communities and families. Contributions are made to the study of women's language and literacy practices, with particular investigation of how their identities are shaped and moulded by language use. Critical discourse analysis and narrative analysis are the main analytical tools used in the study, highlighting aspects like agency, voice and ideology. These aspects are examined through the lens of women's experiences. / South Africa

Keeping forestland intact has emerged as a critical policy objective at state and federal levels. This target has been supported by substantial public investment. The collective impact from the bequest decisions of millions of landowning individuals and families has the potential to affect the extent and functionality of future forests in the United States. Despite a growing body of research devoted to studying these transitions in forest ownership, much remains unknown about how family forest owners make decisions in this arena. The social and emotional dimensions of woodland succession planning have been particularly under-examined. This thesis explores the process of planning for the future use and ownership of woodlands through in-depth analysis of 32 semi-structured interviews with family forest owners in Massachusetts, Maine, New York, and Vermont. The first article investigates how family forest owners evaluate and integrate stories derived from their social networks when planning for the future of their woodlands. Analysis of the themes contained in stories framed as “cautionary tales” revealed common fears surrounding succession planning. The second article explores the complexity of emotional relationships with family forests showing how emotional geographies manifest in the succession planning process. Together, these studies deepen understanding of how family forest owners plan for the future of private woodlands and offer implications for Extension and outreach.

This study explores the experiences of infertile married African women in South Africa. The study explores the women’s emotional experiences, their experiences of their relationships and the possible ways in which their culture may have influenced their experiences. The literature review gives an overview of female infertility, motherhood and feminism- from its conception to its current status in South Africa. The study is carried out in a clinical setting where the participants are already attending an infertility clinic for treatment. Six black women participate in this study and they are all married and experiencing primary infertility. This study does not include women experiencing secondary infertility because although they may presently be infertile, they have previously experienced one or more successful pregnancies. Therefore, primary infertility is chosen as the focus of this study because unlike secondary infertile women, primary infertile women have never experienced pregnancy and childbirth and thus their infertility is more noticeable and severe. The study is qualitative in nature and it is conducted within a feminist social constructionist research paradigm. This research paradigm is deemed to be more relevant in researching an issue pertaining to women, because feminist research enables social scientists to explore women’s social history, women’s perception of their own situation, their own subordination and their own resistance (Mies, 1993). Through social constructionism, the women are each able to make meaning out of their experiences and to include the influences of their culture, gender and social context in the construction of their experiences. Furthermore, since feminist research perspectives have supported the process of telling sensitive human stories as research, a narrative approach is employed in gathering information regarding the women’s experiences of being infertile. Thus, through telling their own self-narratives, the women are able to relate their experiences as well as the events that took place in their lives regarding their infertility. Structural narrative analysis as well as content narrative analysis are employed in the analysis of the women’s narratives. What emerges from their stories is the hope and the subsequent disappointment that follows from their countless visits and consultations with different health professionals, both western and traditional, as they search for pregnancy. It also emerges that in addition to their personal experiences, these women’s marital and familial relationships, as well as their extended social relationships, also contribute to the emotional distress that they experience as a result of their infertility. Although most of the women mainly report negative experiences, there are also some who report positive experiences and some form of support in their lives. It is hoped that the results obtained from this study will enable psychologists to intervene effectively and to work collaboratively with other health professionals towards delivering services aimed at assisting infertile African women medically, socially and psychologically. / Dissertation (MA (Clinical Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Psychology / unrestricted

