This dissertation empirically expands the existing knowledge on participatory democracy through a study of Jamaica's Parish Development Committees (PDCs). These groups offer an avenue for Jamaicans to inform government policy, and this analysis explored the extent to which supportive institutional, infrastructural and superstructural (referring to the society's culture and power configurations) conditions for robust implementation of this democratization initiative existed. This inquiry involved observing more than one hundred hours of PDC activities at locations across Jamaica and conducting sixty key informant and four focus group interviews with relevant stakeholders. The analysis was bolstered by an appreciation of emancipatory politics employed by the country's general population since slavery not only to survive oppression, but also to influence the nation's political agenda. Riots during slavery and in the present day, for example, have offered citizens an avenue towards self-determination. This study found that the emergence, survival and thriving of PDCs in Jamaica is determined largely by the extent to which emancipatory political tactics are successfully applied by PDC stakeholders to combat a number of continuing challenges in these committee's environments. The democratization initiative symbolized by the PDCs promotes inclusiveness yet is led predominantly by older, educated middle class individuals with talents and capacities garnered from several years of experience in various fields. The dissertation argues that the opportunity cost of a more inclusive order explains this fact, in that Jamaica's finite resources mean there is limited space for a learning curve and the cash strapped committees have only been able to survive when their members could help to defray the cost of their operations. The dissertation explores other central challenges confronting the PDCs and the strategies these participative organizations have employed to address each. Primarily, this analysis provides a micro-scale view of the interaction of the factors that have shaped the power and possibility of Jamaica's democratization initiative. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this case study is to demonstrate the effectiveness of an Advanced Practice Nurse in providing spiritual and nursing care within a faith community setting. The study will describe the process of developing a Parish Nurse program using a Nurse Practitioner to offer wholistic health care to parishioners. It will also illustrate the collaborative process of developing a free health center within a faith based organization, using the Nurse Practitioner to manage the health center and deliver health care services. In order to demonstrate the need for parish nurse care, the case study used an anonymous survey to provide insight into the health status of the congregation, as well as to determine perceived needs of parishioners. Excerpts from the researcher's journal and audio-taped interviews of parishioners and key leaders within the community was used to express congregants' experiences of receiving parish nurse care, and to convey the need for a free community health center in the target population. A utilization review was conducted to demonstrate the profile of the patients who have accessed the services of the health center. The findings revealed three commons themes of parish nurse care; presence, spiritual support, and health care liaison. The study also revealed parishioners had an expedited referral process and improved patient provider relationships. Additional findings determined that the free health center was able to be operated by many of the members of the faith based organization, and was effective in managing chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes. Advanced Practice Nurses who are Parish Nurses have an opportunity to practice in a more wholistic manner, and offer advanced level care to parishioners and the community at large to improve health outcomes.

No description available.

The aim for this master’s thesis is to explore and explain how vicars and chairmen of church councils understand the role and tasks of the vicar in large and middle-sized multi-parish benefices in these new and bigger organizations that took shape after the organizational change 2014 in Church of Sweden. The study is based on interviews with six vicars and four chairmen in four large and two middle sized multi-parish benefices in four different dioceses. For the theoretical framework, Mintzberg’s configurations have been used with a special emphasis on the divisionalized/diversified configuration. The result of the study shows that both vicars and chairmen think the role of the vicar is obvious and indistinct at the same time. It is distinct in that way that there is “Kyrkoordningen” which is Church of Sweden’s official legal framework which is about Church of Sweden’s faith, confession and creed. It also states what a parish has to do; celebrate worship, carry out education, exercise social welfare work and mission, but it doesn’t say how much or how. The vicar needs a driving force, a wish to move the organization into the future and should have visions without forgetting what the mission, the core, is. Most of the informants also consider the vicar to be a spiritual leader. A strength as well as a weakness is the size of the organization. Some of the strengths are about having all the resources an organization has need of as well as a deficit of vulnerability. The new organizational form makes it possible for the vicar to become the organization’s face outward as well as the unifying force for the inward. The weakness is about the inertia in the organization with decision-making procedures that can be long and unnecessary complex. There is a complexity in the relationship with the diocese that also has its root in the size. The organizational structure about governing och leading, how does it affect the vicars and chairmen? Almost all the informants think there is a distinct line between governing and leading and it is the duty of the vicar to lead and the duty of the church council to govern under the leadership of the chairman. All the vicars have a good or even a very good relationship with the chairmen and vice versa. Some of them have worked together for many years, three of four chairmen have recruited “their” vicar. Mutual respect and trust are two words that shone through and form a basis for the cooperation. Each multi-parish benefice has a number of parishes, from three to eight and all of them are led by a middle-manager called “församlingsherde”, middle-vicar and each of them is fully responsible for their parish. Three of the vicars also have a deputy vicar. The preparatory work before the organizational change has been made in each benefice and it seems that the more essential and active the work the better outcome. Time seems to be an important factor. About half of the benefices consider that the organization has consolidated since 2014. / Syftet med uppsatsen är undersöka och förklara hur kyrkoherdar och kyrkorådsordföranden i Svenska kyrkan uppfattar kyrkoherdens roll och uppgifter i de nya och större pastoraten som bildades efter 2014. Studien bygger på sex intervjuer med kyrkoherdar och fyra kyrkorådsordföranden från stora och mellanstora pastorat i Svenska kyrkan. Med hjälp av Mintzbergs konfigurationer med betoning på den divisionaliserade/diversifierade organisationen analyseras organisationens påverkan på ledarskapet och vice versa. Om kyrkoherdens roll och uppgifter anser de flesta att kyrkoherden ska leda arbetet i pastoratet, hålla ihop organisationen, vara pastoratets ansikte utåt och inspirera medarbetare, förtroendevalda och frivilliga i organisationen. Kyrkoherdens ska dessutom vara visionär, kunna delegera och ansvara för arbetsmiljön. Sedan anser de flesta också att kyrkoherden ska vara en andlig ledare men hur kyrkoherdarna ser på det andliga ledarskapet skiljer sig åt. De styrkor som finns i organisationen är storleken som möjliggör kompetenta stödfunktioner, minskad sårbarhet och resurskoncentration och en gemensam funktion i kyrkoherden som kan tala för hela pastoratet. De svagheter som uppmärksammas har också med storleken att göra. Storleken innebär fler beslutsled som leder till en tröghet i organisationen. Dessutom är det svårt att hitta fungerande samverkans- och kommunikationsformer. I relation till stiftet är storleken också problematisk. De flesta anser att det finns en klar skillnad mellan att styra och leda, kyrkoherden leder pastoratets verksamhet och kyrkorådet styr under ledning av kyrkorådets ordförande. Både kyrkoherdar och kyrkorådsordförande anser att de har en god eller mycket god relation till varandra. Respekt och tillit är ord som intervjuerna andas. De flesta kyrkoherdar och ordförande verkar anse att det har gjorts ett omfattande förarbete och några av pastoraten började innan samfälligheternas upphörande att fundera över framtiden och hur man på bästa sätt skulle organisera sig. Hälften av de tillfrågade anser att deras organisation har konsoliderat och de som svarar ja är också de som verkar ha arbetat mest aktivt inför organisationsförändringen. Det förefaller som om både aktivt arbete och tid är viktiga faktorer för att få en organisation att konsolidera.

