The global rise in divorce since the 1960s has brought into question the idealised view of the nuclear family which has for centuries been awarded special status in western societies and has been regarded as the primary social institution. According to contemporary research parental divorce has become a reality for every one in six children in South Africa. Until recently, little consideration had been given to how divorce affects black South African families, as it was considered to be an occurrence which only took place in white, mainly middle-class, families. The proportion of black South African couples divorcing has been increasing over the past decade, and in 2008 was said to contribute to 35% of all divorce in South Africa. Most research to date on the children of divorce has focused on young white children and adolescents and is largely concerned with those who have found parental divorce particularly difficult, and are manifesting adjustment and other behavioural problems. The research which has been done on the effects of parental divorce on young adults focuses mainly on clinical studies with middle-class families based either in the United States or in the United Kingdom. This research, using an experience-centred, life-story narrative approach, explores the stories which young black South African adult women between the ages of 18 and 25 tell, to give account to the ways in which recent parental divorce has affected their lives, views on family life, and what it has meant to them. The use of an experience-centred, life-story narrative approach allows for a process of rupture, acceptance and re-storying to be accounted for, as the participant’s narrative shifts from past, to present and the future. Five young black women from a South African university each participated in two narratively sequenced semi-structured interviews based on McAdams’ personal narratives protocol, which includes six core themes, namely: Key Events, Significant People, Stresses and Problems, Personal Meanings and Life-Lessons, Future Script, and Life Theme. Crossley’s narrative analysis was then used to identify emergent themes and images in each individual narrative, after which they were woven together into a coherent story linked to previous literature. This study found that divorce involves a highly complex transition and reconfiguration process perhaps not fully accounted for in the existing idea and images associated with it. Despite being young adult women who had moved away from home and were engaged in their own lives, it became apparent that parental divorce was still a difficult and complicated experience, but that it is possible to tell both pessimistic and optimistic stories of parental divorce and its consequences.

