This research is focused on a group of vegan and vegan-curious individuals who are creating, building and maintaining a vegan community of practice in Houston, Texas. Through ethnographic methods, including participant observation, in-depth semi-structured interviews, surveys, quantitative analysis, and use of geographic information systems (GIS), this thesis considers motivations, group hierarchies, core and peripheral membership, practices, beliefs and construction of identity within the vegan community of practice. Further, concepts from the anthropology of religion are utilized in discourse analysis around conversion to ethical veganism, preaching, and religious-ethical beliefs around enlightenment and the principle of ahimsa. Utilizing subcultural studies and social movement theory, this thesis also shows how the vegan community of practice fits into vegan subcultures and the greater vegan lifestyle movement. Finally, as an applied project, deliverables to the client Vegan Society of PEACE includes both personal and structural barriers to veganism which are understood with respect to a race-conscious approach to veganism, and with special consideration given to the capitalist commodification of animals. Suggestions are given and strategies for growth of the community are highlighted at the end of this paper.

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The aim of this study is to explore and understand the motivations for belonging to the Facebook community ‘Living Off-Grid in Spain’ and how collaborative media is used for facilitating off-grid living and societal change. Two main theoretical frameworks are used for analyzing the empirical material of this study. The Uses & Gratifications (U&G) theory is applied to identify the uses and motivations for belonging to the community. And the concept of Community of Practice (CoP) is applied for understanding in what ways the community members use collaborative media to support each other in the practice of planning and executing sustainable off-grid living. The methodological approach contains a voluntary sampling of the population and a mixed-strategy survey for collecting both quantitative and qualitative data about the members and their engagement in the community. The study shows that a new U&G typology is needed for defining the motivations for participating in online communities where collaborative learning is a centerpiece. Additional uses such as Learning, Problem-solving, Inspiration, and Mentoring are proposed for further media studies in this field. And the characteristics of CoP serve to identify the importance that shared practices and mutual engagement have for the success of continuous knowledge exchange in online communities, a field that also would gain value from further media studies.

Studien har som ambition att studera hur tjejer skapar femininitet och således tar plats på en ungdomsgård belägen i en multietnisk stadsdel i Stockholm. Studiens metod består av deltagande observation av en grupp på åtta tjejer som besökte ungdomsgården dagligen. Resultatet indelas i tre teman, Systerskap, Ungdomsgården är hemma och Femininitetskapande som beskriver tjejernas relationer till varandra, andra ungdomar på- och utanför ungdomsgården samt bostadsområdet, men även förhållandet till svenskhet. Resultatet analyserades med teorier rörande genus, etnicitet, postkolonial feminism och praktikgemenskap. Det framkom att tjejerna formade en gemenskap som de upprätthöll med outtalade regler rörande femininitet, etnicitet och sexualitet. Studiens slutsatser är att ungdomsgården framställdes som en betydelsefull plats då den utgjorde en fristad för tjejerna, där de försökte undkomma de olika regler som omfattade dem och deras liv.