This study examined the conditions and experience of students who were placed on academic probation in view of key elements of Dewey’s (1958, 1938/1997, 1934/2005) theory of experience. Core data emerged from 16 in-depth interviews with five students who received assistance from an academic support program while on probation. An additional interview was conducted with the academic companion and another with the program developer. A document analysis and a researcher journal supplemented the data. The interviews were analyzed according to a three-dimensional narrative inquiry space (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Dewey, 1958, 1938/1997) to produce profiles and thematic connections (Seidman, 2006). Findings are presented in five texts. The first and second manuscripts depict the stories of two students using the profile genre. These texts disclose rich stories where the meaning of experience is lived. A third manuscript examines students’ experience from the student and professional perspectives. Major themes uncovered, include (a) resistance to seek help; (b) deep personal costs; and (c) a desire to succeed and complete their undergraduate studies. A fourth manuscript explores companioning as experienced by students and supported by resource personnel. It reveals that (a) the companioning role was defined by a specific form of guidance and attendance to self-confidence and (b) the program helped students clarify their needs, promoted their adaptation to the university context, and offered support through a positive relationship. A fifth manuscript examined the characteristics of a fruitful helping relationship. Findings suggest that (a) a rapport characterized by presence and trust and (b) an approach promoting responsibility, awareness, and holism were key. These findings offer a weighty contribution to the literature on post-secondary education by revealing rich and unique experiences. By tapping in the complexity of the participants’ experience, findings help shift away from the current focus on obstacles and deficiencies often attributed to probationary students. Résumé Cette étude a examiné l’expérience d’étudiants ayant été placés en probation académique à la lumière d’éléments-clés de la théorie de l’expérience de Dewey (1958, 1938/1997, 1934/2005). La principale source de données provenait de 16 entrevues en profondeur auprès de cinq étudiants ayant participé à un programme d’accompagnement universitaire alors qu’ils étaient en probation académique. Une entrevue a aussi été menée avec l’accompagnatrice et une autre avec la conceptrice du programme. Une analyse documentaire et un journal de bord de la chercheure complètent les données. Les entrevues ont été analysées selon une analyse narrative tridimensionnelle (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Dewey, 1958, 1938/1997) de façon à produire des profils et des liens thématiques (Seidman, 2006). Les résultats sont présentés dans cinq textes. Les premier et deuxième textes dépeignent l’histoire de deux étudiants sous forme de profils. Ces textes découvrent de riches et profondes histoires véhiculant la probation comme expérience de vie et la signification attribuée à celle-ci. Le troisième texte présente l’examen collectif de l’expérience des cinq étudiants ayant participé au programme d’accompagnement. Cette analyse est enrichie des perspectives de l’accompagnatrice et de la conceptrice du programme. Trois thèmes se dégagent de l’expérience de ces étudiants en probation académique soit (a) une résistance à faire usage des services de soutien; (b) des coûts personnels considérables; et (c) un désir de réussir et de compléter leur programme d’études. Un quatrième texte explore l’expérience d’accompagnement tel que perçu par les étudiants et les professionnels. L’analyse révèle que (a) l’accompagnatrice agissait à titre de guide et était attentive à la dimension de la confiance en soi et (b) le programme a aidé les étudiants à identifier leurs besoins, a soutenu leur adaptation au contexte universitaire, et a offert un soutien personnalisé par l’entremise d’une relation d’aide positive. Le cinquième texte se concentre sur les particularités d’une relation d’aide efficace en contexte de probation académique. Les résultats relèvent que cette expérience est qualifiée par (a) un rapport de présence empathique et empreinte de confiance réciproque et (b) une approche globale favorisant la responsabilité et la conscientisation. En dévoilant la richesse et l’unicité de l’expérience, ces résultats offrent une contribution intéressante. Illustrant la complexité des expériences de probation ils contribuent à s’éloigner d’une vision centrée sur les obstacles et les déficits des étudiants en probation académique.

