Drawing on a critical realist approach and especially Derek Layder’s ‘Domain Theory’ (Layder 1997; 2006) this thesis explores the richness and complexity of young people’s social capital. The study used a mixed methods design which incorporated sequential and concurrent data collection and analysis comprising 16 in-depth interviews, 17 discussion groups and a survey questionnaire (n=500). Twenty one organisations participated in this study, accessed through youth groups, the youth justice system, one school and one college from the Midlands area, in the 13-19 age range. The total sample using all research methods was 574 young people. Young people’s maintenance and enhancement of social capital is seen as a process which has to be negotiated in a continuous interaction between self, situated activity, social settings and contexts. Within this, critical creative agency, a positive outlook on life and being able to make the leap of trust become agentic mediating factors which help young people to navigate life situations and take the necessary risks to develop a more dynamic social capital. The study challenges some common discourses on diversity, especially those referring to bonding and bridging social capital (Putnam 2000). Contexts of privilege but also of gender and ethnicity are important mechanisms that have a strong impact on the access to social capital resources and points towards the resiliency young people are able to build. Policy and practice need to build on the situated activity of young people and not erode it. Enhancing young people’s existing social capital is achieved by building on their existing resourcefulness, strengthening their existing support networks, opening up new horizons and creating access to new resources within a strength perspective. Institutions need to enhance resiliency and positive risk taking, nurture trusting relationships with significant others and enhance young people’s outlook on life.

This thesis explores the lives of a group of fifteen exceptional women who were dedicated to the cause of advancing girls and women in sport and physical activity. Over several decades, they worked in a voluntary capacity to transform women in sport through practice and policy development. Moreover, they aligned such unpaid work with personal and local experiences of volunteering that eventually led to their participation in international sport circles and policies. The key settings for their voluntary service came from their roles in the emergence and maintenance of two international women‘s sport organisations – International Association of Physical Education and Sport for Girls and Women (IAPESGW) and WomenSport International (WSI). In addition, their voluntary roles were so substantial that they were inextricably interwoven within all aspects of their lives. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to explore the participants‘ relationships with sport volunteering, in the particular settings of IAPESGW and WSI, whilst analysing the role of volunteering in their lives. The study utilised a holistic framework to gain an in-depth understanding about the women‘s commitment to the cause and how volunteering fits into their lifestyle. As there were no models from the sport volunteering field that were appropriate for this study, the research drew upon and developed Hustinx and Lammertyn‘s (2003) non-sport model called the Collective and Reflexive Styles of Volunteering (SOV). The SOV was valuable because it offered a multi-dimensional approach to explain how, why, and when the participants got involved with advancing women‘s sport and physical activity, and how their involvement related to and influenced their wider lifestyles. A critical realist and social constructionist philosophy was employed to have a greater understanding of the women‘s realities, and life history interviews were conducted to gain a greater understanding about how they constructed their knowledge about themselves, sport, and the world around them. The study illustrated the complexity of the women‘s volunteer participation. The findings suggested that their sport passion and identity guided many of their actions and activities throughout their life, such as choices for higher education and within professional work. In addition, the findings showed that it was their personal experiences and gained knowledge about gender disadvantages in sport that initially stimulated and then repeatedly reinforced their interests and commitment. Although these had strong impacts on the women‘s entrance into and commitment to the cause, the findings highlighted that the women had to identify the conditions of their relationships, family, and types of paid work to be compatible with levels of volunteering. The study concluded that sport researchers can benefit from examining volunteers from a holistic perspective to gain a better understanding of the conditions under which individuals make such an extreme, voluntary contribution to sport.

