This thesis seeks to explore the factors that limit the freedom of choice and access of the Indian community to tertiary level education in Malaysia. Issues of ethnic minorities are of concern for all multi-cultural societies. In Malaysia, it was the indentured labour system, introduced by the British colonial rulers who brought non-Malays into this previously mono-ethnic society. British colonisation has influenced the position of the Indian community in Malaysia in a number of ways, which are explored in this thesis. The aim of this study was to gain an understanding of the complexity of this plural society and its implications for one of its ethnic minority groups, particularly in terms of education. This sector has been examined as education is a fundamental component for socio-economic development and upward social mobility. Malaysia, a classic modern day plural society, has its own complexity in terms of issues of ethnic minorities. The findings of this thesis indicate four main factors limiting the freedom of choice and access to tertiary level education for the Indian community. These factors are the country’s education policies, the financial situation of Indo-Malaysians, the attitude and awareness of the students, and the community’s values. The findings are significant as it is believed that the advancement of the Indian community in Malaysia is currently obstructed through lack of access to tertiary level education. Before this situation can be improved it needs to be understood.

<p>Resilience is an essential and highly desired characteristic of a social-ecological system’s ability to adapt and adjust to various stresses and shocks that cause disruption. As social and ecological systems are intertwined and continually experiencing changes and disturbances, a major challenge appears revolving around the ways in which this resilience can be built and investigated. Social-ecological resilience can be defined as the amount of stress or disturbance that a particular system can tolerate, while still maintaining the same functions and identity. This paper uses social-ecological resilience concepts as a research framework, and examines three main themes that allow for the building of water management resilience to occur. These themes include learning to live with change, nurturing the ability to adapt/adjust to changes, and also on creating opportunities for self-organization. Two ethnic minority villages in Northern Thailand were chosen as research sites, in which the village water management practices were studied within a specific time period. Varying degrees of quantity and quality water issues within both villages have brought about stress and disturbances within their water management practices and increased the need to deal with these problems. Research was conducted at a community scale and resilience analysis pertains only to this specific level. Through the utilization of focus groups and interviews, qualitative data was collected and analyzed within a SE resilience context. This paper sets out to explore how social-ecological resilience has been built or not, and to what degree this has occurred within these two villages water management practices. The analysis indicates how complex and interconnected the social and ecological systems are and how the water management practices of these two communities play a role in this complex, dynamic process. Conclusions drawn are not limited to these two communities, but can be applied to the wider Northern Thailand region.</p>

Globally, neonatal mortality has remained basically unchanged for the last three to four decades and every year almost four million newborns die before reaching one month of age. This persistent mortality is related to an invisibility of the newborn child in policies and statistics and a neglect of health care decision-makers, planners and practitioners to deliver a perinatal continuum of care. In recent years attention has however been brought to the unchanged neonatal mortality in an effort to improve survival. The present thesis seeks to increase understanding of obstacles for better neonatal survival. The studies performed are undertaken as sub-studies to the NeoKIP project in Quang Ninh province in northern Vietnam, a randomized controlled trial of knowledge implementation for improved neonatal survival (Neonatal Health – Knowledge Into Practice, ISRCTN 44599712). In the first paper we investigated and discussed the scope of invisibility of neonatal mortality through measuring the accuracy of official statistics on neonatal deaths. The second paper reports an inquiry of determinants of neonatal mortality by use of a population-based case-referent design. Paper III and IV analyse delivery care utilization and care seeking patterns prior to and at delivery using narratives and GIS technique. There was a substantial under-reporting of neonatal mortality in the official statistics, with study results showing a four times higher neonatal mortality rate in Quang Ninh province than reported to the Ministry of Health. This neonatal mortality rate of 16/1000 live births (as compared to 4.2/1000 in official reports) was unevenly distributed in the province, showing large geographical discrepancies. In the rural and remote areas of Vietnam education level is lower and the concentrations of ethnic minorities and poor households are higher. Ethnic minority belonging was associated with a more than doubled risk of neonatal death compared to the hegemonic group of Kinh (OR 2.08 CI 95 % 1.39 – 3.10). This increased risk was independent of household economic status or maternal education level. Neonatal mortality was also associated with home deliveries, non-attendance to antenatal care and distance to the health care facilities. However, ethnic minority mothers still had an increased risk of experiencing a neonatal death even if they attended antenatal care, delivered at or lived close to a health facility. The invisibility of the neonatal period in health information systems hides the true width of the neonatal mortality challenge. By not acknowledging the problem, the marginalization of already disadvantaged groups continues, leaving ethnic minority babies with an elevated risk of dying during the first month in life. This example of ethnic inequity highlights the importance to target those most in need. The studies of the present thesis should therefore be looked upon as a contribution to the struggle to illuminate the global burden of neonatal mortality.

