This study explores how middle-aged homeless persons in Atlanta, GA, who have harmful, self-identified addictive behaviors come to make positive material and psychological changes, while constrained by urban poverty and structural violence. This study is divided into two parts. In part one, I examine the interaction between individual, social, and material factors that promote recovery from addiction in a poor, urban context. I argue that recovery occurs through a process, initiated by a decision and realized through practice. Recovery is enhanced by a stable community and consistent material access. In part two, I examine how pain associated with homelessness can create a strong drive to intensify substance usage as a means to seek relief. I then describe how alienation, pain and corresponding addictive behaviors among homeless persons can be lessened through intentioned, empowering acts, which I call “symbolic love”. Finally, I offer policy recommendations based on my findings.

Brazil was the first country in South America to launch a television network and air television shows. Television programming was designed to develop national capitalism and to foster a national identity. Although Brazil is composed of an overwhelmingly large population of African descent, they are usually underrepresented in mainstream media, chiefly in telenovelas (soap operas). This research examines what happens when a telenovela attempts to portray issues of race relations and tensions in contemporary Brazil. Duas Caras (“Two Faces”), a TV Globo telenovela aired October 1, 2007 to May 31, 2008. The show was a turning point in Brazilian programming because it was the first prime time soap opera to present audiences with an Afro-Brazilian as the main hero. It was also the first novela das oito (“eight o’clock” or “primetime soap opera”) to openly address racial issues through its plot and dialogue. However, in depth critical and theoretical analysis of different episodes demonstrates that instead of debunking the myth of racial democracy, this soap opera in fact helps to further reproduce it through the portrayal of interracial relationships amongst the characters. As shown here, interracial relationships between white and Black Brazilians was used as a strategy of erasing African ancestry traits from the population through a process of whitening. This report combines a traditional textual analysis of Duas Caras with theoretical frameworks about race relations, gender and anti-Black racism in Brazil. The investigation revealed how telenovelas contribute to social ideology and hegemonic discourses in a way that has not been properly recorded. This discussion contributes to Latin American media studies generally, and the scholarship on interracial relationships in Brazilian media particularly. / text

I consider how the nature and meaning of space shape middle-class women's topophobia in the new town of Secunda (with a particular focus on symbolic violence). In Lefebvre's 'terrorist societies' fear becomes latent as citizens seek to maintain status quos which maintain systems of privilege. I demonstrate that one such system is white privilege. Secunda assists in maintaining these systems as its design draws heavily on Eurocentric values and new town 'best practices'. As a company town developed in reaction to international sanctions during apartheid, its design also resulted in the preservation of certain privileged groups. I argue that white privilege is a white problem and thus base my study on the (white) middle-class as a dominant group. I show that the identities of women (although traditionally viewed as passive and fearful) are diverse, falling both victim to and inflicting symbolic violence and topophobia. I focus on topophobia, or spatial fear, as fear affects us all and influences our shaping of urban space. The mutually reinforcing nature (abstract representations of the ideologies of planners) and meaning (infused through emotions, identities and power relations) of space are explored. I dispute the bias against emotion-based research that exists within planning, arguing that this has debilitating consequences for transformation. I suggest the use of intersecting emotion-spectra rather than the dichotomous approach conventionally taken by emotion research. A feminist ethnography is used with an iterative inductive research process engaging a variety of techniques, including digital/social media. My own multiple insider identities (of middle-class, white, English-Afrikaans woman, and planner) are used to critique systems of dominance. Findings highlight various forms of symbolic violence (in addition to white privilege) including codes of 'respectability' and 'purity', consumerism, fat talk, and persistent gender roles. Further, possible influences of dominant systems on space (particularly in reinforcing persistent social segregation in Secunda) are demonstrated. Symbolic violence can be used to deflect accountability, but this research shows that topophobia is a planning problem, worthy of consideration.

