The following dissertation examined the relationship between dissatisfaction found within teacher working conditions and Melvin Seeman's theory of alienation. More specifically, it showed that all forms of teacher dissatisfaction engender feelings of alienation and that the oppressive nature of alienation is the root cause of all the negative consequences associated with teacher dissatisfaction. After an introduction, the literature review presents detailed descriptions of Seeman's theory of alienation, Paulo Freire's theory of empowerment, and the latest information surrounding the issue of teacher dissatisfaction. Next, qualitative narratives from interviews with six teachers about their experiences with dissatisfaction are presented. The researcher then shows how the participants' answers matched the information from the literature surrounding dissatisfaction. The alienation framework is then applied to the data to show its presence within the teachers' experiences. Once the narratives are shown to be connected to both the dissatisfaction and alienation literature, the researcher discusses how alienation is an inextricable part of dissatisfying working conditions. An analysis is then presented to explain how alienation plays a foundational role in creating detrimental educational environments. Finally, possible solutions and further research possibilities are detailed.

Det politiska deltagandet är viktigt för de moderna demokratierna. Förstagångsväljares valdeltagande 2022 visade på en minskning, det här kan betraktas som en utmaning som riskerar att urholka demokratin. De unga förstagångsväljarna har fler riksdagsval framför sig, det är i slutändan nödvändigt att individen känner sig motiverad till att rösta.   Syftet med den här studien är att undersöka i vilken utsträckning socioekonomiska faktorer påverkar politiskt deltagande bland unga förstagångsväljare i Västerås. Detta kommer att undersökas utifrån förklaringsfaktorerna, motivation, resurser och socialt nätverk, som studiens teoretiska ramverk Civic Voluntarism model (CVM) bygger på. Tidigare forskning har diskuterat ungas politiska deltagande och resultaten visar att individens socioekonomiska bakgrund påverkar det politiska deltagandet. Det finns även tidigare forskning som visar på att unga avstår från de traditionella demokratiska värderingar och institutioner vilket kan leda till urholkning i demokratin. Genom en enkätundersökning som tillvägagångssätt i den här studien analyserades svaren från 80 respondenter för att förstå sambanden mellan ungas socioekonomiska bakgrund och attityd samt synsätt på politisk deltagande. Resultatet från undersökningen visar blygsamma skillnader och oväntade effekter. Det verkar inte finnas starka samband mellan klass och politiskt deltagande hos unga förstagångsväljare i Västerås. För framtidens forskning bör forskare fokusera på att undersöka unga förstagångsväljares tillit till politiska partier för att försäkra att demokratin inte urholkas.

During the past few decades there has been a breakdown in the commitment to long term relationships, with no fault divorce laws making it easier for couples to obtain a divorce resulting in increase in divorce rates. Research has shown that in acrimonious divorces with high levels of conflict children often get caught in the middle of their parents’ enduring battles. These children are often prevented from or encouraged not to have contact with their non residential parent. The term parental alienation is used to describe this phenomenon. A qualitative study focusing on the personal experiences of South African fathers who seem to be victims of parental alienation, will be examined and discussed from the perspective of systems theory. / Psychology / M.A. ( Psychology)

Syftet med uppsatsen var att undersöka Pantrarna genom att se på vad för typ av social rörelse Pantrarna är. Sociala faktorer som låg bakom bildandet, deras förebilder, metoderna de använde, hur de organiserade sig och vad de ville uppnå undersöktes. Bakgrunden till bildandet av en social rörelse som Pantrarna var komplex och flera teorier och begrepp fick därför användas för att försöka förklara kontext såväl som Pantrarna som social rörelse. Uppsatsen är gjord genom en kvalitativ metod bestående av intervjuer, innehållsanalys på filmen om dem, observation vid deras festival, netnografisk studie av rörelsen där Facebook,Youtube och deras hemsida studerats. De viktigaste resultatet som hittades var att Pantrarna är en social rörelse som bygger på ett konfliktperspektiv där de använder metoder som att storma politikers möten och genom demonstrationer. De anordnar även föreläsningar och en årlig musikfestival som är gratis. Medlemmarna upplever ett utanförskap och upplever att de inte har möjligheter att uppnå sina mål och drömmar som boende i andra områden utanför förorten. Men möjligen är det så att deär fast i sin egen upplevelse av alienation mot det omgivande samhället och snarare bidrar till den än att, som de vill, motverka den.Nyckelord: Social rörelse, Förorten, Alienation / The purpose of this paper was to investigate Pantrarna by looking at what kind of social movement Pantrarna are. Social factors behind the founding, the rolemodels, methods used, how they were organized and what they wanted to achieve was studied. The background ofthe founding of the social movement like Pantrarna was complex and therefore several theories and concepts were used to try to understand the context as well as Pantrarna as a social movement. Qualitative method consisting of interviews, content analysis of the movie about them, observation at their festival, a netnographic study of the movement through Facebook, Youtube and on their website.The most important findings was that Pantrarna is a social movement that rests on a conflictperspective where they use methods like storming politicians meetings and through demonstrations. They also arrange lectures and a yearly music festival that’s free. The members experience an exclusion and they feel that they don’t have the same possibilities to achieve their goals and dreams like the residents in other areas outside the suburbs. But maybe they are stuck in their own experience of alienation towards the surrounding society and rather contribute to it, as oppose to doing what they want, counteract it.Keywords: Social movement, Suburb, Alienation.

