Both England and Sweden has an aim to improving the health of those groups that are most vulnerable to ill health, and those groups in society, who are most vulnerable to ill health, are also those who face the most discrimination. The main purpose of this paper is to study how female mental health service user/survivor experiences their health. The paper is composed of two studies carried out in a city in Sweden and a city in England, UK.  Four women from Sweden participated and two from England, UK. The empiric material has been collected by semi-structured interviews and the method that has been used for analysing the material was qualitative content analysis. The result shows that almost all of the women did experience discrimination. Almost all of the women that did experience discrimination did also express that experience of discrimination also influenced their health in a negative way. However, all of the women also resisted the experience of an oppressive society and the view that they are just “victims”, by reclaiming their identity and experiencing a collective identity or a self-identity. These experiences of identity have given them a sense of wellbeing and health.

At a peripheral glance the collective action of a social movement group creates a perception of rational and homogenous internal group identity. This fa??ade has led some social movement theorists to take for granted the internal cohesiveness of the groups they are studying. Yet this emphasis on the rationality and structure of collective action over-simplifies the complex and dynamic interactions that occur in the construction of individual and collective identities. Accordingly, the constructivist New Social Movement theoretical paradigm actively eschews these misleading assumptions, instead granting primacy to the study of the reflexive, complex and dynamic interactions that occur in the construction of individual and collective identities. By employing the tools provided by New Social Movement theory my study unravels one such under-researched identity, namely the diverse and multifaceted ??eco-spiritual?? identity. The rich narratives of actors who consider themselves spiritual and are environmental activists are analysed through a case study of the Wilderness Acton Group, a collective within The Wilderness Society, Sydney. Analysis of the fieldwork data informs a theoretical and empirical understanding of social movements with regard to the negotiation and construction of political goals; trajectory and rejuvenation; individual movement motivation and participation; ongoing construction of group identity and solidarity; emotional commitment; action event selection; and group rituals, activism and practices

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:33:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2007-03-21Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:23:46Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 munhoz_gs_dr_prud.pdf: 497873 bytes, checksum: 4dc8770b310693f8fdfa8650aeaa792c (MD5) / Este é um estudo de caráter exploratório-descritivo, sobre as trajetórias vivenciadas por um grupo de egressos, ex-funcionários, do Banco do Brasil. O recorte empírico foi a cidade de Maringá (PR). Tais desligamentos foram frutos da implementação de um instrumento gerencial conhecido por Programa de Desligamento Voluntário (PDV) em julho de 1995. Buscou-se compreender o espaço anterior ao PDV, com suas implicações e imbricações incorporadas, combinando uma contextualização do avanço neoliberal, com o intuito de auxiliar no entendimento desse processo de desligamento, com as trajetórias pessoais vivenciadas por seis funcionários durante e após o processo de adesão ao referido programa. Diante disso, nossa tese se propõe a identificar e analisar o quanto à construção do novo espaço contém de negação e de continuidade em relação à atividade exercida no Banco, bem como as possíveis contradições inerentes aos mesmos, levando em conta o papel da cultura organizacional e sua ruptura, representada por seu poder e ideologia, ensejando no passado à construção de uma identidade coletiva dos funcionários do Banco do Brasil, e após a indicação dos elegíveis ao PDV, uma (des)construção desta mesma identidade. Concluímos que o desaparecimento dessa identidade coletiva afetou a auto-estima de alguns e, a outros possibilitou, após o espaço ceifado, emergir o reconstruído, evidenciando que os egressos pesquisados souberam ou aprenderam a alterar suas histórias, deixando a condição de vítimas e passando a sujeitos participantes e efetivos em um novo espaço. / This is an exploratory and descriptive study about the experience lived by a group of six former employees of the Bank of Brazil in Maringá (PR), result of the implementation of a management instrument known as Voluntary Dismissal Program (VDP) in July, 1995. This paper tried to understand the organizational space before the VDP with its implications and inter-relations, combined with the contextualization of the neoliberal advance, with the auxiliary purpose of understanding this dismissal process through the personal experiences lived by these employees during the program and after joining it. Before that, our thesis aims to identify and analyze how much negation and continuity exist in the construction of a new space in relation to the work done in the bank, as well the possible contradictions related to this space. It was taken into account the role of the organizational culture and its rupture represented by its power and ideology which, in the past, produced the construction of a collective identity of employees of the Bank of Brazil and, after the indication of the eligible ones for the VDP, produced a (dis) construction of this same identity. We conclude that the disappearance of this collective identity affected the self-esteem of some employees and allowed others to emerge the reconstructed, which shows that the former employees analyzed knew or learned how to change their histories, by giving up their conditions of victims to become participant and effective subjects in a new space. So, we tried to contribute to the comprehension of the multiple consequences lived by men and women due to the lack of a stable and formal job and maybe to stimulate managers to reflect on the pertinent actions of the space where they are, as well as to offer the geographers others visions on the space in organizations.

