To belong somewhere is a basic human need. It is necessary for the psychological well-being of children to feel that they belong to a family, group and community and that they are loved and appreciated for who they are. A lack of a sense of belonging may cause children to find acceptance and belonging in destructive behaviour or groups. Children from fractured families who live in disadvantaged communities face more challenges than children who have easy access to education, health services and emotional support systems. Caregivers in these circumstances have a daily battle to survive and to keep their children safe. They do not always have the necessary knowledge to be aware of the children’s emotional needs, or the ability and means to fulfil in these needs. Social workers who render services to these families do not always have the time or aids to assist the children to enhance their sense of belonging or to enable the caregivers to strengthen the bond between them and the children. The overall goal of this study was to determine how bibliotherapeutic techniques can be utilised by caregivers and social workers to enhance a sense of belonging in children in their middle childhood years from fractured families in disadvantaged communities. In order to reach this goal, the way in which children from fractured families in disadvantaged communities experienced their sense of belonging was explored, as well as how the children, their caregivers and social workers perceived the social capital in the community. The content of a strategy that focuses on the uses of bibliotherapeutic techniques for children in fractured families from disadvantaged communities in order to enhance their sense of belonging was also determined, as well as ways in which such a strategy could be implemented by the social workers and the caregivers. The research findings suggested that children did not always have a sense of belonging with their primary caregivers and that the caregivers were unaware of the emotional needs of the children. The children expressed a need for playful interactions, nurturing and to listen to stories with their caregivers. Due to the caregivers’ lack of insight in the emotional needs of the children and illiteracy in some cases, a training programme that focussed on the importance of a sense of belonging and practical ways in which they can interact with the children to strengthen the emotional bond between them, was created and tested. The caregivers and children were able to identify schools, neighbours and churches as potential social capital in the community. Ways in which the social capital in the community could be utilised were suggested. Bibliotherapeutic techniques for the use of social workers to enhance a sense of belonging in the children were compiled and then tested by social workers. Both the training program and the bibliotherapeutic techniques proved to be useful and effective and will be disseminated for the use of social workers in their services with children and caregivers in disadvantaged communities. / Thesis (PhD (Social Work))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

The social displacement enforced by the South African Group Areas Act between 1954 and 1955 was understandably experienced as a destructive process with physical and emotional consequences arising from various types of losses, separation and feelings of helplessness. Although the forced removals affected all the people in the community - also in later years and generations, it seems as if older people are affected the more as they still remember the losses they experienced when they were removed from their homes and their communities, when their heritage and their culture were displaced. The sense of belonging being experienced by older people, who were subjected to these forceful removals, is therefore unclear. In this study the sense of belonging is defined as the effective participation, involvement, contribution and emersion of people when relating to their social, physical, spiritual, emotional and cultural places. In this study older (aged 60 and above) Setswana speaking residents of Ikageng, a community just outside Potchefstroom in the North West Province, South Africa, who were also forcibly relocated from Kloppersville to Ikageng, 10 kilometers away from Kloppersville, were asked to identify places that are important to them in Ikageng and to describe the meanings they attach to these places. In the research, no one identified any places of importance in Ikageng, instead throughout the research they kept on referring to their lives in Kloppersville, their former place of residence, the place where they were forcibly removed from – giving purpose and direction to this study and leading to the question: What are the experiences related to the sense of belonging of Setswana speaking older women who were forcibly relocated during Apartheid in South Africa? The older persons’ experiences of their sense of belonging in the place where they were forcibly relocated to must be understood in relation to the past. A qualitative research approach was used and a narrative research design followed. Two sets of data were gathered and are reported on in this article that focuses on the narrations of 11 older Tswana people from the Day Care Centre for the Aged in Ikageng. Narrative data collection and analysis, as well as a variety of qualitative research methods and media, were used to collect data. These include: focus group discussions, the Mmogo– MethodTM, videos, audio, photographs and observational notes. The thematic analysis of textual data, narrative–oriented inquiry as well as visual data, established trustworthiness of this research through crystallization. By drawing on the deeper symbolic meaning derived through the use of the MmogomethodTM, the study has revealed that the sense of belonging is a relational phenomenon that cannot be understood in absence of the different relational environments. In an African culture the relationship with the current environment resonates with the effects that historical processes, structural abuses, discrimination, racism and devaluation had on individuals whose lives have been uprooted. This study has shown that the older women have a micro–organic relational sense of belonging to the place of relocation and not to the whole context and other relational environments and that they revealed more sense of belonging towards the place where they were relocated from. / Thesis (M.A. (Research Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Student engagement research includes student success, grade point average, persistence, recruitment, retention, and belonging (Bean, 1980; Becker, Cooper, Atkins, & Martin, 2009; Willms, 2003). Campus recreation research explores benefits, involvement, satisfaction, participation, and community (Astin, 1984; Barcelona & Ross, 2002; Dalgarn, 2001; Kovac & Beck, 1997; Tsigilis, 2009). Research considering the relationship between student engagement and campus recreation is limited. The purpose of this research was to consider the role(s) of campus recreation participation in undergraduate student engagement at a post-secondary commuter campus. A case study approach using initial exploratory interviews and follow-up focus groups explored campus recreation participation in terms of social, academic, and intellectual engagement. Participants were current full-time undergraduate students, 18-24 years old and had participated in a campus recreation activity within the past four months. Findings provided guidance for enhancing student engagement through campus recreation and contributed to and connected the existing knowledge bases of campus recreation and student engagement.