To understand the persistence of wartime rape that the DRC has experienced during the sixteen years old civil war, this study undertakes a critical analysis of the concept of ‘symbolic violence’ as proposed by Bourdieu. I have suggested that this concept [symbolic violence] as developed by Bourdieu needs other dimensions of definition in order to be applied to other social crises outside the western world. Shaping a link between wartime rape and its symbolic dimensions enables us to clearly articulate that the symbolic order brought through the practice of wartime rape by perpetrators does not remain unchallenged by the dominated who are direct and indirect victims of wartime rape. For this purpose, data were collected from ordinary community members, community leaders; a doctor and nurse form Panzi Hospital, an army General, a lawyer and some NGOs members working in the area of study (Kamanyola)through in-depth interviews. Observation and document analysis have also been used in the process of data collection. As a result the study found that wartime rape, at first, is a threat that perpetrators use to impose their own symbolic power upon males from the enemy groups through the rape of females from the same enemy groups. Therefore, this physical attack [war rape] against females impacts the victims as individuals, the community and the whole nation. This helps to suggest that physical violence is also symbolic violence. This is rendered possible through social and cultural patriarchal norms shared by both victims and perpetrators. As a result, family and community ties as well as marriage – as constitutive elements of the community’s symbolic order – are directly fractured by wartime rape. Forcing women to be economically unproductive was another strategy to undermine community ties which were built through community-based activities. Secondly, the strategic use of war rape comes to counter the idea of symbolic violence as being just soft or an invisible violence but under some circumstances a symbolic violence might produce physical harm.Thirdly, the study found that, patriarchy as the dominant social and cultural order is resisted by the dominated (women respondents in majority) now that it is associated to wartime rape. Because of this, I proposed that symbolic orders are not always taken for granted; they maybe resisted by the dominated. Based on the findings, this research report advocates for a more gender inclusive policy to encourage women to participate in the making of decisions which concern their lives as main victims of wartime rape in DRC generally and in Kamanyola in particular.

Doctor of Philosophy / Using the Wood Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police Service in 1994 as its major case study, this thesis hypothesises that, although this inquiry had a far reaching impact on both the personal and working lives of police officers in the organisation itself, it proved ineffectual in its attempt to control corruption. It argues that corruption, and the subsequent inquiries into this corruption, can be seen to have a cyclic nature and the failure of such inquiries has a long and international history. It contends that the nature of the public inquiry itself can be seen to contribute to the continuation of the cycle of corruption. Clearly, putting an end to corruption requires more than the investigation, public exposure and punishment of a few corrupt police, followed by a generalised tightening of the chain of command. Instead, this thesis demonstrates that the problem is primarily an organisational one and it is important to look at management reforms. This thesis contends that the cycle of corruption involves the nature of police work; the catalyst that triggers the inquiry; the inquiry itself and the issue of the report; and the police and community responses. An examination of all these factors is crucial to understanding the cycle’s dynamics. The final report of the Wood Royal Commission was in 1996 and this thesis specifically analyses the cycle of corruption in relation to the response of the police executive to this inquiry. It shows how the police response focused on the tactical crisis response central to operational policing — in this case appeasing official censure and community fears. As little more than a public relations exercise, senior management strategically addressed the specific recommendations of the report rather than creatively considering the implications exposed during the inquiry. The idea that corruption is a symptom of an ineffective system and not simply a slackening of effective control by senior management was never considered. In the aftermath of the Wood Royal Commission there was much discussion about ‘police culture’ being ‘a culture of corruption’. The forgotten casualties of the inquiry has been individual police officers, many of whom see policing as a vocation. This thesis has allowed many voices to be heard and used both qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse a wide range of information and data, which included personal interviews with serving police officers and members of external organisations, as well as printed material from Royal Commission Reports, Hansard and other government documents, internal Police Service documents and media reports.It has used Bourdieu’s theoretical approach which allows an analysis of the complex relationships involved between police officers as individuals who operate within the wider networks of a specific organisation and the way the personal is important as an explanatory tool of what happens within a policing culture and how this culture is perceived differently from within and without. Bourdieu’s theory also facilitates analysis of the interactions of this network with the wider community, putting in context the responses of both the police service and the community. The connection with the personal is important as an explanatory tool of what happens within a policing culture and how this culture is perceived differently from within and without. Bourdieu constructs an understanding of the ‘nature of the game’ of policing and the shaping of the individual within police culture, giving insight into the source of moral dilemmas, personal beliefs and personal behaviour. As the current management system of command and control is at the heart of this response, this thesis has also analysed the assumptions inherent in this management philosophy, considering both necessary operational strengths as well as organisational weaknesses. A central theme of the thesis is that open dialogue will reduce the incidence of corruption and risk within policing institutions. This thesis argues that there must be an integrative approach to reform — accountable, active leadership combined with critically constructed practical approaches that tackle the complexity of the dynamics embedded in the ‘nature of the game’ of policing itself.

