Four topics in the cultural and intellectual history of France are presented. The first is a comparative study examining the relationship between seventeenth-century philosophy and literature. It argues that elements of scientific rationalism found their way into contemporary literature, as evidenced in the work of Moliere. The second essay examines the writings of Hippolyte Taine and of Gustave Le Bon. The paper argues that the synthesis of their ideas and the popularity of their writings helped to transform the nineteenth-century French passion for "scientificity" into an obsession with race. The third study explores early twentieth-century French perceptions of race and demonstrates how media images of colonial peoples profoundly influenced the way in which ordinary French citizens understood race and difference. The fourth and final paper examines the importance of the department store in French women's lives during the interwar period and argues that it served as the crucial link between their public and private spheres.

This study seeks to answer the following broad questions: Under what confluence of institutional and contextual factors is the election of a minority candidate more likely (descriptive representation)? And once elected, do these minority representatives realize their potential to impact public policies or the political attitudes of their constituents (substantive representation)? Recent demographic shifts have moved American cities away from a simple Black/White dichotomy, and thus my goal in this study is to evaluate and extend the present theories and models of representation to other racial minorities. Specifically, I examine the extent of descriptive and substantive representation of Latinos in the educational arena. I find that the current theories of minority representation built upon the unique Black American experience in the US are insufficient to explain the political incorporation of Latinos. Specifically, I find that Latinos face additional challenges to incorporation and subsequent policy or empowerment effects based on their immigration and citizenship histories, their country-of-origin and generational diversity, and their particular assimilation and acculturation processes. As I demonstrate, these additional factors condition the likelihood of Latino representation on school boards, as well as the ability of these Latino representatives to enact policy changes or create empowerment effects among Latino constituents. I argue that these findings have important implications for ensuring representative democracy for Latinos and for educational policy outcomes.

New immigrants to Canada, specifically those of non-Western origin, frequently experience the phenomenon of the ‘no Canadian work experience’ employment barrier. This paper is based on information gathered in a focus group comprised of male and female new immigrants with university education and advanced skills and work experience who have been in Canada for less than five years. The focus group revealed respondents did face the ‘no Canadian experience’ barrier. But they actively created strategies to overcome the barrier, which included: researching and doing more preparation for the realities of the Canadian job market prior to arriving in Canada but not simply relying on insufficient information provided from Canadian government, having decent English language abilities and a mild accent, altering their resumes and verbalization of their experiences to fit in with Canadian employer expectations. This paper also found that government and settlement organization current strategies and services were ineffective for highly educated and skilled immigrants and ignored the needs of immigrant women with young children. In conclusion, issues related to intercultural communication need to be considered for smoothing immigrants’ integration into the Canadian workforce.

The April 1994 elections in South Africa, which witnessed the ANC gain a determinant majority in national government, shifted the struggle in that country from national liberation and enfranchisement to economic empowerment for the black majority. The South African Government, facing millions of restitution of land claims and a national demand for effective access to land and adequate housing, has had to elaborate concrete legal implementation mechanisms to deliver land and housing for the majority of the population. Constitutionalism, through the entrenchment of land rights in a bill of rights, and the creation of a national socio-economic program to meet the basic needs of landless and homeless South Africans (Reconstruction and Development Program or RDP), have been the methods favored by the Government of National Unity (GNU) to address land and housing issues in the new South Africa. Strong pressure has been put on Mandela's Government to bring about fundamental economic and social transformation. The GNU presently has the responsibility to ensure a speedy advance with its programs of housing and land redistribution and restitution. The international instruments on economic and social rights have inspired Chapter 3 of the Interim Constitution, which contains a Bill of Rights, as well as the drafting of the Reconstruction and Development Program. Although these two national legal documents guarantee substantial economic and social rights, the difficulty that lies ahead is the establishment of a process to implement these entitlements. The socio-economic transformation that will take place in South Africa in the coming years will serve as a test-case and will hopefully encourage legal scholars and practitioners to become more sensitive to the importance of designing delivery mechanisms for these rights. With the high level of expectations and violence experienced in South Africa's rural and urban areas, a great deal is at stake in relation to land reform and t