The social displacement enforced by the South African Group Areas Act between 1954 and 1955 was understandably experienced as a destructive process with physical and emotional consequences arising from various types of losses, separation and feelings of helplessness. Although the forced removals affected all the people in the community - also in later years and generations, it seems as if older people are affected the more as they still remember the losses they experienced when they were removed from their homes and their communities, when their heritage and their culture were displaced. The sense of belonging being experienced by older people, who were subjected to these forceful removals, is therefore unclear. In this study the sense of belonging is defined as the effective participation, involvement, contribution and emersion of people when relating to their social, physical, spiritual, emotional and cultural places. In this study older (aged 60 and above) Setswana speaking residents of Ikageng, a community just outside Potchefstroom in the North West Province, South Africa, who were also forcibly relocated from Kloppersville to Ikageng, 10 kilometers away from Kloppersville, were asked to identify places that are important to them in Ikageng and to describe the meanings they attach to these places. In the research, no one identified any places of importance in Ikageng, instead throughout the research they kept on referring to their lives in Kloppersville, their former place of residence, the place where they were forcibly removed from – giving purpose and direction to this study and leading to the question: What are the experiences related to the sense of belonging of Setswana speaking older women who were forcibly relocated during Apartheid in South Africa? The older persons’ experiences of their sense of belonging in the place where they were forcibly relocated to must be understood in relation to the past. A qualitative research approach was used and a narrative research design followed. Two sets of data were gathered and are reported on in this article that focuses on the narrations of 11 older Tswana people from the Day Care Centre for the Aged in Ikageng. Narrative data collection and analysis, as well as a variety of qualitative research methods and media, were used to collect data. These include: focus group discussions, the Mmogo– MethodTM, videos, audio, photographs and observational notes. The thematic analysis of textual data, narrative–oriented inquiry as well as visual data, established trustworthiness of this research through crystallization. By drawing on the deeper symbolic meaning derived through the use of the MmogomethodTM, the study has revealed that the sense of belonging is a relational phenomenon that cannot be understood in absence of the different relational environments. In an African culture the relationship with the current environment resonates with the effects that historical processes, structural abuses, discrimination, racism and devaluation had on individuals whose lives have been uprooted. This study has shown that the older women have a micro–organic relational sense of belonging to the place of relocation and not to the whole context and other relational environments and that they revealed more sense of belonging towards the place where they were relocated from. / Thesis (M.A. (Research Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Risky social situations afford the chance to obtain social rewards like acceptance and belonging but also afford the chance of suffering social costs like rejection and social pain. Extant research indicates that social risk triggers approach motivations in higher self-esteem individuals (HSEs) but produces avoidance motivations in lower self-esteem individuals (LSEs; e.g., Stinson et al., 2010). However, no research has investigated the mechanisms that explain this effect: Why does social risk polarize HSEs’ and LSEs’ social motivations? I propose that self-esteem and social risk interact to activate two primal regulatory systems: the challenge-threat evaluation system and the Behavioral Activation-Inhibition Systems. I test this hypothesis by examining whether self-esteem and social risk interact to predict physiological responses consistent with these primal regulatory systems. Participants experienced either a low or high risk social situation, and heart rate reactivity was measured throughout the studies. Across two experiments, for HSEs (i.e., participants scoring one standard deviation above the sample mean), higher social risk increased heart rate reactivity, suggesting activation of challenge appraisals and the behavior activation system. For LSEs (i.e., participants scoring one standard deviation below the sample mean), higher social risk decreased heart rate reactivity, suggesting activation of threat appraisals and the behavior inhibition system. My research provides evidence that the social regulatory function of self-esteem may have developed from more primal regulatory systems, an observation that increases the comprehensiveness of current self-esteem theories. / Graduate / 0451 / 0989 / 0621 / huange@uvic.ca

The project Roots and Routes is an intergenerational narrative connecting three locations: London, Mandeville and Stockholm, focusing primarily on the histories of women and non-binary people. It looks at what affect it has on our sense of cultural identity to grow up in the diaspora, disconnected from the country of our parents or grandparents. Roots and Routes presents the search for a sense of belonging, whilst existing in the in-between. This report explores the different elements of the project, through text and image.