Doctor of Philosophy / Using the Wood Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police Service in 1994 as its major case study, this thesis hypothesises that, although this inquiry had a far reaching impact on both the personal and working lives of police officers in the organisation itself, it proved ineffectual in its attempt to control corruption. It argues that corruption, and the subsequent inquiries into this corruption, can be seen to have a cyclic nature and the failure of such inquiries has a long and international history. It contends that the nature of the public inquiry itself can be seen to contribute to the continuation of the cycle of corruption. Clearly, putting an end to corruption requires more than the investigation, public exposure and punishment of a few corrupt police, followed by a generalised tightening of the chain of command. Instead, this thesis demonstrates that the problem is primarily an organisational one and it is important to look at management reforms. This thesis contends that the cycle of corruption involves the nature of police work; the catalyst that triggers the inquiry; the inquiry itself and the issue of the report; and the police and community responses. An examination of all these factors is crucial to understanding the cycle’s dynamics. The final report of the Wood Royal Commission was in 1996 and this thesis specifically analyses the cycle of corruption in relation to the response of the police executive to this inquiry. It shows how the police response focused on the tactical crisis response central to operational policing — in this case appeasing official censure and community fears. As little more than a public relations exercise, senior management strategically addressed the specific recommendations of the report rather than creatively considering the implications exposed during the inquiry. The idea that corruption is a symptom of an ineffective system and not simply a slackening of effective control by senior management was never considered. In the aftermath of the Wood Royal Commission there was much discussion about ‘police culture’ being ‘a culture of corruption’. The forgotten casualties of the inquiry has been individual police officers, many of whom see policing as a vocation. This thesis has allowed many voices to be heard and used both qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse a wide range of information and data, which included personal interviews with serving police officers and members of external organisations, as well as printed material from Royal Commission Reports, Hansard and other government documents, internal Police Service documents and media reports.It has used Bourdieu’s theoretical approach which allows an analysis of the complex relationships involved between police officers as individuals who operate within the wider networks of a specific organisation and the way the personal is important as an explanatory tool of what happens within a policing culture and how this culture is perceived differently from within and without. Bourdieu’s theory also facilitates analysis of the interactions of this network with the wider community, putting in context the responses of both the police service and the community. The connection with the personal is important as an explanatory tool of what happens within a policing culture and how this culture is perceived differently from within and without. Bourdieu constructs an understanding of the ‘nature of the game’ of policing and the shaping of the individual within police culture, giving insight into the source of moral dilemmas, personal beliefs and personal behaviour. As the current management system of command and control is at the heart of this response, this thesis has also analysed the assumptions inherent in this management philosophy, considering both necessary operational strengths as well as organisational weaknesses. A central theme of the thesis is that open dialogue will reduce the incidence of corruption and risk within policing institutions. This thesis argues that there must be an integrative approach to reform — accountable, active leadership combined with critically constructed practical approaches that tackle the complexity of the dynamics embedded in the ‘nature of the game’ of policing itself.

