No / This book takes a novel approach to the study of male eating disorders – an area that is often dominated by clinical discourses. The study of eating disorders in men has purportedly suffered from a lack of dedicated attention to personal and socio-cultural aspects. Delderfield tackles this deficiency by spotlighting a set of personal accounts written by a group of men who have experiences of disordered eating. The text presents critical interpretations that aim to situate these experiences in the social and cultural context in which these disorders occur. This discursive work is underpinned by an eclectic scholarly engagement with social psychology and sociology literature around masculinities, embodiment and fatness, belonging, punishment, stigma, and control; leading to understandings about relationships with food, body and self. This is undertaken with a reflexive element, as the personal intersects with the professional. This text will appeal to students, scholars and clinicians in social sciences, humanities, and healthcare studies, including public health.

Denna uppsats undersöker människors förhållningssätt till klimatförändringar. Syftet är att un­dersöka individers attityder och reflexivitet kring klimatförändringar för att nå en djupare för­ståelse för komplexiteten och mångfalden av människors respons till klimatförändringar. Undersökningen är kvalitativ och baseras på åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer med personer av olika kön, åldrar och utbildningsbakgrund. Genom att använda tematisk analys har centrala teman identifierats och analyserats i intervjumaterialet. Analysen visar att majoriteten av inter­vjupersonerna kän­ner en maktlöshet inför klimatförändringar och använder sig av ett förskjutet tänkande för att hantera hotbilden. Klimatmedvetna val har ofta flera bottnar och kan exempel­vis härledas till ett följande av sociala normer. Samtidigt framträder en grupp som ser möjlig­heter och ut­trycker hopp om framtiden, vilket indikerar att sociala faktorer och utbildningsnivå har bety­delse i hur klimatförändringar uppfattas och hanteras. Slutsatsen är att individens upp­levelse av klimatförändringar influeras av den sociala kontexten och att ett individualiserat sam­hälle kan ömsom förstärka känslor av maktlöshet, ömsom förstärka individens agens. Uppsat­sen bi­drar till en djupare förståelse av de känslor och attityder som klimatförändringar väcker samt hur dessa kan tolkas inom ramen för teorier om individualisering och moderniseringsris­ker. / This thesis investigates people's attitudes towards climate change. The aim is to examine indi­viduals' attitudes and reflexivity concerning climate change to gain a deeper understanding of the complexity and diversity of human responses to climate change. The study is qualitative and is based on eight semi-structured interviews with individuals of different genders, ages, and educational backgrounds. Using thematic analysis, key themes have been identified and ana­lyzed within the interview material. The analysis shows that the majority of interviewees feel powerless in the face of climate change and employ displaced thinking to manage the threat. Climate-conscious choices often have multiple layers and can, for example, be attri­buted to following social norms. Simultaneously, a group emerges that sees opportunities and expresses hope for the future, indicating that social factors and education levels play a role in how climate change is perceived and managed. The conclusion is that an individual's experi­ence of climate change is influenced by the social context and that an individualized society can both reinforce feelings of powerlessness and enhance individual agency. The thesis contri­butes to a deeper understanding of the emotions and attitudes that climate change evokes and how these can be interpreted within the framework of theories on individualization and modernization risks.

This work narrates a qualitative sociological exploration with auto-ethnographic underpinnings. It deals with the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (SATRC) as a contextual case among others. The thesis seeks to answer the question of whether countries following a TRC route did better than those that did not use TRCs, when it comes to establishing civil control over the military. The author's exposure and involvement in the process as participant, participant observer, observer participant and observer inform the study. With the SATRC as one cornerstone other cases reflected upon include Argentina and Chile (Latin America), Spain and Portugal (Southern Europe), Namibia, Nigeria and Rwanda (Africa). / Sociology / D.Litt. et. Phil. (Sociology)

This qualitatively oriented Practical Theology research project was based on a narrative inquiry into the spiritualities of six gay women who are related to Northfield Methodist Church, which is situated in Benoni, Gauteng. These conversations occurred within a small group context, and were aimed at co-authoring preferred ways of being both gay and Christian. Toward the end of the research journey, I asked each participant to prepare a written text that would summarise their experience of being simultaneously gay and Christian, so that by hearing their own stories of their journey, they would be able to find a voice. As these women are usually marginalised in the Methodist Church, I invited various groups to audience their stories. This research report records the beginning of my journey into working towards the complete acceptance of gay and lesbian Christians into the Methodist Church of Southern Africa. / Practical Theology / M. Th. (Pastoral Therapy)