My work concerns itself with the history of the Roman Catholic parish in Borovany during the years 1900 - 1953. It provides an overview of events during that period, specifically those influenced by the political changes in our country. The first five chapters are devoted to those historical moments in the first half of the 20th century. The last two chapters discuss the customs and personalities of the parish which were characteristic of that period. The interaction of these components gives my work its principal character.

This thesis examines cultivation in the lives of Sarah and Columbia Bennett between the years 1852 and 1874. The Bennett women's letters convey an intimate sense of the agro-economic preoccupations (and gardening pleasures) of these slave-owning white women, and the centrality of cultivation in mid-nineteenth-century rural Louisiana within a landscape of country stores, plantations, and people. As the lives of the Bennett women illustrate, white women's gardening knowledge and practice formed a cornerstone of central Louisiana society. The Bennett women's gardening knowledge and skill were primary components in the creation of a self-sustaining plantation household. By cultivating produce and other foodstuffs for consumption, the Bennett women made possible the family's participation in the lucrative market for cotton and other cash crops, a market that also tied their household to plantation economies elsewhere in the transatlantic world.

<p>Joakim Schyman, 2009. Den gotländska vikingatida bebyggelsens rumsliga placering ilandskapet - En empirisk detaljstudie av Hemse socken (The spacial distribution of the VikingAge settlements on Gotland – An emperical study of remains from Hemse Parish.)</p><p>This essay investigates whether a relation between Viking age graves and Viking agesettlements in Hemse parish can be found. This was done by using database information onViking age findings, such as silver hoards, phosphate levels and location of graves in Hemseparish. Literature and maps were also used. Earlier research shows that the Viking agesettlements can be found by silver hoards and relatively high phosphate levels. This essay'sanalysis verifies this. The analysis also shows the possibility of a prehistoric court leet locatedin the center of Hemse parish. The Viking age graves are located close to the possible courtleet, along the ridge running through the parish. These graves are seen as a grave fieldcommonly used by all the settlements in the parish. Findings close to the settlements showthat inhabitants also buried their dead close to their settlements as a marking of territory. Thisgives us a complex picture of the connection between the habitants and their burials duringthis period.</p>

Thesis (doctoral)--Université de Paris, 1965. / Includes bibliographical references and index.

This thesis examines social and economic change among Black Creoles in the sugarcane plantation society of St. Martin Parish, Louisiana. It begins with slavery and emphasizes the last 40 years. The study area is viewed as a creole society set in the United States. Change and adaptation is analysed from the perspective of those lacking access to, and control over, resources ensuring socio-economic advancement. Factors of race and ethnicity are crucial to the analysis. / Changes in the agricultural economy have cast blacks off the land. In local settlements, they form a surplus labor pool. In today's industrial, neoplantation economy, Civil Rights legislation and alliances beyond the study area have ensured black participation, particularly at a textile mill, resulting in fragile prosperity. Their dual Afro-Creole identity, viewed through language, music, and food, faces a questionable future as alliances external to the creole society are strengthened.

Joakim Schyman, 2009. Den gotländska vikingatida bebyggelsens rumsliga placering ilandskapet - En empirisk detaljstudie av Hemse socken (The spacial distribution of the VikingAge settlements on Gotland – An emperical study of remains from Hemse Parish.) This essay investigates whether a relation between Viking age graves and Viking agesettlements in Hemse parish can be found. This was done by using database information onViking age findings, such as silver hoards, phosphate levels and location of graves in Hemseparish. Literature and maps were also used. Earlier research shows that the Viking agesettlements can be found by silver hoards and relatively high phosphate levels. This essay'sanalysis verifies this. The analysis also shows the possibility of a prehistoric court leet locatedin the center of Hemse parish. The Viking age graves are located close to the possible courtleet, along the ridge running through the parish. These graves are seen as a grave fieldcommonly used by all the settlements in the parish. Findings close to the settlements showthat inhabitants also buried their dead close to their settlements as a marking of territory. Thisgives us a complex picture of the connection between the habitants and their burials duringthis period.