Esta Dissertação tem como objetivo discutir as diversas tramas narrativas pelas quais jovens ditos punks narram si mesmos, narram os outros e como são narrados em diversos espaços sociais de Porto Alegre. Tais sujeitos se encontram em espaços públicos da cidade, partilhando e atribuindo significados às suas práticas, através de vestimentas, músicas, bandas e diversos materiais que produzem por e para jovens punks de diversos lugares do mundo. Esses materiais, bem como as histórias contadas por alguns desses jovens, evidenciam diferentes posições de sujeito que ocupam, a partir dos lugares e dos papéis sociais que assumem. Os caminhos teóricometodológicos para esse estudo foram calcados no campo teórico dos Estudos Culturais e na etnografia pós-moderna, tendo nos diários de campo sua base para a construção de dados, além de conversas transcritas, textos de fanzines e imagens. Nas análises, focalizei os modos como tais jovens são representados nas narrativas de si mesmos e dos ‘outros’ acerca do ser/estar punk em Porto Alegre hoje, ano de 2006. Analisei também os pertencimentos dos jovens ao movimento punk, através dos processos de identificação pelos quais constituem suas identidades. Observou-se que através das práticas culturais específicas da cultura punk os jovens com os quais estive em contato se constituem como sujeitos, pertencendo ao grupo. A idéia de que é possível revolucionar o mundo a partir de transgressões às ‘ordens’ sociais pode ser entendida como uma oferta identitária para esses jovens. Observaram-se ainda diversos modos de ser/estar punk hoje em Porto Alegre, os quais são produzidos por um estado da cultura chamado de condição pós-moderna. / This dissertation aims to discuss narrative plots, which young people use to narrate themselves, narrate the others and how they are narrated in many different social places in Porto Alegre. These characters are found in public places of the city, sharing and giving sense to their practices, through feelings, songs, bands and various materials that they produce to and for young punks from lots of places in the world. These materials, as also the stories told by some of these young people, make evident different roles that they play as character, from the places and social roles they are part in. The theoric-methodological ways to this study were based on theoric field of Cultural Studies and in postmodern ethnography. It also had in dailies of field its base to data construction, besides transcript chats, passages of fãzines and images. In the analysis, I focused the way as these young people are represented in narratives about themselves and about “the others” concerning to to/be punk in Porto Alegre today, in 2006. I also made an analysis about belonging of young people who make part in punk moviment, through process of identification they use to create their identities. We could observe that young people with whom I made contact can make themselves being characters, belonging to the group, through specific cultural practices of punk culture. The idea about the possibility of revolutionizing the world from transgressions to social orders can be understood as a way of having identity. Still, several ways of to/be nowadays in Porto Alegre, which are producted by a state of culture called postmodern condition, were observed.

Esta Dissertação tem como objetivo discutir as diversas tramas narrativas pelas quais jovens ditos punks narram si mesmos, narram os outros e como são narrados em diversos espaços sociais de Porto Alegre. Tais sujeitos se encontram em espaços públicos da cidade, partilhando e atribuindo significados às suas práticas, através de vestimentas, músicas, bandas e diversos materiais que produzem por e para jovens punks de diversos lugares do mundo. Esses materiais, bem como as histórias contadas por alguns desses jovens, evidenciam diferentes posições de sujeito que ocupam, a partir dos lugares e dos papéis sociais que assumem. Os caminhos teóricometodológicos para esse estudo foram calcados no campo teórico dos Estudos Culturais e na etnografia pós-moderna, tendo nos diários de campo sua base para a construção de dados, além de conversas transcritas, textos de fanzines e imagens. Nas análises, focalizei os modos como tais jovens são representados nas narrativas de si mesmos e dos ‘outros’ acerca do ser/estar punk em Porto Alegre hoje, ano de 2006. Analisei também os pertencimentos dos jovens ao movimento punk, através dos processos de identificação pelos quais constituem suas identidades. Observou-se que através das práticas culturais específicas da cultura punk os jovens com os quais estive em contato se constituem como sujeitos, pertencendo ao grupo. A idéia de que é possível revolucionar o mundo a partir de transgressões às ‘ordens’ sociais pode ser entendida como uma oferta identitária para esses jovens. Observaram-se ainda diversos modos de ser/estar punk hoje em Porto Alegre, os quais são produzidos por um estado da cultura chamado de condição pós-moderna. / This dissertation aims to discuss narrative plots, which young people use to narrate themselves, narrate the others and how they are narrated in many different social places in Porto Alegre. These characters are found in public places of the city, sharing and giving sense to their practices, through feelings, songs, bands and various materials that they produce to and for young punks from lots of places in the world. These materials, as also the stories told by some of these young people, make evident different roles that they play as character, from the places and social roles they are part in. The theoric-methodological ways to this study were based on theoric field of Cultural Studies and in postmodern ethnography. It also had in dailies of field its base to data construction, besides transcript chats, passages of fãzines and images. In the analysis, I focused the way as these young people are represented in narratives about themselves and about “the others” concerning to to/be punk in Porto Alegre today, in 2006. I also made an analysis about belonging of young people who make part in punk moviment, through process of identification they use to create their identities. We could observe that young people with whom I made contact can make themselves being characters, belonging to the group, through specific cultural practices of punk culture. The idea about the possibility of revolutionizing the world from transgressions to social orders can be understood as a way of having identity. Still, several ways of to/be nowadays in Porto Alegre, which are producted by a state of culture called postmodern condition, were observed.

