<p>Violence is considered to be one of the most critical and threatening global problems plaguing the world today, leaving a trail of devastating consequences to societies, economies, cultures, families and individuals (Desjarlais &amp / Kleinman, 1997). Adolescents who grow up in a context of violence learn distorted ways of thinking, acting, living and interacting. Aggressive tendencies and violent behaviour become internalised and adopted as acceptable ways to resolve conflict situations. Chronic, continuous exposure to violence results in physical, psychological and emotional disturbances, such as depression, anxiety, lowered self-confidence, sleep disturbances, decreased attention and concentration spans. This study addressed the form of violence known as community violence, i.e. violence that children experience within their communities (either as witnesses or as victims). This study investigated the effects of this negative environmental experience and investigated potential mediating and moderating variables that could influence the harmful effects of such experiences. The variables considered as mediating and/or moderating variables were social support and self-esteem. The theoretical framework adopted for this study was Bronfennbrenner&rsquo / s Bioecological Systems theory.</p>

<p>Violence is considered to be one of the most critical and threatening global problems plaguing the world today, leaving a trail of devastating consequences to societies, economies, cultures, families and individuals (Desjarlais &amp / Kleinman, 1997). Adolescents who grow up in a context of violence learn distorted ways of thinking, acting, living and interacting. Aggressive tendencies and violent behaviour become internalised and adopted as acceptable ways to resolve conflict situations. Chronic, continuous exposure to violence results in physical, psychological and emotional disturbances, such as depression, anxiety, lowered self-confidence, sleep disturbances, decreased attention and concentration spans. This study addressed the form of violence known as community violence, i.e. violence that children experience within their communities (either as witnesses or as victims). This study investigated the effects of this negative environmental experience and investigated potential mediating and moderating variables that could influence the harmful effects of such experiences. The variables considered as mediating and/or moderating variables were social support and self-esteem. The theoretical framework adopted for this study was Bronfennbrenner&rsquo / s Bioecological Systems theory.</p>

Social-ecological systems of traditional pastoralists are adapted to deal with shocks and stresses such as droughts and livestock disease that characterize their environment. However, inappropriate policies have undermined the resilience of pastoralist social-ecological systems at a time when stresses from new challenges, such as growth in the human population and global climate change are increasing. Many pastoralist groups such as the Gabra of north-central Kenya now regularly require emergency relief. There is an urgent need to take deliberate steps to rebuild the resilience of pastoralist social-ecological systems. One lever that external actors such as NGOs and government agencies have that could help them to do so relates to structures and processes of participation and decision-making. The purpose of this research, therefore, was to examine ways in which the approaches to public participation used by agencies involved in water resources management can affect the collective capacity of pastoralist institutions and communities to influence social-ecological resilience. The research revolved around a single case study: the Kenyan NGO Pastoralist Integrated Support Programme (PISP) together with the Gabra communities where PISP works. The research found that the capacity to influence resilience resides in the network of vertical and horizontal institutional linkages as much as it does in any particular organization or institution. This implies the need for a radical paradigm shift in the way that NGOs and other formal sector actors think of participation and of their role. An examination of the Gabra approach to decision-making and PISP's approach to participation point to an alternative way of thinking about participation. This alternative rationale for participation would call on formal sector actors to promote participation and inclusivity of decision-making at multiple levels of social organization through an array of interconnected processes and institutions, to foster deliberation processes that are nested across levels, and to help create and strengthen vertical institutional linkages for their beneficiary communities. These proposed strategies relate to a key contribution of this research, which is to suggest building a resilience-based theory of participation and to provide a glimpse of what such a theory might entail.

Teacher educators at the University of Canterbury, College of Education, like all teacher educators in Aotearoa New Zealand, have ethical, legal, and moral obligations in relation to Te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi. The Treaty is an agreement that was signed in 1840 by representatives of the British Crown and representatives of independent Māori hapū (sub-tribe). The failure of the Crown to uphold the Treaty plus the colonisation of New Zealand has held wide-ranging ramifications for Māori, including a negative impact on Māori education. Policy guidelines both at a national level and locally at the University of Canterbury provide requirements and guidelines for teachers and teacher educators in relation to the Treaty. The aim of many of these guidelines is to address equity issues in education and to support Māori ākonga (students) to achieve success as Māori. This thesis draws upon data from interviews with five teacher educators from the University of Canterbury, College of Education to explore their understandings of the Treaty and how these understandings inform their practice. A qualitative research approach was applied to this study. Semi-structured interviews were used and a grounded theory approach to the data analysis was applied. Three key themes arose from the data and these provided insights into the teacher educator participants’ understandings of the Treaty, how they acquired Treaty knowledge and their curriculum decision making. Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological systems theory approach was used as a framework to situate how the teacher educators’ understandings of the Treaty have developed. Critical theory and concepts associated with critical pedagogy underpin this research. Critical pedagogy highlights the importance for teacher educators in New Zealand to have an understanding of the historical and contemporary complexities of educational issues related to the Treaty.