Cette recherche vise à mettre en évidence les transformations des processus identitaires intervenant chez des médecins diplômés à l’étranger et exerçant en France et au Brésil. Nous avons appuyé notre travail sur une approche dynamique et adaptative de l’identité personnelle, en particulier à travers l’identité dialogique et l’identité narrative. De plus, dans la mesure où ce travail fait intervenir de manière importante le contexte professionnel, il nous semblait pertinent de faire intervenir aussi la question de l’identité professionnelle et de ses liens avec la reconnaissance. Enfin, l’interculturalité étant centrale dans cette problématique, nous avons choisi de l’aborder sous l’angle de l’identité interculturelle et de l’interculturation. L’objectif de cette recherche est de caractériser les processus identitaires présents chez médecins diplômés à l’étranger, confrontés à une situation de diversité culturelle dont la gestion a des rapports importants avec leurs processus identitaires personnels et professionnels. En particulier, nous cherchons à comprendre les processus psychiques permettant au sujet de donner sens à son expérience migratoire afin de se l’approprier et d’engager une transformation de son identité. Nous travaillerons également sur les obstacles rencontrés par les sujets et à établir la place de la reconnaissance au sein de ces différents processus. Enfin, l’analyse des données contribue à démontrer les processus d’influence mutuelle intervenant entre l’appartenance culturelle et le contexte d’activité professionnelle. Quatre méthodes de construction et d’analyse des données ont été combinées afin de répondre à ce questionnement. Dans un premier temps, nous avons réalisé un questionnaire visant à caractériser notre population et à recenser les facteurs déclencheurs d’une migration. Ensuite, nous avons conduit des entretiens de type biographique afin d’amener le sujet à « se raconter », à mettre en récit sa trajectoire personnelle, en rapport avec des aspects identitaires. Puis, en fin d’entretien, nous avons proposé aux sujets de visionner un ensemble d’extraits vidéo issus d’un documentaire et de deux reportages afin de les confronter à plusieurs points de vue et situations en vue de faire émerger une réflexion sur leur vécu. Enfin, nous avons effectué une analyse documentaire d’un ensemble d’articles de presse. 89 médecins ont répondu au questionnaire, 43 en France et 46 au Brésil. Huit récits de vie ont été menés en France avec des sujets âgés de 36 à 71 ans, trois femmes et cinq hommes parmi lesquels deux avaient obtenu leur diplôme dans un pays de l’UE et six hors de l’UE. Nous avons également analysé un corpus de 25 articles de presse et trois reportages télévisés. L’influence de la reconnaissance du diplôme sur la trajectoire et les processus identitaires de ces sujets ainsi que l’importance de la langue, du genre et du projet migratoire sur ces processus ont été clarifiés par l’analyse de l’ensemble des données. L’analyse des trajectoires personnelles, professionnelles et migratoires des sujets qui ont participé à cette recherche présente l’impact d’un ensemble de facteurs culturels, sociaux et institutionnels sur des événements biographiques — individuels. Ces deux dimensions — l’individuel et le culturel - se trouvent en constant dialogue et en constante co-évolution pour rendre chaque trajectoire unique et semblable, processus centrale à la formation de l’identité de chaque individu. / This research aims at investigating the changes that occur within the identity processes of physicians with a foreign diploma working in France and Brazil. Our work is based on a dynamic and adaptive approach of personal identity, specifically through the concept of dialogical self but also through the narrative identity approach. Since we also focus importantly on what happens in the professional environment, we also used theories related to professional identity and its relations with recognition. Finally, since the intercultural question is central in this research, we have chosen to include the intercultural identity theory and the concept of interculturation. This research aims at identifying and understanding the identity processes presented by medical doctors confronted to a changing cultural and professional context. We specifically intend to understand the psychological processes which allow the subject to give a meaning to his experience and make it his to start a transformation of his identity. We also focus on the obstacles the subject has to deal with, in particular regarding recognition. Finally, we intend to show the processes of mutual influence occurring between cultural belonging and professional context. We have crossed four methods to build and analyze our data. At first, we have used a questionnaire to characterized our population from a socio-demographic point of view and reunite all the factors which explain their migration. Then, we have conducted eight biographical interviews to encourage the subject to build a self-narrative. In the last phase of the interview, the have subjects have been shown four short videos from three documentaries to confront them to different points of view and situations and have them reflect on their own experience. We also included a documentary analysis using press articles regarding the Brazilian context. We obtained 89 answers to the questionnaire, 43 in France and 46 in Brazil. We conducted 8 narrative interviews, with physicians aged between 36 and 71, 3 women and 5 men, among which 2 had a European Union diploma and 6 had a diploma from outside the UE. Our analysis has shown that the validation of the diploma has a great impact on each individual’s recognition and identity related processes. This recognition aspects are also mediated by factors such as gender, language and cultural through dialogical relationships involving the subject.

This study is comprised of two parts: an unauthorised biography of the South African musician David Kramer, as well as a reflective look at the process of writing this biography. In this regard the following aspects were looked at closely: finding an appropriate style, biography versus propaganda, conjecturing, the bilingual nature of the text, problems of research, ethics, influences, make-believe, approach to the subject, intertextuality, and fictionalisation. The central question of the biography is to highlight the success of a fellow Worcester (the author’s hometown) boy. The central research questions of the thesis are the fictionalisation of the nonfiction text, intertextuality, and the question of a text written in both English and Afrikaans. With regard to the aforementioned fictionalisation, a biographical text is classified as “nonfiction”, because it deals with a real person and real events. However, a text such as David Kramer – an unauthorised biography presents an alternative perspective, in that the narrative often moves into fiction, or “creative nonfiction”. Written texts are traditionally divided into two fields: fiction or nonfiction. Nonfiction is deemed to be fact, truth, whereas fiction is the fruit of an author’s imagination. But perhaps the notion of truth versus untruth is too limited, and one should include the words “objectivity” and “subjectivity”. Some texts incorporate both elements, be they newspaper editorials which are mostly opinion, advertisements which are highly subjective, or biographies such as Taraborrelli’s Madonna – An Intimate Biography, which often reads as a novel. This doctoral thesis looks at David Kramer – an unauthorised biography, which is at times “faction”, to illuminate the sections where the text fell somewhere between fiction or nonfiction. In attempting this exercise, intertextuality was useful in two ways. Firstly, to ground the text in a reality the reader could believe, as it brought “real” things to the text, such as song lyrics, photographs, et cetera, all things which brought some credibility to the truth of the text, and secondly to place the events being described in a certain timeframe. The use of English and Afrikaans in the biography was to reflect that Kramer uses both languages in his songs, and furthermore, to give an idea of the South Africa at the time of Kramer’s early success: the divides of English/Afrikaans, white/black, liberal/conservative. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Unit for Creative Writing / Unrestricted

