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Thèse (M.A.)--Université Laval, 2008. / Bibliogr.: f. 103-111. Publié aussi en version électronique dans la Collection Mémoires et thèses électroniques.

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The lack of transformation in gender-based social relations at household level seems to further entrench women’s state of disempowerment despite having access to employment opportunities. This study aimed to explore economic and power relations in the family from the perspective of women. A qualitative exploratory research design was used for the purposes of this study, since the study intended to present specific details of situation, social setting and relations dynamics. The sample consisted of thirty women from one organisation that primarily focuses on service delivery in relation to gender-based violence. A semi-structured interview schedule was used to collect data. The findings in this study agrees with previous research that income and economic participation can serve as a tool for women to negotiate issues affecting their lives with relatively equal gender powers with their partners. However, the research also demonstrates that, indeed, income or paid employment was not sufficient as a weapon for equal gender power relations at the household levels.

Yes / In this article I look at the emotional effects of alienation in modern capitalist societies. I begin by considering Marx’s theory of alienation, focusing especially on the alienation between people and between them and the social institutions to which they should be connected. In this way, alienation is understood as a form of estrangement within social relations and I draw out the emotional implications of this, in terms of the relations between people and in the way people feel about their own self. This is enhanced through an understanding of emotions as relational phenomena, a position highly attuned to Marx’s own mode of social analysis. I then illustrate and develop this understanding of alienation and emotion by drawing on the empirical examples of political relations and property relations in the UK, concluding with a discussion of what this tells us about alienation and emotion in contemporary capitalist societies.

yes / This article explores how the concept of agency in social theory changes when it is conceptualised as a relational rather than an individual phenomenon. I begin with a critique of the structure/agency debate, particularly of how this emerges in the critical realist approach to agency typified by Margaret Archer. It is argued that this approach, and the critical realist version of relational sociology that has grown from it, reifies social relations as a third entity to which agents have a cognitive, reflexive relation, playing down the importance of interaction. This upholds the Western moral and political view of agents as autonomous, independent, and reflexive individuals. Instead of this I consider agency from a different theoretical tradition in relational sociology in which agents are always located in manifold social relations. From this I create an understanding of agents as interactants, ones who are interdependent, vulnerable, intermittently reflexive, possessors of capacities that can only be practiced in joint actions, and capable of sensitive responses to others and to the situations of interaction. Instead of agency resting on the reflexive monitoring of action or the reflexive deliberation on structurally defined choices, agency emerges from our emotional relatedness to others as social relations unfold across time and space.

Throughout the developing world, the mobile phone has been heralded as a tool that can empower and lift women out of vulnerable situations. While many scholars and development professionals believe that phones empower women, some contend that phones amplify disparities for people who are not well-positioned in society. To better understand how the diffusion of phones has impacted women, this thesis examines the relationship between mobile phones and socially constructed gender-based inequalities in agro-pastoralist Maasai communities in northern Tanzania. Grounded in perspectives from scholarship on women's empowerment and rural liveihoods, I ask: (1) how do women access and use phones?; and (2) how are women's phone uses embedded in existing social relations? This research relies on semi-structured interviews and household surveys conducted in the summer of 2018 to identify Maasai women's perspectives on phones, social relations, and power. Through inductive and deductive qualitative content analysis, findings indicate that phone access is fluid. There are a multitude of relationships between phones and empowerment, and these relationships are not only a function of a woman's personal choice and characteristics, but often more importantly her position in the household, the household norms her husband controls, and her husband's attributes. These results help show how women's empowerment in patriarchal societies, which may be afforded by new technologies, is guarded by men and subject to their discretions. This study highlights the importance of engaging men and women in discussions of and interventions surrounding women's empowerment. / Master of Science / Mobile phones are used throughout the world, even in rural, developing areas. Both men and women are adopting cell phones that can provide access to greater amounts and different types of information that was previously inaccessible. Some development professionals and scholars argue that mobile phones are a tool that can empower marginalized communities, like women. Others contend that mobile phones fail to transform the lives of women due to existing gender inequalities. My research seeks to answer the question: do mobile phones empower women by increasing access to resources and enhancing decision-making power? This research is situated in northern Tanzania in predominately ethnically Maasai communities where patriarchal (system controlled by men) and polygynous (marriage of one man with several women) practices essentially give men the power to determine the responsibilities, roles, and rights of all community members. These practices are embedded in important traditions that help Maasai communities cope with stress and maintain or enhance life now and for future generations. The widespread adoption of mobile phones creates an opportunity for novelty in these traditional norms. To understand how Maasai women may use mobile phones to challenge traditional practices that permit gender inequalities, this study conducted interviews and surveys with women in ten rural communities to examine: if and how women access and use mobile phones; the opportunities and challenges that mobile phones present; how women leverage phones to access resources and practice agency (having options and the ability to define and act on goals); and how social position in the household interacts with processes of empowerment that phones may permit. Findings show that there is no single relationship between mobile phones and empowerment, but rather a multitude of relationships that are influenced by social position both in and out of the household. This study illustrates the importance of considering local socio-cultural norms and engaging men in development interventions for women’s empowerment.

The purpose of this study is to use life story as a method to describe a former student’s, with her main schooling in the special school, thoughts of life during and after school, as well as the social relationships she has had and has access to. An overarching objective is to contribute to the field of knowledge from a young adult’s perspective. The study is qualitative with a life story approach. In the analysis, Bronfenbrenner’s ecological development model is used. The empirical data consists of transcriptions of conversations and instant prints from Facebook. The study is retrospective, but the study also captures the present day when the informant’s perception of life in the present day is also described. The informant perceives its later school years as more positive than earlier years. The result shows that the availability of social relationships was significantly higher during school in comparison to life as a young adult. The result also shows that the informant’s experience of the support of important adults is predominantly negative.

Portugal has experienced various structural changes in recent history which have greatly contributed to the country having a sizeable and varied immigrant population at present. The Global Economic Crisis of 2008 has severely impacted numerous countries in the European Union including Portugal. Conditions in Portugal had been gradually worsening, largely as a result of a stagnating national economy, where unemployment steadily increased in the years leading up to 2008. In the wake of the crisis, Portugal has experienced dramatic reductions in GDP, soaring unemployment rates and in particular regarding youth unemployment, social unrest and political instability. Further, the most vulnerable socioeconomic groups in Portugal have been worst affected, where social inequality, poverty and a whole array of other social issues have been exacerbated by the crisis and the austerity policies that were implemented in the wake of the economic crash. This thesis attempted to discover if attitudes towards immigrants have changed in light of worsening economic conditions in Portugal during three different time periods 2002-2006-2012, with a primary focus on the most recent period where conditions were most austere. Moreover, this research also sought to establish the determinants which influence attitudes towards immigrants over the same time period. Data was used from three rounds of the European Social Survey and in particular, round 1 (2002/2003), round 3 (2006/2007) and round 6 (2012/2013). Descriptive statistics and ordered logistic regressions were used in order to answer the research questions and realistic group conflict theory was utilised as a theoretical framework when analysing and explaining the findings. It was evident that attitudes towards immigrants have become more negative over the given time period and were indeed most pronounced in light of the recent economic crisis. It was also apparent that natives who were in greater competition with immigrants possessed the most pronounced levels of prejudice.