This work provides cultural and political explanations on how and why cigarette smoking has increasingly become an object of intolerance and control in Hong Kong. Since the 1980s, the smoking population has been falling. Smoking behavior, sales and promotion of cigarette products have been under close surveillance by the government, medical experts and society at large. Cigarette smoking, as well as smokers, has increasingly been rejected and demonized in the public discourse. What are the conditions that make the growing intolerant discourses and practices against cigarette smoking possible and dominant? Why and how has the tobacco control campaign become prevalent as a governmentalist project, which is strong enough to tear down the alliance of tobacco industry giants? Why is tobacco singled out from other legal but harmful substances, such as alcohol, as an imperative object of intolerance and control? This work tackles these questions by adopting a Foucauldian discursive approach and the theory of articulation developed in cultural studies. By considering tobacco control as a historical and contextual practice, it traces the specific trajectory of tobacco control in Hong Kong, maps the cultural and political contexts that make it possible, and considers its consequence regarding the complex relationship among control, construction of risk, identity and freedom in society.

The thesis analyses the fear of the lower classes which manifests itself in various ways in Swedish society and it examines if it is justified. It gives four different views of the "dangerous lower classes" and illustrates the greatly differing view­points that exist. At the national level the debate on The social question in literature, the press and the Riksdag is particularly intensive during the 1830's and 1840's. It concerns the great proletarianising and pauperising of the countryside and its' suggested consequences: criminality, vagrancy, begging, drunkenness, immorality, and ignorance. Then the lower classes "dangerous crimes" are investigated. They consist of the offences of disorderliness and drunkenness. Crimes of violence are infrequent and committed by people from all societys' levels. Property crimes are certainly mainly practised by those in the lower strata, but they are also infrequent and give a clear impression of "crimes of necessity". Neither crimes which are a danger to society nor a revolutionary threat can be perceived. The three parishes studied in Skåne try to close their borders against unmarried pregnant maids, unmarried mothers, "married farmhands" and those with crimi­nal records. A ban on marriages is also used against poor people. Behind this lies a fear of increased poor law expenditure. Those with power seek to carefully control lifestyles, clothing and the sale and consumption of alcoholic drinks. Despite entry controls a concentrated poor population, the Slättafolk, arises in one of the parishes. They live at the margin and some of them, at times, resort to illegal methods in order to stay alive. Thus there is no great threat to property. Neither is drunkenness nor immorality prominent. The analysis gives two different pictures. One occurs in the national debate and partly in the parish records and is a view from above. The lower classes consist of a lower and bad sort of person who must be controlled and discip­lined. Another picture is glimpsed at the micro level. It shows people who live in extreme poverty, sometimes genuine want, but all try, by all possible means, to improve their situation. The lower class people have a desire for justice and equality and resist oppres­sion. There is potential violence which explodes at times. Knowledge of this causes the upper classes to be afraid of the lower, a fear strengthened by events out in Europe where, in Hobsbawms' phrase "The age of revolution" is current. / digitalisering@umu

As the population ages and income disparities increase, issues affecting older adults and marginalized individuals are examined more frequently. Despite this, little attention is paid to the community experiences of women over the age of fifty who face marginalization, criminalization and homelessness. This study is an institutional ethnography of older marginalized women in Ottawa, focusing on their identities, lives and their experiences of community life. Its findings are based on ethnographic fieldwork as well as interviews with 27 older marginalized women and 16 professionals working with this group. The women described their identities, social networks, daily activities and navigations of their communities as well as the policy and discursive framework in which their lives are situated. Regardless of whether the women had housing or were staying in shelters, upheaval, uncertainty and change characterized their experiences in the community, reflecting their current circumstances, but also their life courses. Their accounts also revealed how, through social support, community services, and personal resilience, older marginalized women negotiate daily life and find places and spaces for themselves in their communities. As an institutional ethnography, this research foregrounds participants’ responses, framing these with theoretical lenses examining mobilities, identity, social capital, governmentality, and stigma. Specifically, it uses the lenses of mobilities and identities to understand the nature of their community experiences, before moving outward to examine their social networks and the world around them. Governmentality theory is also used to describe the neoliberal context framing their community experiences. The study concludes with a reflection on the research and a set of policy recommendations arising from the study.