This qualitatively oriented Practical Theology research journey, informed by postmodernism and social constructionism, was based on a narrative enquiry into the healing and renegotiation of identity of five "faithful spouses" post infidelity and divorce. These conversations occurred within a small group context, where narratives were spoken and witnessed (pastoral therapeutic gatherings), and were aimed at enabling the participants to remember and re-author preferred identities and new ways of being. This dissertation attempts to bring together the narratives of the participants, the literature, narrative therapy and pastoral care. My research curiosity was prompted by my mother's experience of divorce, and by the myriad number of conversations I have had with both "infidels" and "faithful spouses" in my pastoral practice. This research journey examines the process of co-creating, along with my fellow travellers (research participants), a viable model of divorce recovery in the face of infidelity and divorce. / Practical Theology / M.Th. (Pastoral Theology)

Thesis (MA VA (Visual Arts))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The primary function of paintings and novels in Western culture has historically been considered the depiction or description of reality. Over the course of the last century, however, the inherent reflexivity of both art and literature has become progressively more insistent and programmatic, in such a way as challenges the relationship between form and the world. A re-thinking of the role of representation is thus central to both modernism and postmodernism. This thesis is an investigation into the relationship between modern and postmodern reflexivity. Through the close examination of four artists who serve as case studies, I argue that literary and artistic modernism‟s emphasis on form and subjectivity, as well as the tendency of postmodern art and writing to flaunt its own status as rhetoric/fiction, are different facets of a continuous response to a rapidly changing world. Using the insights of post-structuralist theory, I suggest that whereas modernism‟s reflexive drive is directed towards truth and self-knowledge, postmodern reflexivity is centrally concerned with the elusive, continually shifting nature of meaning. What emerges in the light of the practice of individual artist and authors, however, is that the modern and postmodern reflexive modes are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but can co-exist, producing a vital and necessary tension. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Beskrywing en uitbeelding van die werklikheid word geskiedkundig as die kernfunksies van skilderye en die roman in die Westerse kultuur beskou. Gedurende die laaste eeu het die inherente refleksiwiteit van beide kuns en letterkunde toenemend meer programmaties en sistematies geword. Dit het geskied op „n wyse wat die verhouding tussen vorm en die wêreld uitdaag. „n Herbesinning van die rol van uitbeelding of representasie is gevolglik van sentrale belang vir beide modernisme en postmodernisme. Hierdie tesis is „n ondersoek na die verwantskap tussen moderne en postmoderne refleksiwiteit. Deur „n noukerige ondersoek van vier kunstenaars se werk, stel ek voor dat die letterkundige en artistieke klem van modernisme op vorm en subjektiwiteit, sowel as die gebruiklike kenmerk van retoriek/fiksie, verskillende aspekte is van „n voortdurende weerkaatsing op „n vinnig veranderende wêreld is. Deur die teoretiese perspektiewe van post-stukturalisme toe te pas, stel ek voor dat modernistiese refleksiwiteit neig na die waarheid en selfkennis, terwyl postmoderne refleksiwiteit fokus op die onbepaalde en veranderlike aard van betekenis. Nietemin, uit my kritiese beskouing van die kreatiewe praktyk van afsonderlike kunstenaars en skrywers blyk dit dat die modernistiese en postmodernistiese refleksiewe benaderinge nie noodwendig mekaar uitsluit nie, maar saam kan bestaan en „n dinamiese en noodsaaklike spanning skep.

Small businesses, particularly growing small businesses, are regarded by policy makers and academics alike as being important sources of wealth creation, employment generation and innovation. Yet, few small businesses grow. One potential way of explaining why so many businesses do not grow is through the notion of 'barriers'. Previous studies on barriers typically identify and predict what kinds of barriers affect business growth, rather than attempt to explain how or why this is the case, if indeed it is the case at all. This thesis aims to elaborate on our understanding of barriers to small business growth. Two qualitative inductive interview-based studies were conducted in St. Petersburg Russia; the first was conducted in 2003, the second in 2005. Using semi-structured interviews in the second study (the main study), 27 owner-managers of small businesses in Russia were asked if they had intentions to grow the business, how they grew their businesses or intended to do so, and what, if anything, interfered with this process. The purpose of the study was two-fold: first, its purpose was to examine barriers from the perspective of individual owner-managers, with an emphasis on the meaning of barriers and the context in which they are perceived, and second to explore and examine how or the ways in which perceived barriers may influence owner-managers’ growth intentions and behaviours. Data were analysed using template analysis mainly, drawing on interpretive phenomenological analysis and matrix analysis. Based on the accounts of owner-managers, barriers were found to work in different ways to shape intentions to grow or not to grow, and as well to shape intention realization. How this occurred depended partly on owner-managers’ perceptions of the institutional environment. Findings suggest that the relationship between barriers and small business growth is complex. It is, nevertheless, a relationship which purports to be a fruitful area of study, one in which future research might further our understanding of small business growth from a continuing examination of barriers, particularly in relation to intentions, in relation to how meaningful barriers are perceived to be, and in relation to the context in which they are perceived.