Violence is considered to be one of the most critical and threatening global problems plaguing the world today, leaving a trail of devastating consequences to societies, economies, cultures, families and individuals (Desjarlais & Kleinman, 1997). Adolescents who grow up in a context of violence learn distorted ways of thinking, acting, living and interacting. Aggressive tendencies and violent behaviour become internalised and adopted as acceptable ways to resolve conflict situations. Chronic, continuous exposure to violence results in physical, psychological and emotional disturbances, such as depression, anxiety, lowered self-confidence, sleep disturbances, decreased attention and concentration spans. This study addressed the form of violence known as community violence, i.e. violence that children experience within their communities (either as witnesses or as victims). This study investigated the effects of this negative environmental experience and investigated potential mediating and moderating variables that could influence the harmful effects of such experiences. The variables considered as mediating and/or moderating variables were social support and self-esteem. The theoretical framework adopted for this study was Bronfennbrenner’s Bioecological Systems theory. This framework provides a theory through which the interaction of the variables of this study can be explained and understood. This study is part of a larger study which explored community violence, hope and well-being, therefore secondary data was utilised. The sample consisted of 568 Grade nine learners and data was collected through the administration of a questionnaire compiled through the combination of five scales: the Children’s Hope Scale, the Recent Exposure to Violence Scale (REVS), the KIDSCREEN-52, social support scale and Rosenberg’s self-esteem scale. The data was analysed through regression and multiple regression. The results of the study found that neither social support nor self-esteem were mediators and only social support functioned as a moderator variable. / Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych)

The shift from management and governance of ecosystems to relational complex adaptive social-ecological systems (SES) emphasizes a dynamic and integrated humans-in-nature perspective. Such a shift also needs to investigate how diversity and differences in cultures and morals relate to the existence of SES. The papers of this thesis relate these dimensions to SES resilience theory. Paper I analyzes cultural and landscape ecological aspects of trees and tree planting in Androy, Madagascar. Culturally, planting trees serves as a symbol of renewal, purification, agreement and boundary-making. Ecologically, planting trees contributes to the generation of ecosystem services in an otherwise fragmented landscape. Paper II tests the role of forest patches for generating pollination services to local beans that constitute an important protein staple in Androy. The results indicate a significant effect of insect pollination on bean yields and a strong spatial pattern of locating bean plots closer to forests than expected by chance, improving rural food security. Paper III addresses the adaptive capacity of the indigenous forest management in Androy with regard to religious and climatic drivers of change. Paper IV is concerned with cultural analysis of the robustness of provisioning ecosystem services in Androy and the interdependence of morality, cultural practices and generated ecosystem services. Paper V explores how social-ecological memory (SEM) can be seen both as a source of inertia and path dependence and a source of adaptive capacity for renewal and reorganization in the emerging theory about social-ecological systems. Paper VI analyses the film Avatar and discusses ethical–epistemic obligations of researchers as cross-scale knowledge brokers in emerging forms of global environmental politics. The thesis has interdependencies between the social and the ecological and shown that cultural and moral analyses bring important insights and challenges to resilience thinking. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Submitted. Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 5: Submitted. Paper 6: In press.</p>

Social-ecological systems of traditional pastoralists are adapted to deal with shocks and stresses such as droughts and livestock disease that characterize their environment. However, inappropriate policies have undermined the resilience of pastoralist social-ecological systems at a time when stresses from new challenges, such as growth in the human population and global climate change are increasing. Many pastoralist groups such as the Gabra of north-central Kenya now regularly require emergency relief. There is an urgent need to take deliberate steps to rebuild the resilience of pastoralist social-ecological systems. One lever that external actors such as NGOs and government agencies have that could help them to do so relates to structures and processes of participation and decision-making. The purpose of this research, therefore, was to examine ways in which the approaches to public participation used by agencies involved in water resources management can affect the collective capacity of pastoralist institutions and communities to influence social-ecological resilience. The research revolved around a single case study: the Kenyan NGO Pastoralist Integrated Support Programme (PISP) together with the Gabra communities where PISP works. The research found that the capacity to influence resilience resides in the network of vertical and horizontal institutional linkages as much as it does in any particular organization or institution. This implies the need for a radical paradigm shift in the way that NGOs and other formal sector actors think of participation and of their role. An examination of the Gabra approach to decision-making and PISP's approach to participation point to an alternative way of thinking about participation. This alternative rationale for participation would call on formal sector actors to promote participation and inclusivity of decision-making at multiple levels of social organization through an array of interconnected processes and institutions, to foster deliberation processes that are nested across levels, and to help create and strengthen vertical institutional linkages for their beneficiary communities. These proposed strategies relate to a key contribution of this research, which is to suggest building a resilience-based theory of participation and to provide a glimpse of what such a theory might entail.