This dissertation deals with temperance in rural economically backward communities in the county of Västerbotten in Northern Sweden. Most Swedish historians have related the rapid break-through of organized temperance to industrialization and industrial areas. The connection temperance - industrialization is indisputable. The question then arises: why did temperance establish its very strongholds in predominantly rural and backward areas of Northern Sweden? In the referendum over Prohibition in 1922, when the prohibitionists lost their case, the industralized part of Sweden took least interest in the question. In Norrland over 70% and in Vastebotten 81% of the population wanted and voted for Prohibition. The mechanisms of temperance in non-industral areas are dealt wich against this background. Was industrialization seen as a threat to the agrarian communities? How did the commercialization of liquor and wine after 1864 affect small peasant communities and pre-industrial towns, and in which ways and to what extent were these communities ready to defend themselves from the Demon Rum? In the town of Umeå and the southern part of the county of Västerbotten, temperance was able to dominate the left-wing factions of the regional populistic party variations of liberalism and social democracy. These populist parties were genuine prohibition parties and were often in opposition to their own central bureaucracy in Stockholm. They represented, like the American populist movement, a reaction against laissez-faire capitalism and commercialization. With the support of these political parties temperance succeeded in building up Sweden's most severe system of alcohol restrictions - the Umeå system - in 1923. / digitalisering@umu

Although physical activity has been identified as important for children and adolescents health, a majority are not active enough to receive health benefits. Given that physical activity lapses have been identified in adolescents, and social influences have been related to physical activity, the overall purpose of this dissertation was to explore the social influences that occur following a lapse by using a social control framework. Three studies were conducted to examine whether physical activity lapses would be associated with parental use of social control (Study 1 and 2) as well as whether this use of different social control types would be associated with changes in behaviour (Study 2 and 3) and affect (Study 3). Results from Study 1 revealed that parents reported the use of three types of social control (i.e., positive, collaborative, and negative) following a hypothetical physical activity lapse. Results from Study 2 revealed that adolescents who experienced a lapse reported greater increases in the use of positive and collaborative social control if they had an active family. Changes in social control also were associated adolescents recovery from a lapse, with collaborative social control emerging as the strongest social control type. Results from the third study revealed that each of the three types of social control were associated with behaviour change, but in a different way. Behaviour change was associated with the use of collaborative social control, the need for congruence between preferences and use for positive social control, and the perceptions of negative social control as supportive. Perceived supportiveness for all tactics was related to affect. These results provide preliminary support for the suggestion that social control may be one framework to help explain the use of parental social influences following a lapse. Future directions and complementary theories are discussed.

Although physical activity has been identified as important for children and adolescents health, a majority are not active enough to receive health benefits. Given that physical activity lapses have been identified in adolescents, and social influences have been related to physical activity, the overall purpose of this dissertation was to explore the social influences that occur following a lapse by using a social control framework. Three studies were conducted to examine whether physical activity lapses would be associated with parental use of social control (Study 1 and 2) as well as whether this use of different social control types would be associated with changes in behaviour (Study 2 and 3) and affect (Study 3). Results from Study 1 revealed that parents reported the use of three types of social control (i.e., positive, collaborative, and negative) following a hypothetical physical activity lapse. Results from Study 2 revealed that adolescents who experienced a lapse reported greater increases in the use of positive and collaborative social control if they had an active family. Changes in social control also were associated adolescents recovery from a lapse, with collaborative social control emerging as the strongest social control type. Results from the third study revealed that each of the three types of social control were associated with behaviour change, but in a different way. Behaviour change was associated with the use of collaborative social control, the need for congruence between preferences and use for positive social control, and the perceptions of negative social control as supportive. Perceived supportiveness for all tactics was related to affect. These results provide preliminary support for the suggestion that social control may be one framework to help explain the use of parental social influences following a lapse. Future directions and complementary theories are discussed.