Da alcuni anni a questa parte, la scuola italiana è chiamata sempre più ad affrontare l’accoglienza e la formazione di studenti stranieri. Per chi si occupa di orientamento la sfida è duplice. Da un lato si nota la tendenza a scegliere percorsi di studio più semplici e meno proiettati verso il prosieguo degli studi: il 40,4% degli studenti stranieri prediligere gli Istituti Professionali, contro il 19% degli italiani, e il 38,0% gli Istituti Tecnici, contro il 33,2% degli italiani. Nonstante ciò, vi è carenza di ricerche cross-culturali in merito all'orientamento con le minoranze culturali presenti in Italia. Questo studio ha l'obiettivo di fornire una migliore comprensione riguardo agli aspetti psiclogici che influenzano le scelte scolastiche tra gli studenti immigrati. In particolare, mira a comprendere come la cultura, ed una sua parte fondamentale quale è il significato attribuito alla realtà, moduli le scelte in materia di orientamento. Inoltre, sono state indagate le barriere percepite, gli interessi, la motivazione scolastica e gli atteggiamenti verso lo studio, oltre al ruolo svolto da specifiche sindromi culturali. / The Italian school system has been facing with the reception and the training of foreign studens for several years now. For those involved in vocational guidance, the challenge is twofold. On the one hand there is a tendency to choose courses of simplier study and less projected towards the continuation of their studies: 40.4% of students prefer the Professional Institutes, compared to 19% of Italians, and 38.0 % Technical Institutes, compared to 33.2% of Italians.In spite of this, there is a paucity of cross-cultural research on vocational guidance for cultural minorities in Italy. This study aims to provide a better understanging about which psychological aspects influence vocational choices in foreign students. In particular, how culture, and a foundamental part of that such as meaning, affects scholastic choices. Moreover, perceived barriers, interests, motivations, attitudes toward school and cultural syndroms were explored.

The main issue of the dissertation paper was to provide a comparative analysis of ethnic minorities representation in the Czech and Kyrgzystan media discurses in the 90s of the 20th century. Both of the above mentioned countries have undergone a paradigm change, which in the terminology of the four theories of press changed the so-called soviet paradigm for libertarian one. The aim of the research was to demonstrate that it is possible to use the comparative analysis also in regard to ethnicities (ethnic minorities), cultures and national minority organizations that are geographically distant and typologically different. The research is based on comparison of four researches developed by the following authors: Petra Klvačová, Tomáš Bitrich: Jak se (ne)píše o cizincích, Věra Malkova: Этнические образы в республиканских газетах. Опыт этносоциологического исследования, Stuartem Hall (The spectacle of the "Other"), Bernard Berelson, Patricia J. Salter (Majority and Minority American's: An analysis of magazine fiction). The subject of the study is the collection of texts materials from printed media, supplemented and confronted with a trial research sample of responses provided by representatives of media, politics, science and public etc. (in-depth interviews) on the topic of minorities. By means of...

Si le teen movie a su devenir un genre cinématographique à part entière, les teen series se sont elles aussi fait une place de choix dans la culture populaire américaine. Notre sujet d'étude porte sur la construction de l'adolescente-e américain-e à travers les premières saisons de onze séries télévisées de 1990 à 2010 : Beverly Hills 90210, My So-Called Life, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Dawson's Creek, Freaks and Geeks, Smallville, The O.C., One Tree Hill, Gosip Girl, Glee et Huge. Nous observons dans ce travail les évolutions et les constantes sociologiques, historiques, culturelles et politiques de l'adolescence télévisuelle et les analyserons en intégrant notamment des problèmatiques de classe sociale, de groupes ethniques et de genre. / After teen movies became a bona fide cinematographic genre, teen series began to occupy a prominent place in American popular culture. In our research we investigate the construction of American teenage girls and boys through the first seasons of eleven teen series from 1990 to 2010: Beverly Hills 90210, My So-Called Life, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Dawson's Creek, Freaks and Geeks, Smallville, The O.C., One Tree Hill, Gosip Girl, Glee et Huge. We observe the sociological, historical, cultural and political evolutions and permanent features of adolescence, taking into account social classes,ethnic groups and gender problematics.

Resilience is an essential and highly desired characteristic of a social-ecological system’s ability to adapt and adjust to various stresses and shocks that cause disruption. As social and ecological systems are intertwined and continually experiencing changes and disturbances, a major challenge appears revolving around the ways in which this resilience can be built and investigated. Social-ecological resilience can be defined as the amount of stress or disturbance that a particular system can tolerate, while still maintaining the same functions and identity. This paper uses social-ecological resilience concepts as a research framework, and examines three main themes that allow for the building of water management resilience to occur. These themes include learning to live with change, nurturing the ability to adapt/adjust to changes, and also on creating opportunities for self-organization. Two ethnic minority villages in Northern Thailand were chosen as research sites, in which the village water management practices were studied within a specific time period. Varying degrees of quantity and quality water issues within both villages have brought about stress and disturbances within their water management practices and increased the need to deal with these problems. Research was conducted at a community scale and resilience analysis pertains only to this specific level. Through the utilization of focus groups and interviews, qualitative data was collected and analyzed within a SE resilience context. This paper sets out to explore how social-ecological resilience has been built or not, and to what degree this has occurred within these two villages water management practices. The analysis indicates how complex and interconnected the social and ecological systems are and how the water management practices of these two communities play a role in this complex, dynamic process. Conclusions drawn are not limited to these two communities, but can be applied to the wider Northern Thailand region.

