South Africa’s legacy of apartheid has created massive social and economic inequalities along racial and gender lines, resulting for instance, in the under-representation of Blacks and women in the higher echelons of industry and at decision-making levels in the public service. In order to eradicate historical discriminatory employment policies and practices in the workplace based on race, gender and disability and redress imbalances, in 1998 Parliament enacted the Employment Equity legislation, which describes measures through which organisations should speed up their transformation efforts. These measures are collectively known as affirmative action. Affirmative action was conceived as a vehicle that would improve the employment and promotion opportunities of Blacks, women and the disabled. However, the goal of transforming South African business organisations and public service from discriminatory structures to ones which reflect the demographic composition and values of South African as a whole has not been without controversy. Given the racial construction of privilege and discrimination in South Africa, affirmative action evokes strong emotions from ‘designated group’ and ‘non-designated group’ members’ demographic status, histories of relative deprivation, personal and collective interests and political ideologies leading to a polarisation of attitudes towards affirmative action. While some people view affirmative action as an antidote to past discrimination against Blacks, women and the disabled, others believe affirmative action promotes discrimination against Whites and in particular White males. Social policies that are perceived disproportionately to help Blacks or women, in general, and affirmative action programme, in particular, have emerged as a major socio-political battleground in South Africa. There is a long history of economic and employment discrimination in South Africa, and government-supported interventions, such as affirmative-action programmes, have been designed to increase employment opportunities for Blacks and women in organisational contexts in which they have been historically underrepresented. Although affirmative-action programmes have provided important economic benefits to Blacks and women, public debate about affirmative action programmes have been framed in terms of race and gender. Affirmative action has emerged as one of the most controversial policies in South Africa and is under attack. This study was conducted with employees from the Compensation Fund in Pretoria. Sixteen semi-structured interviews, ranging from between 20 and 30 minutes, were conducted with the aid of an in-depth personal interview schedule, using convenience sampling technique. The interview schedule had four sections in line with the problem statements and contained qualitative type questions. The purpose of the present exploratory study aimed to gain insight into the attitudes, experiences and perceptions of the Compensation Fund employees towards affirmative action. Findings of the study indicate that the dominant perception of the non-designated group (White participants) is that the recruitment, accomplishment and promotion of employees from the designated group is related only to demographic status, rather than qualifications, competences and personal effort as well. Race and gender appear to be operant dimensions along which Whites who could do the job are symbolically set apart from Blacks and women who were supposedly employed in the interest of getting the numbers right. Racial and gender prejudices emerged as the two main themes of the study. The dissertation interprets the participants’ racial and gender prejudice in terms of Blumer’s Group Position Model. The Group Position Model states that when an in-group perceives it’s group position to be threatened it results in racial (gender) hostility towards the out-group. In terms of this research’s findings, the non-designated group (White males) constitute the in-group, while the designated group (Blacks and women) constitute the out-group. The model adequately explains the negativity of the non-designated group towards affirmative action. This study represents a vital step towards a better understanding of the successful implementation of affirmative action and should contribute to more efficient and effective practice of affirmative action in the workplace. / Dissertation (MSocSci)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Sociology / unrestricted

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Dissertation (MA (Social Work))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Social Work and Criminology / Unrestricted

This research, conducted in 2006-2008, examines the ways in which various groups involved with the marine resources of Seward, Alaska construct attitudes towards the environment. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews are used to assess how commercial halibut fishers, tour boat operators, local residents and government officials understand the marine environment based on their previous experiences. This study also explores how ideologies relate to the current practices of each group. Two theories orient the analyses: The first, cultural modeling provided a theoretical and methodological framework for pursuing a more comprehensive analysis of resource management. The second, Theory of Reasoned Action (Ajzen and Fishbein 1980), guided the analysis of the ways in which each participant’s ideology towards the marine environment relates to their practice. Aside from contributing to a better understanding of a coastal community’s ideologies and practices, this dissertation sought to better understand the role of ecological ideologies and behaviors in fisheries management. The research illustrates certain domains where ideologies and practices concerning Pacific halibut and the marine environment differ among commercial fishers, government, and management officials, tour boat operators and residents of Seward, AK. These differences offer insights into how future collaborative efforts between government officials, managers and local marine resource users might better incorporate local ideology into management, and provide ecological information to local marine resource users in culturally appropriate ways.