This thesis considers past autobiographical theory and questions whether it addresses the autobiography of the female writer. Autobiographies of Harriet Jacobs, Margaret Sanger, and Maxine Hong Kingston are examined to reveal their polyvocality, use of the autobiographical "I", and rhetorical strategies maintained in order to create a close relationship with the reader. Particular attention is paid to Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of dialogism and Sidonie Smith's autobiographical "I."

Le premier conflit mondial qui met fin à l’après-midi doré de l’époque édouardienne signe l’entrée du Royaume-Uni dans le XXe siècle politique et esthétique. La place unique qu’occupe la Grande Guerre dans l’imaginaire collectif britannique participe de l’engouement populaire que suscite encore aujourd’hui la war poetry, devenue un véritable « lieu de mémoire » textuel. Son importance dans le paysage culturel britannique paraît dès lors démesurée par rapport à la place qu’elle occupe dans le canon poétique du XXe siècle. À la fois conservatrice et innovante, respectueuse des formes mais sujette à l’expérimentation, l’œuvre des war poets, souvent confondue avec celle des Georgian poets, se range du côté des modernes plutôt que des modernistes. Poésie de circonstance définie par le moment et le lieu d’écriture, elle est jugée à l’aune de la problématique moderne de l’œuvre « impure », poésie tournée vers la révélation de l’événement plutôt que vers l’acte de création. C’est cette tension entre l’appel du monde et l’appel du texte qui fonde la définition générique, esthétique et éthique de la war poetry. Son intérêt critique réside dans sa double finalité, son hybridité tonale, générique et formelle, sa nature composite et polymorphe qui l’inscrivent de plain-pied dans le registre de la dissonance, propre à la poésie moderne. / By putting an end to the golden Edwardian afternoon, the First World War propelled Britain into the political and aesthetic twentieth century. Owing to the unique place occupied by the Great War in the collective British mind, war poetry represents today a highly popular textual “realm of memory”. However, its relevance in Britain’s cultural landscape does not correspond to its status within the poetic canon of the twentieth century. Both conservative and innovative, intent on codified forms yet experimental in nature, often confused with Georgian Poetry, war poetry leans towards the modern rather than the modernist definition of poetry. As a form of occasional writing, determined by the place and time from which it sprung, war poetry is judged according to the modern standards of “impure poetry”, more focused on the revelation of the event than on the act of creation itself. It is the contradictory claims of world and text that found the generic, aesthetic and ethical definition of war poetry. Its critical interest resides in its dual purpose, its tonal, generic and formal hybridity, its complex and changing nature, which firmly inscribe it within the modern poetics.

No description available.

Following the postmodern discourses of spatial conceptualisation, this study examined the manner in which space in an Open Distance Learning (ODL) University enables or constrains academics’ work as they go about the process of constructing their academic identities. Focusing on academics’ engagement in one college of the University, the study was premised on the assumption that, in the current higher education (HE) dispensation, academic identity construction presumes and demands the existence of supportive space for academics to effect the academic practices. Lefebvre’s (1991) social production of space and Soja’s (1996) Thirdspace were used as lenses to examine the multiple dimensions of space in relation to spatial practices in the College, the spatial policies and the experiences of academics as the users of the Institutional space. Qualitative ethnographic research methods that were used to collect data included a review of the Institutional policies, intranet posts and emails; the observation and photographing of academics’ offices and administrative office space; observation of departmental meeting proceedings and the conducting of semi-structured interviews with academics of different academic ranks. Findings suggested that although some forms of space are supportive of spatial practices that contribute to academic identity construction, the imagined space of the ODL Institution can be unfairly inclusive and inconsiderate of academics’ unique spatial needs. Such inclusivity of space seemed to be inconsistent with the appropriate ODL space as imagined by some participants where academics may work comfortably and with limited restrictions. The study concluded by making recommendations on how the Institution and the academics may manage space for optimal academic identity construction in the College. / Educational Foundations / D. Ed. (Philosophy of Education)

No description available.

