Paganism is a burgeoning belief system in the UK, which has received little attention from psychological researchers. Healing is a key aspect of modern Pagan practice, yet it too receives little attention from those investigating distance healing practices. Given the growth of Paganism in recent years these omissions from the literature should be addressed by researchers. This thesis investigates the healing practices of modern Paganism using a mixed methods approach across three phases. The first phase is a meta-analysis of existing non-contact healing research. There has been much research investigating the efficacy of various forms of non-contact healing which has resulted in reviews and meta-analysis which suggest that non-contact practices can have some positive effect upon the recipient’s wellbeing; however they also raise the issue of low study quality in this area. The most recent comprehensive review of this subject area was published in 2000; much more research has been published since then and the legitimacy of some previously published research has since been questioned. Also, such reviews focus on ‘whole’ human participants who might be susceptible to expectancy effects or benefit from the healing intentions of friends, family or their own religious groups. To address these issues an up to date, comprehensive meta-analysis was conducted that included healing studies that involved biological systems other than ‘whole’ humans (e.g., studies of plants or cell cultures) that were less susceptible to placebo-like effects and investigated the impact of study quality. Phase two employed interviews with practising Pagans regarding their spell casting practices. Eight Pagans from a variety of traditions were interviewed using semi structured interviews and the data were analysed using thematic analysis. Six major themes and 16 subthemes were extracted from the data and used to inform the design of phase three. Phase three is a randomised controlled trial of Pagan healing spells. The trial utilised a delayed intervention design. Various aspects of the trial design were informed by phase two interviews, such as the choice of outcome measure, the use of spell request forms, participant pictures and items, and scepticism measures.

W.P. Allis. / "June 13, 1956." "Most of this report is identical with material prepared for Handbuch der Physik, volume XXI, 1956." / Bibliography: p. 98-100. / Army Signal Corps Contract DA36-039-sc-64637 Project 102B Dept. of the Army Projects 3-99-10-022 DA3-99-10-000

Poverty is one of the most important internationally recognized problems. The first Millennium Development Goal declared by the United Nations (UN) is to &ldquo / Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger&rdquo / . Women rank first among groups most affected by poverty. Based on the argument that women compose two-thirds of the poor, the term &ldquo / feminization of poverty&rdquo / took its place in the development discourse in the 1970s. There is an inverse relationship between development and women&rsquo / s poverty, making women&rsquo / s poverty a crucial agenda item of poverty alleviation strategies. Microcredit systems have spread all over the world beginning in Bangladesh and have now become an important poverty alleviation tool both in developed and developing countries. From the beginning of this millennium, microfinance institutions started to spread in Turkey and Turkish Grameen Microfinance Program (TGMP), a commercial affiliate of Turkish Foundation for Waste Reduction, is the leading organization. It is one of the crucial microfinance institutions in Turkey. Women are the primary target group of microcredit and this makes microcredit today&rsquo / s most popular poverty alleviation tool. The impact of microcredit on women is examined through interviews with women who registered with the Ankara TGMP v office. In this context, this study investigates microcredit&rsquo / s effectiveness as a poverty alleviation tool for women in the light of the correlation between development and women&rsquo / s poverty. Based on the fact that poverty is a multidimensional concept, positive and negative aspects of microcredit are revealed in this research, however, no conclusion is made as to microcredit&rsquo / s success or failure as an independent poverty alleviation tool. Rather, it is concluded that microcredit should be integrated with other actors and poverty alleviation tools and should be supported with other relevant institutions and policies.

This thesis, aims to provide an analysis of the perception of homeland of the Armenians in Istanbul and Armenians in Armenia of Anatolian origin in order to identify the meanings attributed to the concept of homeland in the formation of their identity. Based on the in-depth interviews, this thesis focuses on transformation of the homeland and questions where is &ldquo / home&rdquo / , &ldquo / homeland&rdquo / and &ldquo / diaspora&rdquo / . The analysis is based on data collected during fieldwork conducted in Istanbul, Turkey during the months of November 2011 to February 2012 and Yerevan, Armenia during September 2011.