Between 1931 and 1960, Salvadoran praetorian regimes combined repression and reward to convince the public, nationally and internationally, that they were best equipped to rule the tiny nation. Shortly after taking power, in 1932 the military repressed a peasant rebellion, killed 10,000 people and blamed rural oligarchs and Liberal demagogues and communist agitators for the revolt and massacre. Both the regimes of General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez (1931-1944) and those of Colonels Oscar Osorio and José María Lemus (1948-1960) of the Revolutionary Party for Democratic Unification (PRUD) provided rewards for their political clients and repressed their enemies, who they often labeled Communists and subversives and linked with the chaos of the 1932 rebellion. In order to marginalize political opponents and centralize rule, they aggressively repressed "plots" against the regimes to reassign, exile, beat and sometimes kill their enemies. By manipulating newspaper coverage they also portrayed a social order that despite not matching the lived reality of Salvadorans contrasted with the chaos of 1932. Because the country changed dramatically, growing in population and rapidly urbanizing, political leaders under the PRUD allied themselves with different groups than did Martínez, or in the martinato,. Under the martinato, peasants and indigenous Salvadorans provided tacit support but the Revolutionary Party was much more focused on the cities. Fearing an urban opposition, they reorganized the police, but neither regime convinced the public of their goodwill. Despite their inability to substantively reduce crime or juvenile delinquency, the military convinced people that they made genuine efforts to provide social justice to the majority of Salvadorans. Embracing traditionalism and patriarchy, as well as social order, the military built alliances with, and glorified the image of the women of the urban markets. In contrast, prostitutes and street peddlers did not meet the standards of the praetorian social order and were demonized and repressed. Although the military was unable to provide effective social services, successfully repress dissent and criminality, or eliminate dissent, they nonetheless convinced a substantial majority that the costs of opposition were greater than the benefits of working with the regime.

No description available.

This dissertation advances our understanding of the structure of social relations between small groups and the larger organizations within which such groups are situated. Specifically, I examine structures of leadership and authority to gain an in-depth understanding of group organization in one nondenominational and one Southern Baptist megachurch. Methods include in-depth interviews with church clergy, staff, and group leaders; participant observation in groups and other church activities; and a written survey for group leaders. Using this combination of methods, I investigate how small groups are structured in terms of their connections to the megachurches within which they reside. I examine the extent to which the church staff provides oversight and exerts control over groups, and I connect variation on this dimension to how groups relate to their members and to the outside world.My findings include, first, that market metaphors permeate the organization of groups in these two megachurch organizations. The diffusion of ideas and practices from other institutional realms is notable in these two sites, and this may be true for megachurches more generally. Second, I argue that understanding strictness in religious groups is at least as much about the structure of relations between church leadership and membership as it is about beliefs. Third, small groups in megachurches look very much like small groups in American religion more generally, and church oversight may not make much difference in solving problems in small groups identified in previous research. Finally, I find that the level of oversight and control exerted by church leadership on the organization of groups may have a critical influence on the function of groups. Loose and tight connections appear to encourage a more outward and inward focus, respectively.Sociologists studying religious strictness or small groups in any setting should pay particular attention to the structure of relations connecting groups to the larger organizations within which they reside. Religious leaders interested in organizing groups of members should understand that the structure they create to connect with group leaders is at least as important as beliefs they teach leaders, in terms of influencing the focus of the groups.

This thesis articulates a conceptual understanding of police power in North America, identifying how this power manifests itself on the street, in hopes of illuminating the power dynamic that enables instances of misconduct to occur. The works of Michel Foucault, Frantz Fanon, and Louis Althusser are deployed as the theoretical frameworks through which police power is analyzed. The Foucauldian perspective presents police power as a function of juridico-scientific disciplinary forces in society. This analysis is supplemented with an examination of police power as a post-colonial phenomenon, drawing on Fanon's work as a framework through which discriminatory police practices are examined. Finally, police power is examined within the context of capitalist production, and the repressive and ideological state apparatuses, as theorized by Althusser, to identify the class dimension that influences policing in North America.