The purpose of this study is to explore the differences in defectors former religious lives. The literature is rich in references topeople from secular societies being fascinated by religions that are individualistic in nature and hence allowpeople freedom of choice in regards to their beliefs. However, we rarely hear about people who have left this new age belief environment or other religious environments. The study specifically focuses on the defectors, who have left a religious organization or have chosen to leave their religious belief. This study seeks to discover why defectors first came to believe and what got them to leave the religious arena. What happened to their faith, and what caused them to leave their former religion? This is what this study is attempting to shed more light on. The findings indicate that close group-relationships can be vital to one's person and create both positive and negative experiences. The social connections with other people is vital to not create a feeling of alienation and emptiness, leading to loss of meaning in life. Peter L Berger and other sociologists have stressed that religion is meaningful to people, that every society has religion, and that people need religious consolation to face difficult existential questions.

The objective of this research was to determine if students who are enrolled in intensive reading intervention classes due to limited reading and comprehension skill, experience greater alienation than students not enrolled in these classes. Ninth and tenth grade students from March Valley School, a small alternative high school in Moreno Valley, CA participated in this study.

Denna essä syftar till att belysa och problematisera rådande ekonomiska och management-baserade styrningsformer och dess effekter inom hälso- och sjukvårdssystemet genom att undersöka hur läkekonsten och allmänläkares praktiska kunskap påverkas i en marknadsstyrd vård. Utgångspunkten är en gestaltning av en allmänläkares arbetsdag på en vårdcentral i Stockholm. Med avstamp i en hermeneutisk och politisk filosofisk tanketradition utforskar essän frågor kring patientens narrativ, läkares utmattning, samvete och empati, reflektion och motstånd, arbete och alienation samt konflikten mellan olika rationaliteter och kunskapsparadigm. Essän visar hur den nyliberala rationaliteten och nuvarande naturvetenskapliga och biotekniska paradigmen förstärker varandra och en reduktionistisk och ekonomisk människosyn. Essän förespråkar förändring genom en mer balanserad kunskapssyn och medicinsk praktik med en mobilisering av kollektiv och individuell fronesis hos läkare för att upphöja värdet av det mellanmänskliga mötet, den praktiska kunskapen och läkekonsten. / This essay aims to highlight and problematize current economic and management-based forms of governance and its effects in the healthcare system by exploring how the art of medicine and general practitioners' practical knowledge are influenced in market-based health care. The starting point is a narrative of a general practitioner's working day at a healthcare centre in Stockholm. The theoretical framework is mainly within the fields of philosophical hermeneutics and political philosophy. The essay explores questions about the patient's narrative, physician burnout, conscience and empathy, reflection and resistance, work and alienation, and the conflict between different rationalities and knowledge paradigms. The essay shows how neoliberal rationality and current paradigms of natural sciences and biotechnology reinforce each other and a reductionist and economic view of human being. The essay advocates change through a more balanced understanding of knowledge and medical practice with a mobilization of collective and individual phronesis in physicians in order to elevate the value of the interpersonal meeting, the practical knowledge and the art of medicine.