The importance of ethnic origin as a factor in delivery of social services has been recognised internationally as relevant at different levels of organization. This study examined 500 dossiers, a random sample of clients referred in 1985 to one hospital social service department in Montreal. Age, gender, status of children, referring hospital service, problems experienced and involvement with community social service agencies were found to be related to ethnic origin, using the Kruskal-Wallis and Pearson chi-squared test. After accounting for differences between ethnic groups in age, type of problem and referring hospital service by the use of logit analysis, ethnic origin significantly affected the changes of involvement with Social Service Centres and Departments of Youth Protection. Among the implications of the results for social services in Montreal were the need for the following: recognition that some ethnic minorities have very different social service needs than the larger ethnic groups; development of skills in cross-cultural social service provision because of the clientele's varied ethnic background; consideration of the impact, desirability and viability of ethnic/socioculturally specific agencies and services. The urgent need for further research is emphasised.

Understanding culturally related health values and identifying ethnically specific health seeking pathways can help health care providers supply culturally competent services and enhance cooperation with patients of different backgrounds. Cultural competency training, notably through cultural awareness courses, promotes understanding of the impact of social factors on illness and thus prepares medical and dental students to better serve their patients. Cultural awareness can also help preventive health programs fit community needs and cultural contexts. / Despite the fact that Chinese immigrants are the fastest growing ethnic minority in North America, few studies have been published on their beliefs and health-seeking behaviours following immigration. We thus lack information on how Chinese immigrants regard dental health and manage their dental problems. Objective. The aims of this study were to explore how oral illness is viewed by Chinese immigrants in Montreal, Canada and how they manage dental problems. Methods. We conducted a qualitative research study based on semi-structured, one-on-one interviews and thematic analyses of the transcribed interviews. Twelve adult Montreal Chinese immigrants with a high level of education participated in the study. / Results. Chinese immigrants in Montreal have a good understanding of dental caries in terms of its etiology, process, and ways to prevent and treat it. It thus seems that there is no major cultural barrier between this type of immigrant and oral health care professionals in regard to dental caries. However, we also observed that traditional beliefs and medications coexist with scientific dental knowledge and professional treatments concerning problems such as gingival swelling, gingival bleeding, and bad breath. In the case of gingival swelling, for instance, participants identified etiological factors that referred to both cultures: local factors referred to oral hygiene and were related to scientific culture, whereas general factors referred to traditional knowledge ("internal fire"). Chinese immigrants' dental health seeking pathways include self-treatment, consulting a dentist in Canada or in China during a return visit, and obtaining Chinese traditional medicine. The dental health seeking pathways varied depending on the circumstances. For dental caries and other acute diseases such as toothache, Chinese immigrants prefer to consult a dentist. For chronic diseases, some of them rely on self-treatment or an alter-native treatment such as traditional Chinese medicine. The language barrier, financial problems and lack of trust are the main factors affecting Chinese immigrants' access to dental care services in Canada. Former bad medical or dental experience among Chinese immigrants causes a loss of trust in Western medicine and dentistry and influences the decision to seek alternative treatments. / Conclusion. This study suggests that, in order to facilitate dentist-patient communication; oral health professionals should be informed of immigrants' representation of oral health and illness, and that Chinese immigrants should be provided with basic scientific knowledge.

To identify predictors of infant-care behaviours among immigrants, women were recruited on hospital postpartum units. Among the 3,484 women screened, 11.8 percent were eligible for enrollment and 77.3 percent agreed to participate. The follow-up rate was 94 per cent. Data on predictor variables were collected during face-to-face interviews in the early postpartum period. Follow-up telephone interviews occurred at three months postpartum to assess infant-care behaviours. / Using a chunkwise, hierarchial approach to multiple linear regression modelling, maternal and infant predictors accounted for 24.2 percent of the variance in the 'Infant-care Behaviours' Score. In the second stage of model building, ethnocultural variables explained an additional 5.8 percent of the variance. / Separate analyses for women who had lived in Canada less than three years versus three or more years yielded some differences in predictors for women in the two strata. Among recent immigrants; worries about the infant's health, mother's education, and current immigration status by parity were significant predictors, explaining 23 percent of the variance. Among less recent immigrants; worries about the baby's health, prenatal class attendance, marital status, and official language comprehension ability explained 37.7 percent of the variance. / To establish effectiveness of the hospital liaison referral process, data from the predictors' study were linked with records of public health postpartum follow-up. Sensitivity of the hospital liaison referral process was less than 55 percent. / Study findings provide direction for strengthening the postpartum referral process for ethnically diverse immigrants. The significant predictor variables are readily identified by the hospital staff of postpartum units. Results illustrate the importance of assessing theory-based ethnocultural characteristics among immigrants to determine their 'at-risk' status.

