The study examines the consequences of widows’ usage of the services of Faith-Based (FBOs) and Secular aid organizations (SBOs) to empower themselves in rural communities in Abia state Nigeria. To achieve this, the study adopted ideas proposed in three human development theories, the Relational Autonomy, Capability and the Cultural and Institutional approaches to advance a more general framework that analyses the various levels (micro, meso and macro) rural widows in Nigeria could be empowered. To explore these various levels of the widows’ empowerment, the thesis focused on three research questions; the first of which asks about the widows’ perceptions of their vulnerabilities in the rural communities and how their vulnerability translate to choices they make to transform their lives; the second enquires about the extent to which the aid organizations made attempt to address the needs of the widows in their service delivery; and the final question focuses on other ways the widows empowered themselves in the rural communities, especially when the services of the aid organizations were not forthcoming, thereby depicting their agency in the empowerment. The study used the constructivist ethnography and comparative approach as the paradigms of enquiry and relied mainly on observations and interviews (semi-structured interviews) for data collection. The field work was carried out over a period of 7 months in four aid organizations (i.e. 2 Faith Based and 2 secular aid organizations) and 12 communities in Abia state Nigeria where the aid organizations operate. The sample population was the widow beneficiaries and staff of the aid organizations. The research revealed that although the aid organizations were the major providers of services to the widows, the widows empowered themselves by various means, which include their individual and collective capacities, and by utilizing supports from indigenous groups and social networks to enhance their wellbeing in their communities. The study revealed that the assessment of rural widows’ empowerment, especially in traditional societies like Nigeria, should address all levels at which these women could operate as agents to enhance their wellbeing. The outcome from the different levels of analysis showed that the grassroots support groups were relevant in the widows’ empowerment in the rural communities, especially as they provided immediate supports and cultural repertoires these women could tap to improve their lives. The study highlights the relevance of these cultural groups in addressing the widows’ exertion of their agency in grassroots level. The study goes on to suggest that a better empowerment practice for improving lives of rural widows in Nigeria should focus on the perspectives of the widows as beneficiaries instead of organizational objectives. This will provide spec for identifying their aspirations, specific needs, and the social actors who are relevant in their empowerment in grassroots. The study also offered policy recommendations for advancing more empowerment of widows in rural areas in Nigeria.

A model of the co-parental role based on personal construct theory is described, with inter-parental conflict explained in terms of the constructivist concept of hostility. Four unstructured group interviews, on the theme of the experience of separated parenthood, were conducted with separated fathers (n=14) from throughout Strathclyde. Thematic analysis of the results suggests that while participants recognised the importance of maintaining relations with the other parent, that relationship was seen as adversarial, and fathers frequently feel controlled or powerless; different strategies for coping with this control emerged. From common post-separation parenting experiences recounted by the participants, situational elements were developed for a series of repertory grid interviews, intended to identify and examine the co-parental role construct system. Grids were administered, at three points over a year, to a cohort of separated, non-resident fathers from Strathclyde (n=17) still in contact with their children. The results were analysed using construct content categories developed for this research, inter-element distance measures, and asymmetric coefficients to assess ordinal relationships between constructs. Support was found for the model of a co-parental role covering interactions with children and their mothers. Perceptions of parity in parents' flexibility regarding contact arrangements were associated with recent experience, particularly ongoing disputes over contact allocation, and reflect strategies for dealing with being controlled. Conflict emerges as having distinct and multiple implications for separated non-resident fathers, whose responses to change were also consistent with the constructivist conception of hostility. One strategy for dealing with this may be a gradual distancing from the role of co-parent, in line with recent theories of core construing. These findings are discussed along with strengths and limitations of this research; implications for policy, practice and future research are outlined.

In an expansive feminist literature on gender and development, scholarly research on widows and widowhood remains limited, particularly within the context of Nepal. While there are some important exceptions, existing work reinforces stereotypes of widows as old and poor victims, and widowhood as essentially a marginalised and vulnerable status. This thesis seeks to confront such homogenous views and to 'rewrite' widowhood. In particular, it explores the diverse experiences of widowhood through the adoption of an intersectional life-course lens, conceptualises well-being from the embedded perspective of widows and examines the complex ways in which widowed women assert agency. This thesis is born out of a longstanding academic engagement with Nepali widows. Based upon ethnographic qualitative research, the study involved two periods of intensive research in the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. The research was operationalised through a triangulation of qualitative methods resulting in a rich evidence base of eighty-one semi-structured interviews, eighteen oral histories, five focus groups and ten key informant interviews. This research shows that that widowhood is more complex than much of the scholarship to date suggests. Key findings include the particular salience of age, caste and the life course in shaping experiences of widowhood. It demonstrates that while widows' understandings of well-being can be categorised as material, perceptual and relational, relationships with children, family and the wider community in which they live underpin all of these. This research also uncovered widows' complicated and contradictory enactments of agency that can be placed on a 'resisting-conforming' continuum, and are shaped by gendered cultural norms, eschatological beliefs, temporality and intersectional identities. This thesis contributes to more nuanced empirical and theoretical understandings of widows and widowhood, intersectionality well-being and agency.