Employee empowerment is a strategy that small business managers can deploy to add value to the business. This strategy is aimed at cultivating the power and ability of employees in their jobs. A business is a business by people working in it though they differ in many ways their contribution to the success of the organization is very important. However, these people are not often recognized as value contributors in the success of the business and for this reason they do not intend to add value to the business and they become demotivated to do their jobs properly. People are the business storehouse of knowledge and they are central to the organization's competitive advantage. Well educated, coached, and highly motivated people are critical to the development and execution of strategies, especially in today's fast-paced market, where top management can no longer assure the business competitiveness in isolation. In the business world, almost all businesses are doing the same, small businesses should strive to do things differently, and the only way that they can achieve that uniqueness is through instilling frankness and liberty to employees so that they act as if the business also belongs to them. The reason behind this success is the strategy the business is using to get into the heart of its customers, and this strategy is “employee empowerment”. People are the business's most underutilized resource; involvement in an organization is no longer a one-way road. In today's corporate environment a manager must work towards engaging the organization forcefully enough to achieve its objectives. New knowledge-based enterprises are characterized by flat hierarchical structures and a multi-skilled workforce. Managers assume more leadership and coaching tasks and work hard to provide employees with resources and working conditions they need to accomplish the goals they have agreed to. In brief, managers work for their staff, and not the reverse and this makes employees feel valued. Small business owners should tap into a new dimension of utilizing employee empowerment strategies in their businesses as these are proficient and are not costly. This paper investigates employee empowerment strategies that can be used by small, medium and micro enterprises (SMME's). An important reason for this investigation is that small businesses have incompetent skilled labour force due to the fact that they operate under a limited budget from which it would be difficult to get skilled workers who will demand higher salaries, as a result they need to put their energies rather on equipping and educating their employees through empowerment, which could at the end make them feel valued and part of the business. It is imperative to firstly assess the current situation of small business commitment to employee empowerment strategies; to what extent do they use employee empowerment strategies in their businesses In terms of the empirical study it was determined that small businesses were not aware of the concept of employee empowerment, but are in actual fact practicing employee empowerment strategies that have been theoretically revealed, according to the researcher’s observation, they were not aware of the impact of employee empowerment in the organization and that they can be implemented into the business. Therefore, by introducing the concept of employee empowerment and the strategies that can be used in small businesses, SMME's can enhance their services to customers, increase productivity and contribute to the welfare of employees to add value to the individual, the business and the country.

This study on engagement in environmental activism can offer valuable insights into how Ontario’s young people come to be responsible stewards of the earth. This research seeks to understand the narrative complexities put forth by teachers and students (Gr. 11-12) about the influence school plays for environmental activists. The teachers’ involvement with activism is mediated by students and the social networks that support their actions. The students’ involvement in action is influenced by teacher mentors, learning about/in the environment, and having a venue for activism. These findings suggest that in order to live up to Acting Today, Shaping Tomorrow schools should be seeking to have at least one environmentally literate teacher who wants to provide students with a venue for action. To assist the teachers and students with activism, there needs to be support for environmental action initiatives from the school administration and the community.

Social media had an impactful role in the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. Facebook as a public sphere space was used as a powerful tool to enhance communicative action among Egyptians, dissidents, and global observers. Drawing on the philosophical and theoretical notions of individuality and the responsibilities of the state of John Locke (1689; 1690), Jean Jacques Rousseau (1762); the public sphere and communicative action of Jürgen Habermas (1981; 1989); and Manuel Castells network society and new public sphere (2004; 2006; 2008), this thesis empirically investigates the role of social media, specifically Facebook, during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. Theories and concepts including the strength of weak ties, social movement theory, and Internet and organizational theory, a discussion of recent writings from both sides of the spectrum—those believing social media to hold power and those with the opposite view—inform the theoretical foundation of this thesis. The primary purpose of this thesis is to better understand what power lies in Facebook as used during the Egyptian Revolution. Using a qualitative approach, a methodological frame is employed to examine both the form and content of Facebook posts. This study concludes three major findings regarding the social power of Facebook during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution: the power of attention and momentum, the power of cooperation, and the creation of a repository of information and communication.