Despite a plethora of empirical evidence on the work-family interface in 'the West', very little research has been carried out on the experiences of women in the context of Pakistan. Gender inequalities persist in the Pakistani labour market and women's employment is skewed towards agriculture and 'respectable' professions, such as academia and medicine. However, following the privatisation of the banking industry, women have been gaining visibility in this profession despite societal pressures to either conform to the homemaker role or remain in 'women's work'. What makes the Pakistani context unique is the interplay between gender, culture, religion, class and family structure. This affects reconciliation of work and family roles among working women. This thesis contributes to an understanding of the experiences of working women in a gendered, patriarchal, Muslim society. It offers an indigenous conceptualisation of the contours, causes, consequences and coping strategies (Four C's) of work-family conflict (WFC) among women working in Pakistani banks through a multi-layered, feminist, intersectional approach that gives voice to women. The study foregrounds women's experiences at the individual-level; however, it also considers the broader structures such as the extended family system, the male-dominated banking industry and the contradiction of Islamic teachings with the societal norms regarding women's paid employment. Consequently, the conceptual model of Four C's of WFC offers a systematic and coherent categorisation of the causes, consequences and coping strategies of WFC in a context-sensitive, multi-level, intersectional, feminist approach framework. Such indigenous manifestations of WFC in the Pakistani context can inform research in similar contexts. Based on a mixed method approach the fieldwork collected empirical evidence through 280 scoping questionnaires and 47 in-depth, semi-structured, face-to-face interviews in four different banks in Punjab province of Pakistan. The study reveals the most extreme, yet masked, forms of oppression and the subtleties of agency in the context of religious, patriarchal and cultural understandings of 'work' that also impact the salience of other social categories, e.g. class and family structure. In the main, the findings suggest a gendered culture of silence in Pakistan in which women working in Pakistani banks lack opportunities to vocalise their subjugated positions in the work and family spheres. More specifically, the thesis points to the fact that these women are subject to, sometimes conflicting, organisational and societal pressures to conform to the respective images of 'ideal worker' and 'good woman' simultaneously. This, of course, has implications for the intensity. In doing so the study extends the existing WFC theoretical framework to include and consider not just the Four C's of WFC but the intensity, duration and types experienced by women in particular contexts. However, the research also revealed that women in Pakistani banks are not passive victims, but active agents, making context dependent constrained choices to prevent or cope with WFC. For policymakers, the findings suggest the need for the formulation of context-specific initiatives to address work-family issues in patriarchal Muslim societies.

Aim: The aim was to examine waiting times for cataract extraction in Sweden from an intersectional gender perspective; quantitative with regard to waiting times for different patient groups, and qualitative in order to identify factors that might contribute to gender differences in waiting time. Furthermore, the aim was to examine implications of critical realism and situated knowledges for studies of gender differences among patients regarding access to cataract extraction and more generally as grounds for studies of (in)equity in care.   Methods: Studies I and II were register studies, and linear regression was performed in Study I and logistic regression in Study II. Mean waiting times for female and male patients were calculated in both studies. In Study III, focus group interviews were conducted at two eye clinics with differences in gender-related waiting times. The analysis method used was constructivist grounded theory, and text analyses were performed in Study IV.   Main findings: Longer waiting times were associated with patients who were female, retired, of higher age, born outside the Nordic countries, having lower income, lacking education at university level and not being categorized by means of NIKE. Female patients had longer waiting time in all categories. The following factors might contribute to why female patients have longer waiting times: Traditional male occupations were constructed as being more demanding for visual acuity, while the need for good visual acuity in women’s work life was questioned; Assertive behaviour among men was explained in legitimizing ways; Behaviour among men with poor vision was constructed as safety risks in relation to driving and hunting. Concerning meta-theoretical aspects, both critical realism and situated knowledges can be fruitful for studies of (in)equity in care but are to some degree incompatible with each other.   Conclusions: Differences in waiting times at eye clinics can be related to gender constructions. The prevailing pattern of female cataract patients systematically having longer waiting time than male patients that emerges in this thesis is noteworthy in relation to the principle of equity in care. Furthermore, it is noteworthy that waiting times were related to age, retirement, and native country as well as income and education levels.