Les orphelins (enfants, adolescents et jeunes adultes qui ont perdu un ou deux parents par décès) n’ont pas de statut spécifique en France et la statistique publique ne produit pas d’estimation de leur nombre. À partir de trois sources de données (Tronc commun des enquêtes auprès des ménages ; enquêtes Famille de 1999 et 2011 ; État-civil), nous estimons qu’environ 600 000 jeunes de moins de 25 ans sont orphelins d’un parent ou des deux en France en 2015, soit 3% de cette tranche d’âge. Les trois-quarts d’entre eux sont des orphelins de père dont la mère est vivante. L’orphelinage précoce paternel est plus différencié socialement que l’orphelinage précoce maternel. La proportion d’orphelins a diminué depuis 1999, ce qui est cohérent avec la baisse de la mortalité des adultes ; cependant, le retard des naissances a compensé en partie l’effet de cette baisse de la mortalité des adultes sur la proportion d’orphelins. Alors que dans l’imaginaire collectif, l’image de l’orphelin est celle d’un enfant privé de ses deux parents et vivant dans un orphelinat, cette thèse montre que la réalité de l’orphelinage au début du 21ème siècle est très éloignée de cette représentation issue du passé. La très grande majorité des mineurs orphelins ont un parent vivant et résident lui, le plus souvent dans une famille monoparentale, sinon dans une famille recomposée. Les familles des orphelins ont un risque un peu plus grand d’avoir un faible niveau de vie que les autres familles de même structure et cela s’explique principalement par leur position socioéconomique moins favorable. / The orphans (children, teenagers and young adults who have lost one or both parents by death) do not have any specific status in France and there is no estimation of their number in the national statistics. Using three data sources (The household introductory module ; 1999 et 2011 Family surveys ; Civil registration data), we estimate that around 600 000 youths aged under 25 are orphaned in France in 2015, which represents 3% of this age group. Three orphans out of four have lost their father but their mother is alive. The proportion of orphans has fallen since 1999 : this trend fits the trends in adult mortality, however the rise of parents’ age at birth has cancelled some part of the effect of the decline in adult mortality upon the proportion of orphans. The social differences in the risks of becoming an orphan before age 25 are bigger among fatherless children than among motherless children. While in the collective imagination, an orphan is a child deprived of both parents and living in an orphanage, this thesis shows that in the early 21st century the situation of the orphaned children (aged under 18) is far from this image from the past centuries. Most of the orphaned children have a surviving parent and live with him, in a one-parent family or in a stepfamily. The families with orphaned children have a slightly higher risk of having a low standard of living compared with the families without orphaned children, and this can be explained by the fact that those families have a lower socioeconomic status.

La vitalité du secteur jeunesse de l'édition est un indice, parmi d'autres, de la place importante qu'occupent encore aujourd'hui les livres dans le quotidien des enfants. Si le contenu des albums a été étudié par quelques sociologues français, la manière dont les jeunes « lecteurs » reçoivent les normes et les représentations transmises par la littérature de jeunesse n'a en revanche fait l'objet que de bien peu d'investigations sociologiques. A travers l'analyse de la manière dont les enfants comprennent et (ré)interprètent le contenu textuel et iconographique des livres, cette thèse entend non seulement mettre en lumière ce qui se joue dans l'acte de réception, mais également apporter des éléments contribuant à une meilleure compréhension du processus de socialisation. Nous centrons pour cela notre regard sur l'« alimentation », observatoire emblématique de l'ensemble des modalités de ce processus ainsi que de ses nombreuses différenciations. Par la mise en place, sur le terrain, d'un protocole expérimental permettant d'approcher le point de vue d'enfants âgés de 5 à 8 ans (et issus de milieux sociaux contrastés), cette thèse permet ainsi d'appréhender la manière dont s'agencent - de façon toujours particulière - les messages délivrés par différentes instances socialisatrices (famille, médias, école), et dont se construisent d'éventuelles appartenances à un genre et/ou à un milieu social. La capacité d'action (agency) des très jeunes enfants est de cette façon, ici, mise en jeu. / Among other signs, the vitality of the children's book publishing field bears testimony to the important place books still occupy today in children's everyday lives. However, despite the fact that some French sociologists have already studied the content of children's books, the way young "readers" receive the norms and representations conveyed by this literature has been the object of very little sociological investigation. In the present thesis I analyze the way children understand and (re)interpret the textual and iconographic content of children's books, with a view to both shedding light on what is really at stake in the act of reception, and also bringing elements that might contribute to better understanding the process of socialization. I focus on "food," as it is an iconic observation tool for the entirety of this process's modalities and its many differentiations. An experimental protocol implemented on the field has allowed me to approach the point of view of 5- to 8-year-old children coming from various social backgrounds, and thus to study the way the messages conveyed by the various agents of socialization (such as family, mass media, and school) are organized, as well as the construction of potential belongings to a gender and/or social group. In this regard, the agency of very young children is also addressed.