ABSTRACT THE CHANGING PERCEPTIONS OF GENDER ROLES AMONG TWO COHORTS OF WOMEN: A STUDY IN ANKARA Deniz CoSan Eke M.S., Department of Sociology Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ayse-G&uuml / nd&uuml / z Hosg&ouml / r December 2006, 147 pages The purpose of the thesis is to try to examine whether there is change in the perception of gender roles between two cohorts. The focus point of this study is what the difference between old women and young women is / how these women define their gender roles in the public and private spheres and how they describe their relations with their husbands and their children. The main argument in this thesis is that altering the perception of gender roles might be a way to create different policies regarding the problem of gender inequality. To achieve this aim, first gender roles are presented in different sociological approaches. Then, the term socialization is examined in different approaches to analyze how gender roles occur at micro-level of social relations. Finally, the term patriarchy is discussed to interpret macro level definitions of gender roles within private and public spheres. In this study, the general tendency of the perception of gender roles is formulated in the discussion of these concepts. The perception of gender roles of two cohorts women were conceptualized within the context of gender, marriage, work life and violence against women. In general, the analyses of perceptions among two cohorts&amp / #8217 / women showed that younger women have more egalitarian perception on gender roles. One of the most important results of this study is that education was emphasized as the key variable in achieving gender equality. Consequently, if studies had paid sufficient attention to the perceptions of gender roles, the issues of gender inequality or equality in policies and programs could have been discussed more profoundly and gender consciousness and awareness could have been promoted. The stereotypical perceptions of gender roles, that have been developed and standardized over a long time, have been the major obstacles in the formation of a gender-equal society.

The aim of this dissertation is to investigate how the technological developments implemented in the production processes and organizational structures of small and medium sized enterprises affect the skilling and thus the employment process of youth in these enterprises. The furniture sector of Turkey is chosen as a specific industrial sector for this research.

This study aims to provide an account of the production of subject through the representations of body and technology in the discourse of cyberculture through the analysis of Wired magazine. The findings indicate that the subject produced in this discourse is normatively white and male, and is produced along the ways of liberal humanism as it is conceptualized as autonomous, having free will and preceding the discursive operations and market relations. The production of this subject requires a series of exclusions and abjections including the smart machines which are becoming increasingly humanoid and thus forming a threat to the category of &ldquo / human&rdquo / and to the boundaries of the autonomous subject.

Turkey is an arena of social struggles for young people who have often been repressed, marginalized, invalidated,isolated and stereotyped by the dominant discourses that shape the existence of youth. This could be related to the rapidly changing circumstances that anticipate the milieu of frequent crises Turkey has been associated with. This thesis is an attempt to contribute to an understanding of the social patterns that are reflections of the mediated crisis and their role in identity formation processes of youth in the 1980s. It focuses on the post-1980 generation in Turkey. The study analyzes constructions and representations of youth in Turkey, particularly between 1980 and 1990. Institutional ethnography was used in order to understand the emergence of the post-1980 generation, as well as to draw a picture of politics and culture in the 1980s, focusing on identity politics to comprehend the public discourse in which this generation was represented.

The purpose of this thesis is to establish a preliminary foundation of a research method aimed at understanding the social identity, role and function of the university. In this respect, it aims at identifying and articulating a set of issues, concepts, questions, social dynamics and so on, which have to be addressed and investigated carefully, before starting to build such a research method. To this end, the thesis focuses on and analyzes a recent debate on the changing nature of the contemporary social system of knowledge production / a debate constituted by several theses of change, namely, Mode 2, Finalization in Science, Post-normal Science, Academic Capitalism and Triple Helix, and the critiques directed towards these theses. In consequence, the thesis argues that to understand the social nature and function of the university, first and foremost, a versatile conceptual framework is required to capture the phenomenon of the social construction of the paradigm of knowledge/science / a phenomenon which is certainly nonlinear by nature and involves complex interrelations between scientific, political, economic and cultural realms.

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