While globalisation is a multidimensional phenomenon, present educational foci tend to lie not on preparing students for a complex, globalised 21stcentury, but on preparing students for a 21st-century economic globalisation. In order to advocate a change of consciousness, this present study examines the concept of human flourishing and the skills – referred to as cosmopolitan soft skills – fostering the phenomenon. Taking a critical realist approach, a theoretical and an empirical investigation was carried out. The theoretical analysis undertaken by the study identified flourishing to be a three-dimensional concept and established that flourishing cannot be fully realised unless an individual is flourishing both from a positive-psychological, a moral-political, and a moral-ethical perspective. The empirical, comparative analysis of school policy documents and interviews with school principals, on the other hand, eventuated a comprehensive list of skills and competences that contemporary educational institutions aim at equipping their students with for the sake of flourishing. By an interplay between theory and empirical data, the study resulted in a possible conceptualisation of cosmopolitan soft skills, consisting of the four core skills of attention, acceptance, respect, and responsibility, and 78 other skills organised into four main categories. Provided the critical realist stance taken, the results are believed to be of a flexible and ever-changing but universal nature that facilitate future research into the educability of the cosmopolitan soft skills concept and the empirical realisation of human flourishing.

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo investigar a presença de Glauco Rodrigues no sistema da arte no Brasil, os diferentes tempos e espaços em que suas obras se articulam, seus percursos de afirmação e legitimação através das apropriações por colecionadores, curadores e instituições. Partimos de uma recuperação biográfica e histórica da produção do artista para compreender sua atuação no circuito local e repercussão internacional. Em seus deslocamentos temporais e conceituais o artista transitou entre a figuração, o realismo socialista, o abstracionismo, a pop art e o tropicalismo. Na análise desses momentos destacam-se seus conhecimentos e conexões com os artistas de sua época. Propomo-nos identificar as narrativas de sua trajetória e costurar seus acervos, articulando-as aos discursos históricos e pensar as teorias da arte que se revelam a partir da obra do artista. / This dissertation aims to investigate the presence of Glauco Rodrigues' work in the Brazilian art system, the different times and spaces in which his works were articulated, the paths of affirmation and legitimation experienced by his oeuvre after appropriations made by collectors, curators and institutions. The analysis brings a biographical and historical review of the artist's production pursuing to place his performance in a local circuit and it's international overcome. Through his temporal and conceptual displacements, the artist moved between figuration, socialist realism, abstractionism, pop art and tropicalism. From the analysis of the different stages of his work stands out the knowledge he gained and connections built with the artists of each time. The proposal of the text is to identify and bring together narratives and collections, articulating historical discourses and theories of art that are revealed from the body of work of Glauco Rodrigues.

The purpose of this research is to critically inquire into the appropriateness of the current human computer interaction (HCI) practices in Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) system design given the contextual constraints and challenges found in developing country contexts. Despite user participation in system design being a buzzword of HCI the form of this participation varies with the different disciplinary perspectives and paradigms and their different methods for engaging users and identifying users' needs. Moreover, a majority of these dominant HCI perspectives are not only rooted in the developed countries context they also mainly focus on organisational management information systems (MIS) and less on information systems (IS) that place emphasis on the socio-economic context of developing countries. Literature review reveal that limited studies focus on the differences brought about by the western influenced methodologies and principles when applied in different contexts and how they affect the user participation process as well as the outcome. Building on past research, this research argues that HCI for ICTD needs to develop new contextualised participatory methods and strategies that consider the broader and complex contexts of the ICTD users. However, shifting the focus to localised forms of HCI in ICTD system design requires a better appreciation of the challenges and constraints encountered when applying the traditional HCI methods and strategies. Based on this argument the research conceptually explores and reflects on the underlying contextual factors and mechanisms present in participatory ICTD system design and the presumed relationships among them. Drawing on this conceptual framework, the research conducts semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and participant observations with three mobile money system design projects in Kenya that engaged the users during the design process to highlight how current HCI practices respond to the multifaceted nature of ICTD system design which present challenges that include social, technical, cultural and infrastructural issues. Findings from this qualitative study provide significant new insights that support the call for contextualised participatory methods and strategies. The findings suggest that there is tension between the underlying assumptions inherent in western HCI methods and strategies and the local context thus justifying the call for the appropriation of the design process. Drawing on the conceptual framework it was found that bias formed from factors such as power relations, diversity in interests for participation and cross-cultural differences moderate the design process and ultimately the participatory outcome. From the knowledge perspective, this research provides an in-depth understanding of the developing country contextual factors that mediate user participation process in ICTD system design. Furthermore, the research extends the knowledge with regards to participatory interventions in the development of IS in Africa. The research also presents a theoretical framework that makes explicit the contextual assumptions and constraints embedded in participatory ICTD system design interventions and how they shape the design process and the participatory outcome. Finally, the recommendations formulated from this research provide HCI designers and practitioners actionable knowledge in regards to reflecting on their current traditional HCI tools and techniques to ensure better localised design processes.