This dissertation explores the formation and evolution of religious identities in the latter half of the sixteenth century, particularly as they developed in the bi-confessional imperial free city of Augsburg. Taking as its primary focus the city’s evangelical ministers, it argues that the agency of these local clerics—in both promoting and resisting the social, political, and cultural effects of confessionalization—has been underappreciated. By exploring manuscript city chronicles, interrogation transcripts, contemporary public histories, and, above all, these clerics’ own written works, this dissertation will shed light on the systemic “adversarialism” of early modern confessional identities and ideologies, as well as on those local clergy who recognized the inherent danger of allowing their society to by riven by two competing identities. The proponents of “moderation” referenced in the title of this work were those clerics who tried to keep their religion nominally ambiguous, eschewing polarizing confessional identities. In contrast, the “militants” were those who reduced complex theological and liturgical systems to the level of identity-politics. They took tragedies like war, famine, and plague, and redirected blame for these tribulations on rhetorically-constructed enemies of the faith. Principally, I have elected to focus this analysis on a family of preachers whose service to the city over three generations spans a period of nearly six decades (1528-1586)—the Meckharts. Insofar as my sources allow, I use these three men—Johann, Georg, and Johann Baptist—to provide a narrative anchor for my analysis of developments within the city respecting religious culture, community, and identity. Within this one family, we see clearly the push and pull of conflict and concord as both communities and individuals struggled to reconcile the Reformation with the emergence of confessions. In short, I argue that the real drama of confessionalization was not simply that which played out between princes and theologians, or even, for that matter, between religions; rather, it lay in the daily struggle of clerics in the proverbial trenches of their ministry, who were increasingly pressured to choose for themselves and for their congregations between doctrinal purity and civil peace.

Understanding identities as socially and collectively constructed, this study aims to show how FRONTEX, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, takes part in the construction of a collective EU-identity. Through practises of bordering, differentiation, as well as the construction of the Other, FRONTEX plays an important and previously neglected role in the construction of a common EU-identity shared among the member states. By promoting theimportance of the EU’s external borders and the dangers of the outside world, FRONTEX reproduces the narrative where the EU is seen as a community of common values and ideas in need of protection.

The purpose of this study is to investigate incels as a case of a social movement. Incels stands for involuntary celibacy and describes men who consider themselves to be unattractive and live a life without sexual relations. The group is homogenous and consists of outcast men who has created their own forums on the internet. Previous research has focused a lot on studying incels misogynic views, loneliness and violence, but yet the group has not been studied as a case of a social movement. By using netnographic hidden observations on the incelforum Incels.is, this study will answer our research questions concerning how the community is constructed on Incels.is and how they describe their exclusion from the society. The study’s theoretical framework is based on Melucci’s theory of collective identity and Goffman’s theory of stigma. To study incels as a social movement, we constructed an ideal type to help us understand what aspects of what a social movement consists of to investigate how incels community is constructed.  The results shows that the incels community is constructed by using their own language and symbols, different forms of emotional investments such as empathy and compassion to support each other, and their shared beliefs of what characterize an incel where the recognition creates an opportunity for them to feel united with the group. Another explanation for incels community is that the group are in a political conflict where their common societal goal is to change the prevailing social structure. Finally, the members of Incels.is believe that society has forced them into exclusion because of not fulfilling the norms and expectations that society has. Therefore, incels has consolidate a victim role in response to the negative perception of those around them.

The modern-day phenomenon house-squatting is typically performed by social movements. Social movements can be assumed to be multifaceted and straggly. The individuals meet different needs and incentives. They find inspiration from circumstances in everyday life, as well as globally, the focus lies on information/communication rather than distribution of material resources. This thesis aims to map the individual as well as the collective attributes among the participants in the women’s house-squatting in Umeå 1983, using a theoretical framework representing social movement characteristics. The results show that the political and social aims to some extent outweighed the symbolic participation. Inspiration predominantly stems from everyday circumstances but is often related to the global ditto. Information and communication play a prominent role, although material resources should not be rejected entirely. In addition, it can be concluded that the participants show contradictory behaviors, because of the movement’s multifaceted and straggly composition.

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No description available.

Previously, social movement theory has focused on constructs of identity, such as race/ethnicity, gender and sexual preference, for collective identity construction. Prochansky (1983:59) introduces the concept of place identity, situating it along with the other components of identity, such as the ones mentioned above. In addition, literature on Appalachia has shown land to be an important construct of Appalachian peoples identity. This paper analyzes, through content analysis, the collective identities of writers who wrote letters to the U.S. Forest Service in opposition to a proposed AEP power line. This power line was to run through lands in Appalachia, such as various private properties, the Jefferson and George Washington National Forests, and across the New River. Collective identities based on place-identity, specifically including land, were the main target of analysis, due to the importance of land for Appalachian people. This analysis suggests that land, as a type of place identity, does serve as a basis for collective identity. / Master of Science