The purpose of this qualitative study is to describe how child and youth care practitioners experience their engagement in community level interventions. Five child and youth care practitioners, who identified themselves as engaging in community level interventions in their work, were interviewed and data were analysed using a combined narrative and thematic approach. Eight themes emerged from the data that describe participants’ experience with community, community change and community level interventions. Results show how community level interventions have a tendency to target the micro, meso and occasionally exo, rather than macro, levels of communities. Thus, multi-level interventions are recommended as a way to shift child and youth care practice from an emphasis on interventions with individuals, towards greater emphasis on interventions that are aimed at the multiple levels of the child and youth’s ecological system. The study identifies implications for post-secondary curriculum, professional practice, agency mandates and job descriptions. / Graduate

This thesis explores the influences of social networks and social support on the literacy engagement of 7 high school students from a multicultural, multilingual, and economically disadvantaged urban neighborhood in a large, diverse North American city. Specifically, this study describes (1) students’ social networks and social literacy interactions; (2) the types of social support the network relationships provide for participants’ literacy; and (3) the ways in which this socioliterate support might affect participants’ literacy engagement. Guided by Ecological Systems Theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, 1992/2005), at three times during an 18-month period the 7 participants completed social network maps and interviews, checklists about their reading and writing choices, and retrospective interviews about their reading and writing practices on self-selected texts. These data were analyzed on the basis of Tardy’s (1985) typology of social support and the tripartite model of engagement proposed by Fredricks, Blumenfeld, and Paris (2004), then individual case reports were created for each participant. For cross-case analysis (Stake, 2006), the individual reports were compared across similar, predetermined themes. Two primary conclusions are supported by the data and analysis: These adolescents received varying amounts and types of socioliterate support from certain members of their social networks, particularly teachers and family members, and this support positively influenced their literacy engagement when they were facing difficult or uninteresting tasks. The study provides an understanding of the relationship between social support, motivation, and engagement in single literacy events, including proposed relationships between these three concepts, as well as perspectives on the role of technology in adolescent social network formation and on the sources from whom adolescents seek literacy-based social support. The study describes pedagogical spaces that can provide and activate such literacy support and suggests topics for future research relating to adolescent literacy, socioliterate networks and support, and literacy engagement.

There is a critical need for more studies to identify socio-ecological drivers that affect conservation and management of fire adapted ecosystems, yet studies that identify such variables and explore their interaction in specific systems are not only scarce but limited to only a few systems. Although information on the socio-ecological effects of prescribed fire application exists, there is no integrative framework that simultaneously considers the interplay between social and ecological factors affecting the use of prescribed fires. Fire suppression, together with other human and natural disturbances in grassland systems that are adapted to episodic fire, are the major factors that have contributed to the recruitment of woody species into grasslands worldwide. Even though the ecology of restoring these fire prone systems back to a grassland state is becoming clearer, the major hurdle to reintroducing historic fire at a landscape scale is its social acceptability. To address these deficiencies, I studied the socio-ecological factors influencing the use of prescribed fire in Texas, USA and Chihuahua, Mexico using a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches to examine how social and ecological factors affect ecosystem conservation and management of semi-arid grassland systems. For the Texas case study I used quantitative survey data analyzed using logistic regression models and structural equation models. For the Mexico case study I used qualitative interviews gathered using a snowball network sampling approach and coded them based on the analytic themes of land cover change, institutional failure, market drivers, and population dynamics. Results from the Texas case study suggest that risk taking orientation and especially, perceived support from others when implementing prescribed burns, play important roles in determining attitudes towards the use of high-intensity prescribed fires, which are sometimes needed to restore ecosystems. Results from the Texas case study also highlight how membership in Prescribed Burn Associations (PBAs) influence land manager decisions regarding the use of prescribed fire by reducing concerns over lack of skills, knowledge and resources. Results emphasize the potential for PBAs to reduce risk concerns regarding the application of prescribed fire and are relevant to management of brush encroached areas. Through PBAs, effective landscape-scale solutions to the brush encroachment problem can be achieved in Texas. Results from the Mexico case study show how fire stopped effectively being a driving factor on this system decades ago. Socio-political and ecological changes at the national, and international level produced changes in land use disrupting historical fire patterns and contributing to the ecological deterioration of the area. Droughts combined with poor management practices have depleted the fuel needed to carry a fire. Landowners also face safety and legal concerns but in most cases, even if a landowner decided to implement a prescribed burn, an ecological threshold has been crossed and current fine fuel loads (grass) are insufficient to carry a fire that is sufficiently intense to reduce brush cover and restore grassland and savanna ecosystems. Based on my findings I can conclude that ecologically sound adaptive management and social capital are fundamental components of the livelihoods of landowners and land managers in both case studies. Work and investment that is focused on strengthening this social capital will have the most profound effects in maintaining the integrity of grassland systems at a landscape scale.