Innovare verso un modello per Intensità delle Cure (IdC) offre agli ospedali importanti potenzialità di miglioramento, tanto a livello di qualità delle cure quanto sul piano organizzativo e gestionale. L’introduzione del modello IdC può tuttavia implicare sostanziali modifiche nell’organizzazione sociale del lavoro clinico, modificando relazioni, confini e identità professionali. La tesi esamina i reciproci effetti tra il modello IdC e l’organizzazione sociale del lavoro ospedaliero. Il disegno di ricerca è organizzato in tre fasi: una estensiva analisi documentale, uno studio esplorativo basato su interviste qualitative semi-strutturate, uno caso di studio etnografico in profondità condotto in un ospedale recentemente organizzato secondo il modello IdC. I risultati sono organizzati in tre studi. Il primo mostra come il cambiamento IdC sia stato diversamente interpretato dai manager ospedalieri e dai clinici in prima linea con i pazienti, costituendo così due discordanti ‘narrative di cambiamento’. Il secondo studio si focalizza sugli ostacoli alla creazione di team multidisciplinari negli ospedali IdC. Il terzo studio esamina l’impatto del modello IdC su relazioni e confini professionali tra medici e infermieri. Oltre a contribuire alle teorie socio-psicologiche riguardo a confini e identità professionali, la tesi propone riflessioni concrete su come colmare il divario tra programmi innovativi formali e pratiche di cura quotidiane. / The Patient-Centred Model (PCM) is described as an attempt to redesign the hospitals around the needs of the patients, thus contributing to costs reduction, increased efficiency, and improved care. However, the introduction of the PCM may have a profound impact on the social organisation of work, changing lines of demarcation, challenging well established inter-/intra-professional relationships, and prompting the development of new roles and modes of working. This thesis explores the mutual effects between the new organisational model and the pre-existent social organisation of hospital work. The research design is organised in three phases: an extensive document analysis; an interview study; an in-depth ethnographic case study conducted for over one year in a PCM hospital. The findings are organised in three studies. The first shows that the PCM was interpreted differently by hospital managers and by frontline clinicians, thus giving rise to two divergent narratives of change. The second study focuses on the boundaries to collaboration and care integration in newly created hospital teams within PCM hospitals. The third study looks at the impact of the PCM on the medical-nursing boundary. The thesis contributes to management learning and practice by providing recommendations on how to accompany complex innovations, comprising of both their expected and unexpected consequences. It also enriches academic debates on professional boundaries, relations, and identities in healthcare.

Text in English / Little is known about the current practice of the nurse practising as an independent private practitioner in South Africa. There is also limited information available about his/her needs for establishing and maintaining a private practice. In this exploratory, descriptive study the AFFIRM model was applied and specific data regarding the practice and needs of the nurse in private practice was collected through a questionnaire. Based on the analysed data, it would appear that the majority of private nurse practitioners are married females and fall into the age group below 44 years. Although a variety of nursing services are offered, quality control appears to be minimal. It was found that private nurse practitioners have specific learning needs particularly regarding business management skills, quality control and current nursing practices. Recommendations were made for the maintenance of standards in private practices and the introduction of short courses for nurses in private practice. / Health Studies / M.A. (Nursing Science)

This research set out to explore the curriculum experiences of French-speaking students in a private tertiary education institution. The study was qualitative in nature and utilized narrative inquiry and the case study approach. Data-gathering methods included a blend of semistructured interviews, document analysis, participant observation and field notes. Data analysis employed content and thematic analyses. Findings that emerged from the study were seven-fold: First, the academic experiences of French-speaking students from pre-degree to third-year degree programme entailed a rigorous negotiation with the LoLT. They negotiated the pre-degree route to mainstream degree programme due to non-compliance with academic standards set for higher education. Second, French-speaking students negotiated the pre-degree route to mainstream degree programme because their curricula of study, while they negotiated secondary school education in French-speaking countries were not recognized by most South African public universities. Third, French-speaking students experienced a number of hidden curriculum experiences which were not visible but influenced the planned, enacted and assessed curricula. Fourth, the deportment of lecturers was a useful asset. Lecturers were sourced from different sociocultural perspectives of the world. The impact of lecturers’ deportment led to commitment to achieve excellence and dedication towards student learning. Fifth, the use of Zulu, Sotho and sporadic use of Afrikaans languages by lecturers became sociocultural experiences of French-speaking students. The impact of this was felt by French-speaking students when they took a longer time to negotiate transition from French-speaking to English-speaking. The rate at which white lecturers spoke and the unfamiliar accents of black South African lecturers became important aspects of experiences they negotiated at Montana College. Sixth, learning ensues when there is a hybridization of the three sociocultural factors namely language of communication, acculturation to the domain of influence and mediated identity. Seventh, it was found that power relations manifested themselves in different perspectives at Montana College. Lave and Wenger (1991) proposed that power relations exist in the field of education where teachers exercise their roles as facilitators of learning and students see that they are in possession of economic power, by virtue of the fact that they pay fees. Consequently the issues of power relations abound in the form of the “continuity-displacement contradictions” as suggested by Lave and Wenger (1991:115-116). Much new knowledge came to light, especially in terms of the three sociocultural factors (language, acculturation and identity). When these are in a state of redress, there is an emergent learning, depending on the extent of hybridization between the sociocultural factors. The magnitude of learning is conceptualized to depend on the extent of redress or hybridization among the sociocultural factors. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)