Stefan Hirschauer kritisiert mit dem Konzept des Undoing Gender den Theorieentwurf des Doing Gender nach West & Zimmerman. Er begreift Geschlecht als Effekt von Interaktionen und lehnt sich dabei an Garfinkels ethnomethodologisches Konzept der Accountability und der Omnirelevanz von Geschlecht an. Aus institutioneller Perspektive wird die Möglichkeit der Neutralisierung der Kategorie Geschlecht betont. Forschungsperspektivisch ist Geschlecht auf seine konkrete Relevanzsetzung in Interaktionen unter der Bedingung unterschiedlicher kultureller Konfigurationen und institutioneller Arrangements zu untersuchen ("kontextuelle Kontingenz").

Si l’approche par compétences au Canada et aux États-Unis est particulièrement valorisée pour orienter la pratique des professionnels de la santé (PDS) – et en bioéthique clinique –, les travaux permettant de mieux comprendre les fondements psychologiques, ontologiques et philosophiques de ces compétences sont peu présents dans la littérature en bioéthique. Les principaux outils actuellement disponibles se divisent généralement en quatre principales catégories : 1) les documents officiels (codes de déontologie, règlements institutionnels, etc.); 2) les principales théories éthiques (éthique de la discussion, éthique de la vertu, principisme, etc.); 3) les ouvrages de référence scientifiques; 4) les outils de prise de décision éthique. Ces documents sont des incontournables pour les bioéthiciens et les PDS, mais leur disparité, voire leur contenu parfois contradictoire, jumelée à une compréhension limitée de l’éthique, est souvent source de confusion dans les processus décisionnels et peut être la cause de comportements ne répondant pas aux standards éthiques des pratiques professionnelles. Notre recherche constitue une réflexion qui s’inscrit en amont de ces outils dont le caractère pragmatique a le désavantage de simplifier la réflexion théorique au profit de données plus concrètes. Nos travaux visent à développer les bases d’un modèle flexible et inclusif – le modèle de la déontologie réflexive (MDR) – permettant de : 1) poser les principaux repères philosophiques, sociaux et déontologiques des problématiques éthiques rencontrées en pratique; 2) saisir les principales tensions éthiques inhérentes à cette complexité; 3) mieux comprendre, dans une perspective psychologique et développementale, les exigences personnelles et professionnelles qu’impose le statut de professionnel de la santé dans le contexte actuel des soins de santé. Entreprise théorique, ce projet consiste principalement à mettre en relation dynamique un ensemble de dimensions (légale, éthique, clinique, sociale, psychologique) à l’oeuvre dans la rencontre du bioéthicien et du PDS avec la complexité des situations éthiques, en s’inspirant du concept de sensibilité éthique de la « petite éthique » de Paul Ricoeur (1990), du modèle des quatre composantes de Rest (1994) et de la théorie du soi et des modes identitaires d’Augusto Blasi (1993). Ce processus implique trois étapes successives : 1) une mise en ii perspective de la posture épistémologique particulière du bioéthicien et du PDS à la lumière de la « petite éthique » de Ricoeur; 2) une revue de la littérature interdisciplinaire sur le concept de sensibilité éthique afin d’en proposer une définition et de le mettre en perspective avec d’autres compétences éthiques; 3) le développement d’un cadre de référence en matière d’identité éthique professionnelle (professional ethics identity tendencies, PEIT), inspiré de la théorie du soi et des modes identitaires de Blasi. Ces PEIT proposent un repère normatif aux exigences liées à la construction de l'identité en contexte de pratique des PDS et suggèrent des pistes de réflexion quant à la formation et à la recherche en éthique professionnelle. Cette recherche souhaite établir des fondements théoriques pour le développement ultérieur du modèle de la déontologie réflexive (MDR). / If the competency approach seems to be particularly valorised in Canada and in the United States for orienting the practice of health care professionals (HCP) – and in clinical bioethics – material that could provide with a better understanding of the psychological, ontological and philosophical foundations of these competencies seems rather limited in the bioethical literature. The tools that are generally available can be divided into four main categories: 1) official documents (e.g., code of ethics, institutional policies); 2) the main ethical theories (e.g., virtue ethics, theories of justice, principlism); 3) scientific references (e.g., journals, books); 4) decision-making tools. These documents are important for bioethicists and HCPs, but their disparities and even contradictions, coupled with poor knowledge in professional ethics, may be a significant source of confusion in the decision making process and even lead to behaviour that does not meet the ethical standards of HCP. This thesis is an upstream reflection regarding these tools, whose pragmatic character has the disadvantage of simplifying theoretical reflection at the benefit of more concrete evidence useful for practical decision making. This project aims at developing the foundations for a flexible and inclusive model – a model of deontological reflexivity (MDR) – that will: 1) present the main philosophical, psychological, sociological and deontological landmarks characterising ethical issues encountered in practice; 2) understand, from a psychological and developmental perspective, the personal and professional requirements inherent to the status of the health care professional in the current context of health care. A theoretical enterprise, this project primarily consists in relating, in a dynamic manner, a variety of dimensions (legal, ethical, clinical, psychological) at work in complex ethical situations encountered by HCPs and bioethicists, inspired by the concept of ethical sensitivity, the “petite éthique” of Paul Ricoeur (1990), the self theory along with Blasi's Identity modes (Blasi, 1993). The analysis process will consist in three successive phases: 1) a putting into perspective of the bioethicist's and HCPs’ epistemological posture in light of the “petite éthique” of Paul Ricoeur (1990); 2) an interdisciplinary literature review of “ethical sensitivity” in order to propose a definition of the concept and place it into perspective with other ethical competencies; 3) the development of a framework regarding professional ethics iv and identity (professional ethics identity tendencies, PEIT), inspired both by the self theory and Blasi's Identity modes. These PEITs provide a normative benchmark related to the construction of identity in the health care context and suggest some innovative avenues for professional ethics research and education. This research wish to elaborate the theoretical foundations that will be utilised further in the future to develop the model of deontological reflexivity (MDR).

