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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Belgrade. / In Serbo-Croatian (Cyrillic). Includes bibliographical references and index.

This dissertation explores connections between the labour market experiences of skilled middle-class immigrants in Canada, and their civic engagement in both sending and receiving countries. My work expands scholarship by delving into the ways that the criteria of social distinction, such as gender, race, immigrant status, and class, and the internalized roles, values, and norms passed down over generations shape citizenship practice. I argue that there is a link between inclusion and the possibilities offered through civic engagement, in that the struggle for inclusion is also a struggle for the recognition of resources that are valued as markers of valued members of society. This research engaged with a theoretical orientation that required synthesizing various forms of social structures that shape societies. Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice offered an alternative perspective on the use of assets in order to retain or improve social positioning, and the use of networks and civic engagement as a form of capital that can also serve to influence one’s place in society. Semi-structured interviews and participant observation were used to gather information regarding the experiences of skilled Jamaican immigrants involved in ethnic-based organizations that support economic, social, and infrastructural development projects in Jamaica and organizations that focus on the socio-economic well-being of the black community in Canada. This research shows that the processes of migration and (re)settlement have implications for the ways ideologies and social relations shift across space. I found that historically-shaped values, ideals, and norms associated with the development of a middle-class identity informed the ways the participants responded to barriers in the labour market, and changes in socio-economic status. Responses to changed socio-economic positioning through civic engagement were found to be based on gendered relations, the recognition and experiences of racism, and political attitude towards Jamaica, and relied on familiar strategies of the uses of social and cultural capitals to retain and/or improve their middle-class positions. This process of negotiation revealed the complex ways that middle-class(ness) is produced and reproduced across territories, and the implications for civic participation not only in Canada, but also in support of Jamaican development. / Thesis (Ph.D, Geography) -- Queen's University, 2014-01-29 20:12:27.959

Inaug.-diss.--Freiburg i. Breisgau. / Lebenslauf. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. "Literatur-Verzeichnix": p. 75.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Gerad D. Middendorf / Although rural communities have great diversity, each rural community has resources that can be invested to develop community capital resources. Every rural community not only has resources that are held by local community members, each rural community is also embedded in a larger social network that has the power to exchange resources for its own benefit. Therefore, the holders of a rural community’s resources also have the power to influence the distribution of these resources. As a way to determine who holds the community’s capital resources and begin the community development process, Flora et al. (2006) encouraged rural community development practitioners to perform an assessment of their community’s built, financial, political, social, human, cultural, and natural capitals. The case study method was utilized for the research conducted in this study because of its ability to aid in determining the success or failure of Norton County Economic Development’s Downtown Program, which focused on the revitalization of Norton County’s downtown areas. It was revealed that many of the Downtown Development programs were successfully implemented because the resources that were controlled by local and outside power structures, which also constituted the dynamic and interactive power structure within that system, were identified, mobilized, and utilized in this rural economic development program. This study contributed to sociological knowledge because it looked at the ability of dynamic and interactive power structures to control capital resources in rural community development. As well, this study extended the literature on the importance of participation, solidarity, and the exchange of resources in rural community development, and added to the research on the use of community capitals in identifying and utilizing capital resources in planning rural community development programs that are successful.

Agricultural practices play a crucial role when discussing sustainable development in the world. Organic farming is a possibility to increase the overall sustainability, because it balances the environmental, economic, social and productive spheres better than conventional farming. Thus, Germany strives to have 20 % of the agricultural land organically certified. However, with current organic farmland at 6.2 %, the goal is far from being reached and conversion rates are slowing down, whereas organic viticulture indicates more successful conversion rates. Thus, the objective of this study is to investigate which motives and barriers wine farmers in Pfalz and Rheinhessen, Germany, have to convert to organic farming. Furthermore, it is explored which role one of the world’s biggest retailers, Systembolaget, plays in the decision process to produce organically or not. The study was carried out reviewing literature and through a questionnaire and interviews with, in both cases, eight farmers from the regions of which four were certified organic and four were conventional farmers. Moreover, the five capitals framework, which attempts to assess livelihood strategies, was applied to analyze findings. Results indicate that most motives for organic farming identified in the literature could be placed in the financial, social and human capital, whereas the questionnaire and interviews found as many categories in the natural capital. Barriers to convert to organic farming were most frequent in the natural and physical capital both in the literature and the empirics. However, the findings suggest that a focus lies on the financial and human capital, in which the economic situation and the ideology of a farmer played a crucial role in the decision process. Systembolaget plays a supporting role in the conversion to organic farming, but it is not the driving factor in a conversion process. The findings indicate that policy could consider revising financial support schemes, address ideological barriers against organic farming and decide on the use of copper. Moreover, the organic label as marketing tool could be stressed and the influence of the private sector could be acknowledged in order to reach the organic farmland goal of Germany.