This research examined how public policy addresses long-term societal challenges. The case study focused on policy narratives and frames of resource efficiency in the ‘Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe’ of the European Commission (EC). The study followed an interpretive constructionist perspective on public policy and assumed a research strategy based on a single critical case study. The literature review examined perspectives on policy narratives, frames, knowledge and social learning in the interpretive policy analysis and organisation studies literature. Foresight and futures literature also provided insights on the use and nature of knowledge and policy learning in the process of deliberation of future visions. The empirical enquiry was based on a series of in-depth interviews with policy stakeholders, formal EU policy documents and speeches as well as participation in targeted policy events. The thesis makes contributions in three areas. First, the study developed and applied a new conceptual and methodological approach – a policy narrative framework analysis(POLFRAME) – to examine different discursive and narrative layers of policy narratives of the resource efficiency agenda. The framework can lend itself to interrogate any policy narrative, notably ones with explicit or implicit future scenarios and vision. Second, the policy case study contributed to knowledge on the evolving EU policy area of resource efficiency, addressing challenges of the sustainable use of natural resources. The research provided insights into how a complex societal, economic and environmental challenge of resource efficiency was understood by different stakeholders and intentionally framed in the official policy narrative. The emerging EU agenda on resource efficiency was intentionally reframed to advance a broader approach to environmental policy that moves beyond a traditional goal of environmental protection towards a systemic transition of economic system to achieve decoupling of economic growth from environmental impacts. While the study found evidence of a significant shift in scoping the challenge, their framing has not led to radical changes in underlying normative assumptions on the relation between nature and society or on the central role of economic growth in transition. Third, the research discussed theoretical implications of introducing a long-term challenge-driven perspective to public policy narratives. Introducing a future vision to policy narrative added a stronger normative orientation to policy argumentation. The case study demonstrated that an inclusion of a long-term societal challenge to the resource efficiency agenda influenced the selection, interpretation and use of evidence in policy narratives. The design of challenge-driven long-term policies bears a family resemblance to the perspective of post-normal science. Finally, the thesis puts forward messages and recommendations for policy makers and practitioners interested in the process of radical policy reframing. It also suggests further research encompassing a comparative dimension and longer periods of enquiry of policy frames, which would allow for better understanding the effects of the reframing of policy on various phases of policy cycles.

This thesis investigates the everyday oppression of people with experiences of trauma and ‘mental illness’ through hegemonic discourses by psy-professionals within mental health care. The research is built around a case study of a narrative of a professional relationship between a social worker and a person experiencing mental distress. Using intersectionality as a theoretical and methodological framework it attempts to show how Madness is constructed as well as to identify how mechanisms of discrimination and oppression are interconnected simultaneously. Madness as a stand-alone category and at the same time an influence to gender, race and class. By applying narrative analysis and intersectionality systems of inequality can be made visible which need to be understood to bring about change and include any potential of meaning making processes by those affected through trauma or mental distress.

This qualitative study examined how adolescent participants who self-harm narrate motivations for and experiences of self-harm and what a narrative group music therapy process could afford them. Seven participants from a high school in South Africa who engage in self-harm attended narrative group music therapy sessions for six weeks. Multiple interventions were used to create opportunities for self-expression within sessions. Narratives that emerged during this therapeutic process were analysed. Five main narratives were identified: “who I am, becoming and strive to be,” “relationships,” “worldview,” “self-harm,” “music therapy.” / Mini Dissertation (MMus)--University of Pretoria, 2018. / Music / MMus / Unrestricted

This paper seeks to explore why the people of Switzerland have preponderantly voted in favour of a strong military defence despite the reality of Swiss security in the 21st century being dependent on international collaboration outside the military arena. The conundrum is answered by determining the Swiss Federal Council’s strategic narrative regarding security, through examination of its explanatory texts in voting booklets between 1978 and 2020, finding that the matter of armed neutrality is a red thread. Either neutrality is used as justification of an act supported by the Federal Council, or that neutrality would be harmed by popular initiatives the Council does not endorse.