Sociological explanations for human conduct usually place major ontological and epistemological emphasis upon either discursive or material relations without ever establishing or adequately specifying the validity of this dichotomy. Early texts by the Critical Realist philosopher Roy Bhaskar address this forced separation by creating an integrated ontological and epistemological field that provides a more detailed and precise theoretical ordering to agents, objects, and entities. Undertaking a developmental critique of Bhaskar’s arguments, this thesis extends Critical Realism’s role as theoretical ‘underlabourer’ and creates an expanded theoretical framework that balances discursive and material accounts. Utilising the sophisticated analyses of the structure and operation of discourses found in the work of Michel Foucault alongside the innovative arguments for aleatory materialism developed by Louis Althusser, a critique is established that shows discursive, material, and social relations to be complex, immanent, and, importantly, mutually constitutive. In each theory three core concepts of events, emergence, and the extra-discursive are shown to not only be present but also to operate as the main means of explaining social change. The result of integrating Critical Realism, Foucault, and Althusser in this sympathetic but non-syncretic form is the generation of a non-reductionist materialism combined with discursive relations. On this basis, social change is shown to be the result of restructured discursive and material relations of which human agents are only one part. The thesis provides an illustration of the theoretical argument with an empirical component which examines the formation and decline of the British nuclear industry between its inception in the early 1950s to the year 2000. The conclusion is that the form taken by nuclear energy is not entirely determined by any single one of political, economic, or scientific forces but is, instead, the product of multiple and complex interactions of immanent discursive and material relations that are, importantly, mutually reinforcing. / Thesis (Ph.D, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2012-09-27 12:38:25.909

The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of the social field as described by Pierre Bourdieu as well as to explore the possibility of creating a more focused and tailored set of conditions in the form of a model to repurpose the field theory to more clearly be applicable to bilateral negotiations. The methodological approach is conceptual analysis based on the epistemology of critical realism. The supporting theories for the approach are a combination of systemic, chaos and complexity theory while the fundaments for the implementation of the methodological approach are the four main concepts in Bourdieu’s theory of the social field:  the field, habitus, illusio and symbolic capital. One of the main points of repurposing this specific dynamic is to explicitly allow for deliberate human agency within the field. Analytical data consists purely of the secondary type. This essay is not empirically based but rather theoretical and abstract. The paper is founded on the basic principles of macrosociology and presumes social agency where appropriate. This paper focuses on creating a tentative framework model based on repurposed concepts derived from Bourdieu. The results are arguably interesting but are mostly limited to affecting further development of this tentative model and prefacing application of it through attempting to implement it in an analytical manner on empirical data.

This thesis describes the theology and praxis of philosopher/theologian Dr. Dallas Willard and its effect on contemporary forms of evangelicalism in America. Willard’s works have become increasingly attractive to emerging generations of Christians protesting the perceived excesses and hegemony of mainstream evangelical culture. Willard presents a positive alternative to contemporary versions of evangelicalism seen by many as increasingly devoted to soteriological escapism, modern consumerism, individualism and sectarianism. Alternatively, Willard proposes a return to the original (proto) message of good news (evangel) articulated by Jesus in the New Testament. For increasing numbers of disaffected evangelicals with postmodern sensibilities, this protoevangelical vision offers a more robust doctrine of God, a return to the primacy of discipleship to Christ, and the experience of a holistic and integrated life in the Kingdom of God. Ethnographies of four evangelical organizations applying Willardian theology provide insight into the current evolution within American evangelical theology and praxis.