Food banks have become an institutionalized response to helping individuals and families gain access to food as wages have stagnated, employment becomes more precarious, and social entitlements have dramatically declined over the years. Food banks were supposed to be a temporary stop gap measure in response to the recession of 1980. Thirty-three years later, food banks have proliferated across Canada in assisting a growing population in need of their services. I present an analysis of how food bank suppliers use the concept of hunger in a fundraising campaign called Canstruction® to understand how it relates to people’s perception of this social problem in our society. This qualitative research study uses discourse analysis to unpack the solicitation discourse used at Canstruction® events held in Waterloo and Toronto, Ontario in 2014. I have collected data from three different groups: persons who designed and installed their artwork at the Canstruction® Toronto event; persons who volunteer at a food bank; and people who have food insecurity experience. The findings indicate a differentiated understanding of hunger within the solicitation discourse for each research group: Canstruction® participants, food bank volunteers, and persons with food insecurity experience. The Canstruction® participants’ absorption of the solicitation discourse produced a limited understanding about hunger in our society. The food bank volunteer group agreed with the solicitation discourse but their images of hunger illustrated deeper criticisms of the event and food bank system. The participant group with food insecurity experience expressed the greatest amount of criticism against the food bank’s solicitation discourse and their images of hunger reflected their psycho-social experience of living in poverty. Also, an overwhelming majority of research participants with food insecurity wanted a food bank system that was more responsive to their needs and that honoured human dignity. My study on the social construction of hunger portrayed by food banks highlights how this knowledge is reinforced, reproduced and challenged through a food drive that creates packaged food items into artwork and from images described by research participants. These insights have the potential to shift the discourse away from the branding of hunger as a matter of charity and move towards discussing its fundamental causes: poverty and social inequality. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)

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Transgender athletes face scrutiny because they do not fit within the traditional and constructed bounds of male and female. The objective of this study was to discover how to provide advocacy to this marginalized population amidst discriminating policies and transphobic environments. The research included a survey of high school coaches from thirty schools throughout Tennessee along with interviews with five transgender athletes from across the United States. All five athletes reported that leaders were the most impactful allies in their lives and can be the main sources of advocacy for transgender athletes. Survey findings showed that not every coach throughout Tennessee will accept transgender athletes but in each region of Tennessee some coaches claimed to support and would resist discriminatory policies. Leaders have the opportunity to pave the way for transgender athletes by providing advocacy and amplifying the voices of transgender athletes.

Rock-a-Buy Baby: Consumerism by New, First-Time Mothers, is the first known sociological exploration of need-based consumption for babies, despite the baby gear industry being a $6-billion-dollar business (whattoexpect.com). Data stemmed from qualitative, semistructured interviews with new, first-time mothers (3 months – 1 year postpartum) conducted within participants‘ households. The insights gained from the present study tell us a great deal about the ―needs‖ that predominantly white, middle-class mothers socially constructed in anticipation of their first child, and the consumptive behaviors used to accomplish these "needs." Respondents had turned to similar resources (other mothers, online forums, consumer reports, books, magazines, etc.) to help them construct ―need‖ and formulate decisions among commodities. Provided they were relying on comparable, if not overlapping, bodies of knowledge, mothers‘ narratives about consumer ―need‖ were often congruent. Additionally, the ways expectant mothers accumulated items are ritualized and made tradition. The baby shower and gift registration process (which all of my respondents participated in to some variation) are social constructions; these practices, which are so strongly tied to consumption, also constituted reality for mothers, and inevitably, their babies.

This thesis is both descriptive and philosophical, and at its core, it justifies the need for social foundations of education courses and programs in the university setting. It begins by analyzing the meaning of oppression and the part knowledge plays in confining the individual. The analysis then draws upon Patricia Hill Collins' theory of intersecting oppressions to get at the complexities and restrictions of working in the public schooling institution. It works through the ways in which sexist, classist, and racist practices afflict everyone in the institution through the bureaucratic mechanism and collateral oppression. The four components that make up the wires on the cage (gender, class, race, and bureaucracy) not only confine; they cause varying degrees of direct and indirect harms (psychological, emotional, moral, financial) to those on the inside. The concept of the institutional cage is then merged with Rodman Webb's work on schools as total institutions. Through an analysis on the characteristics of total institutions, it becomes apparent that standardization, technological developments, and the influence of venture philanthropy have brought schools more in-line with the total institution. The study then clarifies the ways in which corporatic, bureaucratic, and technocratic mentalities infect the institution, where they intersect, and how they restrict those within. The components coalesce into the conceptualization of moral oppression: the act of being coerced to ignore and suppress one's morality, moral impulses, and moral way of knowing. The remainder of the study explores the meaning of moral action and suggests some ways educators can let go of the ways of thinking and acting that may be keeping them from confidently doing what they know to be good and just.