Alors que dans les médias, les migrations sont présentées comme le résultat de crises humanitaires, l’expatriation et la mobilité internationale sont dépeintes comme les résultats naturels d’une globalisation qui sert autant aux pays du Sud qu’au pays du Nord. Or, un nombre grandissant d’Européens font le choix de s’installer dans un Sud à long terme, malgré la sécurité supposée offerte par les États « providence » ou de « bien-être » desquels ils proviennent. Dans la littérature universitaire, ces derniers sont souvent identifiés comme des agents reproducteurs des systèmes postcoloniaux ou comme des migrants privilégiés. Dans un contexte où la Commission Européenne s’est donné le mandat, depuis maintenant une quinzaine d’années, de favoriser autant la mobilité internationale que l’entrepreneuriat chez les jeunes, qu’en est-il des jeunes Européens qui s’engagent dans le développement d’un projet entrepreneurial dans un Sud, alors qu’ils sont encore au début de leur carrière professionnelle? Cette recherche vise à décrire l’expérience migratoire et d’entrepreneuriat de jeunes adultes et adultes middle-aged Européens dans la ville de Mexico en particulier. Nous avons effectué une enquête ethnographique d’une durée d’un an et demi situé dans la ville de Mexico qui tient compte des temporalités inhérentes aux processus migratoires et entrepreneuriaux. Les données sont tirées des récits biographiques des participants, de différentes activités d’observation en lien avec leur vie entrepreneuriale et leur condition de migrants « du premier monde », ainsi qu’une expérience de quotidienneté partagée. À travers une lorgnette principalement interactionniste, la thèse présente les caractéristiques des trajectoires de ces entrepreneurs, les quêtes qui sont à la source de la constitution de leur projet entrepreneurial et la place qu’ils occupent socialement dans le contexte de la métropole de Mexico. Nous retenons que les migrations Nord-Sud peuvent aussi impliquées un processus d’incorporation marqué par des ruptures, des difficultés ou de nécessaires négociations identitaires, tout comme les migrations traditionnellement étudiées. Cela dit, leur expérience contient aussi son lot d’aspects connectés aux conceptions divisant les « Nords des Suds » qui sont enracinés dans le contexte local particulier, la ville de Mexico, et qui se révèlent dans l’interaction sociale en présence des homologues mexicains qu’ils rencontrent. / While in the media, migration is presented as the result of humanitarian crises, expatriation and international mobility are portrayed as the natural results of a globalization that serves the countries of the South as much as the countries of the North. However, a growing number of Europeans choose to settle in the South for the long term, despite the supposed security offered by the « welfare » states. In academic literature, the latter are often identified as reproductive agents of postcolonial systems or as privileged migrants. In a context where the European Commission has given itself the mandate, for about fifteen years now, to promote both international mobility and entrepreneurship among young people, what about young Europeans who engage in the development of an entrepreneurial project in a South, while they are still at the beginning of their professional career? This research aims to describe the migration and entrepreneurship experience of young adult and middle-aged adult Europeans in Mexico City in particular. We carried out an ethnographic fieldwork located in Mexico City for a year and a half, aiming to consider the temporalities inherent to migratory and entrepreneurial processes. The data is drawn from the biographical accounts of the participants, from various observation activities related to their entrepreneurial life and their condition as "first world" migrants, as well as a shared daily experience. Through a mainly interactionist lens, the thesis presents the characteristics of the trajectories of these entrepreneurs, the quests that are at the core of the constitution of their entrepreneurial project and the place they occupy socially in the context of the metropolis of Mexico. We retain that North-South migrations can also involve a process of incorporation marked by ruptures, difficulties or necessary identity negotiations, just like the migrations traditionally studied. That said, their experience also contains aspects connected to the conceptions of a world divided between the "North of the South" which are rooted in the particular local context, Mexico City, and which are revealed in the social interaction in the presence of the Mexican counterparts that they meet.