Cette étude porte sur la « culture geek » et son émergence en tant que sous-culture et identité culturelle revendiquée en France depuis le milieu des années 2000. En effet, ce mouvement d’abord américain a fait une entrée remarquée dans l’espace public qui incite à s’interroger sur sa réalité sociologique. Les geeks sont abordés ici comme fans de mondes imaginaires fantastiques (science-fiction, fantasy…), passionnés de nouvelles technologies et en tant que public premier et fondateur du processus de convergence culturelle théorisé par Henry Jenkins. La montée en visibilité du phénomène geek est ainsi liée dans cette étude à celle de pratiques médiatiques associées à ce processus (fanfictions, démocratisation des outils numériques, œuvres transmédiatiques et immersives, etc.). Dans ce cadre, le tournant réflexif (vers un sentiment d’appartenance à une identité collective) et la mode médiatique autour de la culture geek ces dernières années trouvent leurs racines dans les moments fondateurs de la convergence culturelle (depuis les pulps fictions et la naissance des comic books jusqu’à la sortie de Star Wars, du Seigneur des anneaux, des premiers jeux de rôles et jeux vidéo). Mais cela doit aussi à la radicalisation récente des croisements médiatiques, des pratiques participatives, de la mondialisation des partages liée aux technologies numériques et au passage des identités prescrites aux identités choisies dans les sociétés contemporaines marquées par l’individualisme. / This dissertation is about « geek culture » and the emergence of this subcultural identity in recent years in France. This movement, born in North America, has entered the public sphere in a spectacular way and it encourages us to study its sociological reality. Geeks are seen here as fans of imaginary worlds (science-fiction, fantasy…), new technologies lovers, and as first and original audience of the process of cultural convergence defined by Henry Jenkins. The increasing visibility of the geek phenomenon is connected to many practices associated with this process (fanfictions, wide use of digital technology, transmedia and immersive storytelling, etc.). From this point of view, the reflexive moment (the feeling of being part of a collective identity) and the geek trend are both rooted by the beginnings of cultural convergence (from the pulp fictions, and the birth of comic books, to the release of Star Wars, the Lord of the Rings and the first role-playing or video games). It also has to do with the recent growth of links between media, with the success of participatory culture, the possibility of worldwide share thanks to digital technologies and the shift from preassigned identities to chosen ones in our individualistic society.