O objetivo desta dissertação é analisar o romance Brick Lane (2003), da escritora Monica Ali, focalizando o processo de empoderamento da protagonista Nazneen. Usando os conceitos de lugar e não-lugar propostos por Marc Augé, pretendo examinar passagens do romance que caracterizem a sensação de não-pertencimento vivida pela personagem. Nazneen recorre às memórias de sua infância com a irmã Hasina em Bangladesh para tentar se distanciar do espaço físico de Brick Lane (a comunidade onde reside em Londres), que se constitui em um não-lugar, pois ali não é possível reconstruir sua identidade fragmentada pelo deslocamento de uma cultura para outra. Considerando aspectos históricos e culturais de Bangladesh, terra natal de Nazneen, este trabalho pretende discutir as experiências da protagonista e de outros sujeitos diaspóricos do romance, além de analisar o papel crucial que Hasina (e suas cartas) desempenham na narrativa. O atual contexto multicultural e cosmopolita da cidade de Londres também será investigado, com a discussão de situações que afetam os imigrantes e suas representações no romance. Esta dissertação também considera o caráter gendrado dos movimentos migratórios contemporâneos que possibilitam novas perspectivas acerca das consequências da diáspora. A análise de passagens selecionadas do romance ratifica o processo gradual de autonomia de Nazneen que, por fim, consegue se sentir em casa novamente / The objective of this dissertation is to analyze the novel Brick Lane (2003), by Monica Ali, focusing on the process of empowerment of the protagonist Nazneen. By making use of the concepts of place and non-place proposed by Marc Augé, I intend to examine passages from the novel that characterize the feeling of not-belonging experienced by the character. Nazneen resorts to the memories of her childhood with her sister Hasina in Bangladesh in order to escape the physical space of Brick Lane, which is a non-place for Nazneen, who is unable to reconstruct her identity fragmented in the process of dislocation from one culture to another. Considering the historical and cultural aspects of Bangladesh, Nazneens homeland, this work intends to discuss the experiences of the protagonist and other diasporic subjects in the novel as well as to analyze the crucial role played by Hasina (and her letters) in the narrative. The present multicultural and cosmopolitan context of London will also be investigated, with a discussion of real situations affecting immigrants and their representations in the novel. This dissertation also considers the gendered nature of contemporary migratory movements which offer new perspectives on the consequences of diaspora. I will also analyze selected passages from the novel that highlight the gradual process of autonomy experienced by Nazneen who, eventually, feels at home again

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T13:27:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 2422657 bytes, checksum: 5d16fe4fa707c8e9ef032e5544d3f7c1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-05-25 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This paper will discuss the Community Sweet Mother of God as a part of this particular phenomenon in Contemporary Catholicism, called the New Communities or Communities of Life and Alliance (CVA), whose objective is to analyze how the belong is constructed and /or reconstructed from the perception of the main forms of sociability developed in the community, and how members interpret the experience of the community approach. For this, we intend to discuss how the Communities of Life and Alliance, are presented as a proposal for the development of a religious life that is able to contribute to the maintenance and strengthening of religious belonging within Catholicism, with the context of modernity. / Este trabalho pretende discutir a Comunidade Doce Mãe de Deus como parte de um fenômeno particular presente no catolicismo Contemporâneo, denominado de Novas Comunidades ou Comunidades de Vida e Aliança (CVA), no qual se objetiva analisar como a pertença é construída e/ou reconstruída, a partir da percepção das principais formas de sociabilidade desenvolvidas na comunidade, e como os membros interpretam a vivência da lógica comunitária. Para isso, pretendemos discutir como as Comunidades de Vida e Aliança, apresentam-se enquanto proposta para o desenvolvimento de uma vida religiosa que seja capaz de contribuir para a manutenção e fortalecimento do pertencimento religioso dentro do catolicismo, tendo como contexto a modernidade.