The processes of educational decision making and formations of identity lie at the heart of the present thesis that explores the narratives of twenty-three young people with migrant and nonmigrant background. The thesis analyzes the cases of eleven Greek and twelve migrant participants, of Albanian, Georgian, Armenian and Palestinian ethnicities attending two upper secondary Lyceums in Greece, one sub-urban Vocational and one inner-city Comprehensive located in the city of Thessaloniki. The narratives of young people are analyzed as performative acts and as social practices constructed locally and intersubjectively, rather than as expressions of their essentialist realities. The narrative analysis aims more specifically at demonstrating empirically the social conditionings of school choice and the intricate ways that decision-making is cross-cut by and implicated in the processes of identity formation and negotiation. The educational choices these young people are called to make are situated within the broader socioeconomic and discursive milieu and within the structural arrangements of the post-16 institutional landscape of Greece. The issue of youth agency as grappling against the structural limitations of a given milieu, with its cultural particularities is at the backdrop of the present qualitative study. Young people’s identities are conceptualized as being produced, negotiated and contested in a shifting context through the interactions with significant others, namely their peers, teachers and families and through the interplay of identifications, social positions, capitals, transforming individual habituses and the institutional contexts of the two schools. In more detail, the subjectively felt classed, ethnic and gendered positions are analyzed as perceived, invested and discoursively performed by the young participants. Central role is attributed to the notion of habitus as embodying the complex interweaving of dispositions, discourses, collective and individual histories. It is argued that the processes of activation and re-conversion of capitals (economic, social, cultural) in which young people engage, along with the dynamic change of habitus in the face of evolving conditions in the host country, can be a potentially useful conceptual schema for understanding the ways migrant and non-migrant young people experience and make sense of their positioning in social space. The processes of drawing distinctions between perceived others and themselves mediate the ways young people engage in the weaving of their identities through a more or less ascribed, constrained and perpetually negotiated sense of belonging. In addition analytical attention is paid to the parental engagement and in particular the resources and dispositions that young people’s families invest and transmit in relation to their schooling and their academic and occupational future. In this frame the narrated educational choices are embedded in young people’s learner identities and familial histories and are closely linked with their projections and envisioning of the future. To conclude, the decision-making dynamics emerge through a matrix weaved by differing resources, positions and dispositions that grant young people with unequal opportunities for constructing selfnarratives and engaging with school choice.

Over the past decades, coastal areas in the United States have experienced exponential increases in economic losses due to flooding, hurricanes, and tropical storms. This in part is due to increasing concentrations of human populations in high-risk coastal areas. Although significant progress has been made in developing mitigation measures to reduce losses in these areas, economic losses have continued to mount. The increase in losses has led to a significant change in hazard research by putting more emphasis on disaster resilience. While there has been a growing interest in the concept of disaster resilience, to date there is little or no empirical research that has focused on systematically measuring this concept. Therefore, the main objective of this dissertation was to develop a theoretically-driven index that can be used to measure disaster resilience in coastal communities. This dissertation argues that a comprehensive measure of disaster resilience should address issues of relevance to all phases of disaster: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Furthermore, a fruitful approach to measure disaster resilience is to assess various forms of capital: social, economic, physical, and human. These capitals are important resources for communities to successfully perform disaster phases' activities. A conceptual model based on disaster phases' activities and community capitals was developed in which indicators for measuring disaster resilience were identified. The model was utilized by first identifying activities relevant to each disaster phase and then specifically identifying indicators from each form of capital that might be important for carrying out those activities. The selected indicators were aggregated and a composite index score was calculated using average method which is based on equal weighting. The reliability and validity of the index were assessed using Cronbach's alpha, regression analysis, and GIS techniques. The results provided convincing empirical evidence that the index is a valid and reliable measure. The application of the measure indicated that disaster resilience is an important predictor of flood property damage and flood related deaths in the U.S. Gulf coast region. Also, the findings indicated that Florida counties are the most resilient whereas counties along the Texas-Mexico border region are the least resilient.

Zugl.: Berlin, Freie Univ., Diss., 2006