Le Québec, comme ailleurs dans le monde, est confronté à un phénomène populationnel de taille, celui du vieillissement démographique. Pour tenir compte des nombreux enjeux et défis qui accompagnent ce phénomène, un nombre significatif d’actions ou de politiques gouvernementales ont impulsé la notion de « vieillissement actif », qui est devenue monnaie courante dans l’espace public. Cette notion, en outre, apparaît souvent contradictoire avec la réalité vécue des personnes vieillissantes. Si la notion de « vieillissement actif » a été introduite dans l’espace public en guise de stratégie pour s’adapter aux changements démographiques, dont celui du vieillissement, il concourt à perpétuer des discours âgistes et à produire un cadre normatif quant à la manière de vivre et de concevoir le vieillissement. Autrement dit, ces discours tendent à mettre dans un carcan les aînés.ées en proposant une vision linéaire et homogène du processus de vieillissement en négligeant leurs histoires singulières et les conditions sociales, politiques, culturelles, financières, sanitaires et autres qui façonnent le vieillissement comme processus hétérogène, vécu, représenté et performé en fonction, notamment, des rapports de pouvoir et des attentes sociales qui le traversent. Ce mémoire propose de comprendre le vieillissement comme une expérience hétérogène, en mettant de l’avant une perspective critique du vieillissement, comme processus vécu différemment selon la classe sociale, de la langue, du genre et de la capacité physique qui infléchissent les parcours de vie des personnes. Les parcours et les histoires propres à chaque personne agissent comme toile de fond à la manière de vivre, d’interpréter, de communiquer et de concevoir le vieillissement comme processus foncièrement hétérogène et contingent aux conditions sociales, politiques, économiques, technologiques et culturelles dans lesquelles ils s’actualisent. D’une manière plus spécifique, ce mémoire explore le vieillissement au féminin, au Québec. La probabilité plus importante pour les femmes aînées que pour les hommes aînés d’être la cible de discours âgistes, tout comme les multiples discriminations articulées et renforcées par les politiques publiques en matière de vieillissement, rend compte de la pluralité des logiques de domination. En s’appuyant sur une méthode biographique et les techniques de l’entrevue de récit de vie et visuelle, ce mémoire a pour objectif d’étudier l’histoire singulière de ma grand-mère, une femme septuagénaire, dans une perspective de vieillissement et de communication. La problématique interroge le vieillissement au Québec dans un contexte où le discours social et les politiques publiques sont axés sur le « vieillissement actif », une approche du « bien vieillir » qui concourt à perpétuer de différentes manières l’âgisme ambiant. L’analyse qui a suivi les entretiens de recherche a permis de faire valoir l’unicité liée à l’histoire d’une femme vieillissante et de corréler cette expérience vécue à celle véhiculée, notamment, dans les discours publics sur le « vieillissement actif ». / Quebec, like other places in the world, is experiencing significant demographic changes related to the rapid aging of its population. To take into account the many challenges that accompany this phenomenon, a significant number of governments have developed programs and policies based on "active aging", which has become commonplace in the public discourse. This notion often appears contradictory with the lived reality of aging people. "Active aging" contributes to perpetuate ageist discourses and produce a normative framework as to how to experience and conceive of aging. These discourses tend to put seniors in a straitjacket by offering a linear and homogeneous vision of the aging process while neglecting their singular histories and the social, political, cultural, financial, health that shape aging as heterogeneous, lived, represented and performed in function of the power relations and the social expectations which cross it. I understand aging as a heterogeneous experience, by putting forward a critical perspective of aging, as a process experienced differently according to social class, language, gender and physical ability which influence life course of people. The journeys and stories specific to each person act as a backdrop to the ways of living, interpreting, communicating and conceiving of aging as a fundamentally heterogeneous and contingent process which varies according to social, political, economic, technological and cultural conditions in which they update themselves. Specifically, I explore women’s aging in Quebec. The greater probability for older women than for older men to be the target of ageist discourse, just like the multiple forms of discrimination articulated and reinforced by public policies on aging, reflects the plurality of logics of domination. Based on a biographical method and the techniques of life story and visual interviewing, this thesis aims to study the unique lifecourse of my grandmother, a woman in her seventies from a perspective of aging and communication. The research problematic questions aging in Quebec in a context where social discourse and public policies are focused on "active aging", an approach to "aging well" which contributes to perpetuating the prevailing ageism. The analysis of the research interviews bring to the fore three key dimensions to this women’s ageing, namely the negociation of place, the management of appearances and the changing boundaries of old age. Combined, they highlight the uniqueness linked to the history of an aging woman and to correlate her lived experience with that conveyed in public discourse on "active aging".