L'objectif principal de cette recherche consiste à prouver que le modèle d'intégration de la France est défaillant et rencontre plusieurs limites notables, du point de vue d'une justice ethnoculturelle, qu'il refuse toutefois de voir. Il s'agit, en clair, d'accuser une relégation des identités ethnoculturelles différenciées en France. C'est précisément une mécanique discriminatoire « d'exclusion » qui cible, de manière privilégiée, les segments différenciés de la population française, qui est mise en place par ces mêmes processus d'intégration. Trois dimensions sont nodales au bon fonctionnement, pour ainsi dire, de cette mécanique. La première – ou la dernière – est politique. Il s'agit d'un processus républicain qui fonctionne exactement à l'envers par rapport à ses propres ambitions. C'est dire, la formation d'un citoyen universel, la mise en place d'une égalité citoyenne et politique. La deuxième est sociale. Elle disqualifie et ségrègue socialement et spatialement les éléments différenciés de la population. La troisième est morale. Elle condamne les valeurs culturelles des populations différenciées en stigmatisant précisément ces identités ethnoculturelles de par des processus d'insécurité qui sont consubstantiels à la société. À partir de ce constat, la question élémentaire à une philosophie politique s'appliquant à la diversité ethnoculturelle en France consiste à se demander : 1) comment rompre le cercle vicieux de cette relégation ? 2) comment recréer de nouveaux processus d'intégration et avec quel modèle ? Le fameux 101ᵉ département français, ledit « neuf, sept, sita (six) », offre de nouvelles perspectives d'analyses par rapport à cette double problématique. / The main purpose of this dissertation is actually to prove that the French political integration model is completely failing on its goals. It meets in reality several limits. The French institution policies towards the French minorities could demonstrate this fact. The French model refuses however to see those limits. Our principal aim here is clearly to accuse about what we can call an “ethnic relegation” in France. Roughly speaking, it could be understood as a discriminatory mechanism of exclusion that targets especially some of the French population segments. This mechanism is set up by the French integration processes and seems to focus particularly the ethnic minorities. Three dimensions are really important in this relegation mechanism. The first one is a social problem. It is especially the disqualification and the segregation (socially and spatially speaking) of the French minorities. The second one is about the minorities moral values. It is set up by the social and civil insecurity. The third one is constructed by a political scheme. It means that the French republican processes are working in the wrong way regarding what kind of society they want to build. Hence, the main interrogation of a political philosophy questioning the minority problems and ethnic justice in France is : 1) how to deal with and stop this relegation? 2) how to recreate new integration processes and with what kind of model? The 101st French department, the so-called "neuf, setp, sita (six)", offers new perspectives of analysis concerning this double problem.

Over the last ten years, there has been extensive scholarly debate about the nature of settler colonialism and the category ‘settler’. The central problem animating this dissertation is the question of how we understand the position of a settler group like the Doukhobors in Canadian settler colonialism. In 1899 approximately 7,500 members of the Doukhobor religious movement fled oppression in Russia and arrived in Canada with the hope of creating an earthly paradise based on communal economy, mutual aid, pacifism, and an anarchistic theology. Less than a decade after fleeing Tsarist oppression in Russia and settling in the Canadian prairies, the Doukhobors once again came into conflict with a government; this time the conflict revolved around land and compliance with homestead regulations. This moment marked the beginning of more than half a century of provincial and federal government attempts to assimilate recalcitrant factions of the Doukhobor community. A number of tactics including opportunistic land policy, imprisonment, removal and forced education of children, legislation targeting communal property and inducements to integrate into mainstream Canadian society were employed by provincial and federal governments to make the Doukhobors into proper settler subjects. By examining these government attempts to re-make Doukhobor subjectivity in the image of an idealized Anglo-settler identity, this project sheds light on the broad process through which ‘settlers’ are ‘made’ by government action. Drawing on archival iv sources, this dissertation exposes the intersection of Canadian government policy, and colonial ideas, directed towards Indigenous peoples and the Doukhobors from 1899 until 1960. I examine this intersection through the themes of land, education, and colonial knowledge creation in government reports. The dissertation finds that the twin elements of settler colonialism—settlement and dispossession—must be considered as a unified political project. During the period under study there is significant transfer of ideologies and policies between those officials working on the assimilation of settlers and those working toward the dispossession of Indigenous peoples. The dissertation concludes that an important element of the category ‘settler’ is its political nature, and therefore its contingent and contestable nature. / Graduate / 0615 / adam.burke.carmichael@gmail.com

No description available.