Becoming a mother is most often described as something natural and the qualities to be a mother is presupposed to exist in every woman. This paper presents the results of a qualitative study with the research question as to whether the image of ‘the good mother’ can be found in women's stories of becoming mothers. The data was collected through one group interview and two individual interviews and analyzed with Charmaz constructivist grounded theory as a method. In the analysis we found four theoretical codes that together answer our research questions. The result shows that there is still an ideal type of ‘the good mother’ after which women build their own identity as a mother. / Att bli mamma beskrivs ofta som något naturligt och egenskaperna att vara en god moder förutsätts existera i varje kvinna. Studiens syfte var att undersöka huruvida bilden av “den goda modern” kunde ses i kvinnors berättelser av att bli mödrar. Data samlades in genom en gruppintervju och två individuella intervjuer och analyserades med Charmaz konstruktivistiska grundade teori som metod. I analysen hittades fyra teoretiska koder som tillsammans svarar på forskningsfrågorna. Resultatet visar att det fortfarande finns en idealtyp av "den goda modern", varefter kvinnor skapar sin egen identitet som mamma.

[pt] Pouco lembrada nos dias de hoje, o Esqueleto foi uma favela que não faz mais parte do mapa da cidade. Erradicada em 1965, ela era então a quinta maior favela do Rio de Janeiro, constituindo-se como um espaço estratégico de habitação para diversos trabalhadores. Se muito já foi escrito sobre seu processo de desapropriação, no entanto, a formação daquela localidade, iniciada em 1934, foi ainda pouco explorada nos estudos acadêmicos do campo – que muito frequentemente passam ao largo da experiência dos moradores desse tipo de localidade. Como resultado, a história do Esqueleto acabou sendo reduzida ao ato que marcou seu fim, deixando nas sombras as motivações e lógicas dos que a habitavam. Em caminho inverso, esta dissertação busca compreender a formação e desenvolvimento daquela localidade a partir da perspectiva de seus próprios moradores. Sem perder de vista sua relação com o Estado e as negociações nela envolvidas, buscamos privilegiar a análise da experiência dos moradores e sua agência cotidiana, de modo a tentarmos compreender tanto a lógica da construção e crescimento do Esqueleto quanto os caminhos da luta dos moradores locais pelo direito à cidade. / [en] Little remembered these days, Esqueleto was a favela that is no longer part of the city map. Eradicated in 1965, it was then the fifth largest favela in Rio de Janeiro, constituting itself as a strategic housing space for several workers. Although much has already been written about its expropriation process, however, the formation of that locality, which began in 1934, has still been little explored in academic studies of the field – which very often overlook the experience of residents of this type of locality. As a result, the story of Esqueleto ended up being reduced to the act that marked its end, leaving the motivations and logic of those who inhabited it in the shadows. In reverse, this dissertation seeks to understand the formation and development of that locality from the perspective of its own residents. Without losing sight of its relationship with the State and the negotiations involved in it, we seek to privilege the analysis of the experience of the residents and their daily agency, in order to try to understand both the logic of the construction and growth of the Esqueleto and the paths of struggle of the local residents. for the right to the city.

This dissertation uses Actor Network Theory (ANT) and Stark and Bainbridge's rational choice theory of religion to analyze an established but controversial branch of science and technology, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Of particular interest are the cultural, and sometimes religious, assumptions that its creators have built into it. The purpose of this analysis is not to discredit SETI, but instead to show how SETI, along with other avant-garde scientific projects, is founded, motivated, and propelled by many of the same types of values and visions for the future that motivate the founders of religious groups. I further argue that the utopian zeal found in SETI and similar movements is not aberrant, but instead common, and perhaps necessary, in many early-stage projects, whether technical or spiritual, which lack a clear near-term commercial or social benefit. / Ph. D.

Industrial and Organisational Psychology / (D.Litt. et Phil. (Industrial Psychology))

The research started in a school context where the teachers were severely affected by the changes in and closing of their school. In my qualitatively based research project, I embarked with the research participants on a pastoral, narrative- and appreciative inquiry approach which assist the teachers to deal more efficiently with the effects of the changes they experienced. By sharing and reflecting on their stories, a climate that's conducive to their well-being was constructed. I describe how my participatory action research invited the teachers to be active research participants, who are responsible for their own construction of richer or alternative meanings in their lives. / Practical theology / M. Th. (Pastoral Therapy)