Scholars debate the importance of multiracial identity recognition as the increasing number of self-identified multiracial individuals challenges traditional racial categories. Two reasons justify the count of multiracial individuals on censuses. One is the right to self-identification, derived from personal autonomy. The other is social: the category allows governments to accurately assess affirmative action programs’ results and society’s acceptance of multiracialism. Critical Race Theory and Critical Mixed-Race Studies serve as basis for my analysis over multiracial identity formation and its recognition. Comparing multiracialism in America and Brazil, I verify that both countries are in different stages regarding categorization and social acceptance of multiracial identity. Neither uses multiracial data for social programs, though. I conclude that the growth of mixed-race individuals makes the identification of race-based social programs’ beneficiaries difficult, which demands the use of diverse criteria. Moreover, official recognition can serve to improve the way society deals with race.

Studies on health and incarceration have extensively demonstrated that incarcerated women have poorer health statuses than non-incarcerated women and than incarcerated men, both as a result of confinement and of the intersection of abuse, poverty, homelessness and addiction that are simultaneously pathways to criminalisation and to poor health. Without denying the reality of disease, physical and mental suffering experienced by women in prison, this thesis conceptualizes the “problem of health in prison” by framing it as a vehicle of and effect of power relations. By studying neoliberal rationalities and technologies that constitute health, poststructuralist scholars have demonstrated how neoliberal subjects are enticed to continuously pursue health and to adhere to the imperative to be healthy. Demonstrating the intersection of neoliberal health governance and penal governance, criminologists have shown how prisons produce the subject of a healthy prisoner, who is a self-regulated woman, freely working towards her rehabilitation. Rather than studying programs, public policies and archives, this thesis innovates by examining the experiences and narratives of the subjects who are being governed and enticed to be “healthy.” Specifically, my research provides a contextualized analysis of how women negotiate and manage their health during incarceration and upon their release from prison. The first article focuses on tensions between this work’s conceptual framework and its methodology, i.e. participatory action research. An emerging literature has been building bridges between poststructuralism and participatory action research, highlighting the latter’s potential for transformative action. Using examples from participatory action research projects with incarcerated or previously incarcerated women, the article discusses how “participation” and “action” can be redefined by using a poststructuralist definition of subjectivity. The second article tackles the issue of how women “do” health in prison. Using three issues—access to health care services, smoking, and the management of body weight—the article explores how participants adopted different embodied subjectivities, which conflicted or aligned with neoliberal governmentality. It describes how, through failure to conform to neoliberal ideals of “health,” mechanisms of self-surveillance and self-regulation are relayed by feelings of guilt, shame, and anxiety, even when incarcerated women attempt to conform to imperatives to be healthy. Finally, the last article focuses on how, upon prison release, participants attempted to “undo” the imprint of penal governance on their bodies and health. Through the exploration of corporal practices, such as taking care of one’s appearance, the use of psychoactive medications, and defecating, the article shows how women attempt to “undo” prison in order to pursue health. Though these two articles focus on different periods of participants’ lives and rely on different yet related concepts—embodied subjectivities and corporal practices—the common thread between the two is to show the attempts by participants to “undo” prison from their embodied selves, and to “do” health as incited by the ethical imperatives to be healthy. The thesis concludes with a discussion about the pursuit of health, and its effects on the populations deemed as “at risk” and “unhealthy.”

This thesis examines mothers’ risk perceptions and protective actions as they relate to their children’s environmental health. Children are more exposed and vulnerable than adults to environmental hazards, which have been found to be associated with numerous immediate and long-term negative health outcomes, due to physiological and behavioural factors. Despite the responsibility mothers typically bear as primary caregivers to their children, little is known about how they perceive and negotiate these risks in their day-to-day lives. To better understand mothers’ perceptions and associated protective actions across socioeconomic and geographic contexts, a mixed-method approach was employed involving a quantitative telephone survey (n=606) in Peel Region and Ottawa Public Health Units and qualitative face-to-face interviews (n=15) in Ottawa. Risk perceptions were influenced by income and perceived control, and concerns ranged from chemicals in household products to outdoor air pollution. There was a commonly reported perception that mothers should automatically become more concerned and take protective actions once they have children. When financial or other barriers prevented mothers from taking direct action to reduce risks, such as switching to safer products or changing food habits, they may have relied on emotion-focused coping techniques to reduce feelings of concern, including choosing to ignore risk information. Mothers’ information sources were examined to understand how risk information is best internalized; while the most common source of environmental health risk information was the Internet, many mothers expressed their mistrust in it and would have preferred to receive information directly from healthcare providers. This research contributes to the understanding of risk perception and protective action in a largely understudied population and the findings have practical implications for risk management and communication strategies targeting pregnant women and new mothers.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.