No description available.

The aim of this thesis was to understand the role played by experiential learning in professional Rugby Union. Furthermore, to understand how performance information is utilised by coaches and athletes in every day practice. The thesis employed an ethnographic research method, utilising extensive participant observation, interviews, and document analysis. The thesis draws significantly on the theoretical tools of Scho??n, Bourdieu and Foucault. The key results and findings were that coaches used performance related information as a technology of self , and inculcated a hegemonic ideology. Furthermore, power relations were found and manifested inside the coach / athlete relation that reinforced the coaches spatial and temporal dominance. These dominant power relations were legitimised through the omnipresent ideology, and thus reproduced by the players and coaches. While evidence of experiential learning was documented, particularly with the academy players, the social location of practice marginalised the value of experiential learning in the coaching process. This was because performance information and the use of video based reflection were consistently used as tools of coaching authority, discipline and symbolic violence.

The Problems of Protest and the Persistence of Domination: Social Movement Theory and Bourdieu’s Economy of Practice is a normative intervention into social movement theory and debates about social movement goals, strategies and tactics. The project asks: what normative implications derive from incorporating Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological framework into social movement research? My core arguments are that Bourdieu’s framework has the potential to sensitize activists and analysts to the tension between conformity and failure and that escaping radical/reformist debates requires working through this tension. The dissertation intervenes in social movement theory from within the critical theory tradition by refusing to separate empirical and normative questions. I develop my argument using two strategies. First, I undertake a close reading of Bourdieu’s most important works and the debates they have provoked. Second I apply the conceptual tools this close reading offers to reconsider the logic behind two key social movement theory concepts: collective identity and repertoires of contention. Following a general introduction and literature review, I undertake a close consideration of habitus and an argument for how attention to the suffering produced by symbolic power constitutes grounds for normative justice claims. I then consider how collective identity formation in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer mobilization indicates the presence of symbolic violence, primarily in the form of epistemic violence. Next I argue that the nature of neoliberal symbolic power creates political antinomies for representation and affinity-based segments of the alterglobalization movement. Finally I argue that Bourdieu needs to be balanced by Nietzsche and that an orientation toward ‘overcoming’ offers a way out of the tension between conformity and failure. My findings point to the need for more sophisticated instruments for understanding the relationship between objective interests and subjective perception, impositions of, and challenges to, ‘logical consensus’, and strategies for counter-training and other mechanisms to support activists in resisting symbolic violence. / Thesis (Ph.D, Political Studies) -- Queen's University, 2013-01-29 14:14:16.699

This thesis combines an academic investigation and creative writing practice in an attempt to understand the politics at work within mainstream notions of working-class masculine identity, and the role of literature in these discourses. Beginning with an academic analysis, the formulations and intersection of class and masculinity are outlined, explicating how systems, implemented by the middle-class creation of values, form social narratives whereby men of certain settings with associative lifestyles and practices, are privileged over other less valued groups of men. In this respect, its concerns are primarily with the socio-symbolic. Locating this discourse within an Aristotelian dichotomy of the mind and the body, this theoretical position is then applied in the scrutiny of six mainstream fictional narratives of two historic periods, each originally held to be politically subversive. In calling to question the validity of these original claims, further questions are raised regarding the nature of the mainstream fictional narrative at large, and whether it is an effective way of representing the politics of working-class identity, or whether, by its nature, it serves to reproduce its working-class characters as fixed subjects, immovable from their positions in a stable class system. This line of inquiry is then further explored in the deconstruction of my own creative work, in which I initially sought to represent the concerns of my own working-class heritage. The resulting issues raised with respect to mainstream, linear narrative leading to the investigation of other potential forms of representation for the working-class male, culminating in the exploration of my own shifting identity in a non-linear, multi-directional collection of poetry.