This thesis aims to investigate the narrative created around the covid-19 virus as a security threat during the first months of the pandemic. Speeches made by three political leaders, namely Emmanuel Macron, Boris Johnson and Angela Merkel, held in March 2020 are analysed in depth using a feminist narrative framework. The overall purpose is to investigate how a gendered reading of the portrayal of the covid-19 pandemic as a security threat can contribute to the already existing feminist research on how gender is both part of, and affected by, the construction of security narratives. The research questions concern whether the pandemic was militarised by political leaders, and if so, how this is done through the construction of the narrative. Furthermore, it is investigated how masculinity and femininity come to expression within the narrative of covid-19 as a security threat, and how this differs from the gendered hierarchies in relation to “traditional” security threats already outlined in previous feminist research on security. The result of the analysis shows that the pandemic is clearly being militarised. Traditional gender constructions are however altered, for example when feminine roles are assigned to groups traditionally not perceived as feminine. The result shows the flexibility of gender roles, but also the need to sustain a division between some groups as feminine and some groups as masculine. The very existence of hierarchies is seemingly more important than which physical bodies take place within that hierarchy.

[pt] A presente dissertação investiga, por meio da Análise de Narrativas informada pela Sociolinguística Interacional, a discriminação homofóbica em contexto militar. Os dados aqui apresentados foram gerados em entrevistas qualitativas com nove oficiais e praças da ativa e da reserva do Exército Brasileiro que se identificam como homossexuais. A análise, também de natureza qualitativa e interpretativista, se dá em perspectiva micro-interacional e a partir do arcabouço teórico da análise de narrativas e das noções de estigma e face. Os resultados descrevem elementos estruturais e avaliativos centrais de tais narrativas, que em geral se referem a eventos de punição disciplinar, humilhação e exclusão, cuja motivação última teria sido discriminatória. Em todas as narrativas analisadas, foi possível observar um esforço contínuo dos participantes em salvaguardar a instituição a que pertencem da imputação de responsabilidade pelos episódios de discriminação. Foram, ainda, objetos de análise os processos de estigmatização e apresentação do self. Assim, os participantes reconstroem suas histórias lançando mão de recursos como a formulação de accounts e diálogos construídos, que permitem aos narradores justificar eventos que poderiam ameaçar suas faces, bem como dar veracidade a suas histórias. Quanto à análise dos estigmas construídos e rejeitados na entrevista de pesquisa, observou-se que os processos de estigmatização da identidade gay se dão na dimensão das histórias narradas, mas não durante a interação entre entrevistadora e entrevistado. A pesquisa apresenta ainda, dados de cunho etnográfico para embasar a interpretação linguístico-discuriva. Por fim, serão discutidos, através das vozes dos próprios entrevistados, os discursos do senso comum que discriminam e estigmatizam os militares gays. Para além de seus compromissos teóricos, o trabalho busca contribuir de forma aplicada para a construção de entendimentos sobre contextos em que performances identitárias da vida social de indivíduos impactam suas relações e avaliações profissionais e institucionais. / [en] This paper investigates, through Narrative Analysis informed by Interactional Sociolinguistics, homophobic discrimination in the military context. The data presented here have been generated in interviews with nine Brazilian army officers, sergeants and enlisted, in the active and reserve service, who identify themselves as homosexual. The analysis, of a qualitative and interpretative nature, occurs within a micro-interactional perspective taking into consideration the narrative analysis theoretical framework as well as the notions of stigma and face. The results describe key structural and evaluative elements of such narratives that generally refer to disciplinary punishment events, humiliation and exclusion, which ultimately have a discriminatory motivation. In all narratives analyzed, a continuing effort of the participants in safeguarding their institution from the imputation of responsibility for the episodes of discrimination has been observed. The stigmatization processes and the presentation of self were also objects of analysis. The participants reconstruct their stories by means of resources such as the use of accounts and reported speeches. These resources justify events that could threaten their faces and give veracity to their stories. As far as the analysis of the stigma built and rejected in the research interview is concerned, it has been observed that the stigmatization processes of the gay identity occur in the dimension of the narrated stories, but not during the interaction between interviewer and interviewee. This research also presents ethnographic data to support linguistic and discursive interpretation. Finally, a discussion, through the voices of the interviewees themselves, about common sense discourse that discriminates and stigmatizes the gay military will be carried out. In addition to its theoretical commitments, the research aims to contribute as an applied tool to understand contexts in which the identity that individuals perform in their social lives have impact on their relationships as well as on their professional and institutional evaluations.