This dissertation aims to position train surfing as a visual spectacle that is practised by Sowetan train surfers within the context of post-authoritarian Johannesburg. The author argues that train surfing is a visual and spatial phenomenon that is theoretically under-researched. As such, this study aims to decode seven train surfing videos to establish what train surfing looks like, where train surfing occurs and why individuals participate in such a high risk activity. This study, furthermore, aims to frame train surfing as a spectacle by investigating the similarities between train surfing and rites of passage (initiation rites). The author also regards train surfing as a very specific form of storytelling. The narratives conveyed in the seven videos are, therefore, interpreted to establish that train surfing is practised to ‘voice’ fatalistic feelings, societal as well as individual crises. After establishing the visual aspects of train surfing, the author focuses on the spatial context of train surfing. Johannesburg is described as both an authoritarian and post-authoritarian construct by tracing the spatial and political history of the city. When the discussion turns to the post-authoritarian city, townships and squatter settlements are analysed as being both marginal and hybrid spaces. It is argued that townships are marginal spaces due to their location, they are inhabited by the underclass and they are formed by processes of capitalism and urbanisation, and as a result of these factors, township residents might have fatalistic mindsets (Gulick 1989). The author, however, contends that township space is an ambivalent construct, and as such, it can also be read as hybrid space. Here, hybrid space is interpreted as a platform from which township residents can resist oppressing spatial and political ideologies. In this context, train surfing is regarded as one way in which train surfers use hybrid space to express tactics of resistance. After establishing the spatial context of train surfing, the socio-economic and material living conditions of train surfers are investigated. The discussion firstly, explores the underclass, as theorised by Jencks and Peterson (1990), and thereafter highlights why train surfers can be classified as being part of this sub-category. It is, furthermore, argued that Sowetan train surfers are part of a new lost generation due to high unemployment rates, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and bleak future outlooks. The author aims to establish that, as a result of their socio-economic status and material living conditions, train surfers are fatalistic, and practice an extreme activity to exert control over one area of their lives, namely their bodies. Lastly, the dissertation aims to explore train surfing as being both a risk-taking activity and a new spatial practice. The dynamics of adolescent risk-taking behaviour is explored by emphasising the psychological motivations behind high risk activities. The author argues that alienating space can be regarded as an additional factor that usher adolescents into risk-taking activities. As such, the place(s) and space(s) inhabited by train surfers, namely Johannesburg, Soweto and township train stations, are discussed as alienating spaces. Moreover, it is argued that alienating spaces create opportunities for resistance (following the power-resistance dialectic inherent to space), and as such, train surfing is interpreted as a de-alienating spatial practice that enables the marginalised train surfer to exert control over his surroundings. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Visual Arts / unrestricted

Detta är en kvalitativ studie med ett hermeneutiskt anslag skrivet ur en dramalärares synvinkel om praktisk kunskap inom estetiska ämnen på gymnasiet. Metoden kallas ”Södertörns-modellen”, en professionell induktiv metod baserad på en fenomenologisk introspektion som hänvisas till som handlingssituationen. De öppna frågorna gäller didaktik och frågor om skillnaden mellan estetisk och konstnärlig i ett pedagogiskt sammanhang. Inlärningen undersöks utifrån en verklig situation med hänvisning till Viola Spolins improvisationsmetoder och särskilt koncentrationspunkten (POC), där studenten är sido-coachad. Tekniken är alienation som beskrivs uti-från ett teaterperspektiv. Genom stöd av teaterpraxis och filosofer som John Dewey, Hans-Georg Gadamer och Susanne Langer, kunskapsteori, metodik för teori och praktik, vägs samman för att beskriva och analysera hur lärandet sker. Ett kritiskt tolkningsutrymme med hänvisning till Platon och Sokrates blir logiken av en hermeneutisk öppenhet. Metoden som sådan bygger på ett dialektiskt förhållande, vilken var grunden för hur både lärandet i handlingssituationen och forskningens framskridande. För att ge svar på vilken kunskap som beskrivs i den svenska sko-lans styrdokument har begreppen för kunskap granskats genom en innehållsanalys. Det finns en dialog mellan teori och praktik för att ta reda på om det finns någon skillnad mellan estetisk och konstnärlig kunskap, där Aristoteles spelar en roll, när ett nytt förslag med estetiska ämnen som åter obligatoriska i gymnasieskolan inom kort introduceras. / This is a qualitative study with a hermeneutical approach written from a drama teacher's point of view on practical knowledge in aesthetic subjects in a secondary school. The method is referred to as “the model of Södertörn”, a professional inductive method based on a phenomenological introspective referred to as the situation of action. The open questions concern didactics and questions about the difference between aesthetic and artistic in a pedagogical context. The learning is examined based on an actual situation with reference to Viola Spolin’s methods of improvisation and point of concentration (POC), where the student is side–coached. The technique is alienation as described from a theatre perspective. Through the support of the theatre practice and philosophers such as John Dewey, Hans-Georg Gadamer and Susanne Langer, knowledge theory, methodology of the theory of practice are weighed together to describe and analyse how the learning occurs. A critical interpretation space with reference to Plato and Socrates becomes the logic of hermeneutic openness. The method as such is built on a dialectic relationship were the basis for how both learning and the research took place. In order to provide answers to what knowledge is, described as in the Swedish schools governing documents, the concepts of knowledge has been reviewed through a content analysis. There is a dialogue between theory and practice to find out, if there is any difference between aesthetic and artistic knowledge, where Aristotle play a role, when a new proposal for introducing aesthetic subjects as mandatory in secondary school makes a new entrance.

During the past few decades there has been a breakdown in the commitment to long term relationships, with no fault divorce laws making it easier for couples to obtain a divorce resulting in increase in divorce rates. Research has shown that in acrimonious divorces with high levels of conflict children often get caught in the middle of their parents’ enduring battles. These children are often prevented from or encouraged not to have contact with their non residential parent. The term parental alienation is used to describe this phenomenon. A qualitative study focusing on the personal experiences of South African fathers who seem to be victims of parental alienation, will be examined and discussed from the perspective of systems theory. / Psychology / M.A. ( Psychology)