<p> Ethnic discrimination stress (EDS) in the workplace among high-achieving Adivasis is a problem that has received little attention in research literature. This qualitative phenomenological study investigates the above problem by using Giorgi's descriptive psychological method. The method, selected due its scientific rigor, applies Husserlian concepts of phenomenological reduction, intentionality of consciousness, and imaginative variation, to identify and describe the psychological structure of the lived experience of EDS. The 15 participants in the study, selected on the basis of the scores of General Ethnic Discrimination Scale, were currently employed high-achieving male Adivasis above the age of 24. The saturation of the data was achieved with the analysis of 272 pages of interview transcripts of 10 participants. The study found that the participants had to face overt ethnic discrimination and microaggressions that were endemic and not just aberrant. The lived experience of EDS involved being constantly judged by negative stereotypes, and being exposed to marginalizing behaviors from the upper caste people. The participants believed that ethnic discrimination, in spite of their academic and career achievements, was meant to perpetuate upper caste hegemony. The resultant feelings of dehumanization, disillusionment, anger, combativeness, and helplessness from silencing led to demoralization. Coping with EDS involved an initial period of resentful submission with negative coping behaviors and a gradual movement toward change-oriented proactive responses. The findings point to a relationship between resilience and career achievement as well as to the need for both structural and paradigmatic changes in order to create a discrimination-free work environment. The findings reflect the tenets of critical race theory and call for paradigmatic changes in the caste mindset and the dominant discourse that is embedded with dehumanizing stereotypes of Adivasis that promote silencing and upper caste hegemony. The findings may be significant for mental health workers and educators to understand the inner world of discrimination and to find effective strategies for coping with EDS. By giving a scientific voice to the Adivasi struggle against discrimination, the study can support the efforts of the marginalized and the governments for the creation of a discrimination-free work environment.</p>

<p> This thesis studies the potency of place in mobilizing social categories, and its implications for both social categories and places. I use the theory of distanciation to study associations between caste identity and place. I conducted an ethnographic study of a caste-based digital group, the <i>Cyber Thiyyars of Malabar,</i> to understand the connections and disconnections between the Thiyya caste and Malabar from the perspectives of different sets of actors involved in the identification of caste, namely the nation-state and members of this caste-based network. The nation-state knows the Thiyya caste in a manner that is disconnected from Malabar, while the <i>Cyber Thiyyars of Malabar</i> seek to re-emphasize the identification of this caste through the region. Participant observation and in-depth interviews indicate that through references to Malabar, the group seeks to establish a Thiyya caste identity that is distinct from the Ezhavas, a caste group within which the nation-state subsumes them. </p><p> I demonstrate that references to Malabar serve to counter the stigma that the <i>Cyber Thiyyars of Malabar</i> experience when the spatially abstract categorization of the Thiyyas interacts with notions of caste inferiority/superiority. Further, it serves as a mobilizational tool through which they hope to negotiate with the nation-state for greater access to affirmative action. I also demonstrate that caste identification continues to be relevant to the production of place. Place-based identification of the Thiyyas influences the manner in which the group envisions the physical boundaries of Malabar and how other social groups can belong to this region. Based on this analysis, I argue that framework of distanciation should incorporate not only the experience of place and social relations, but also how they are known and represented. </p><p> This dissertation establishes that even though social categories such as caste and place are not conventionally understood to be connected to each other, it is important to study the associations between them. Although the new media and globalization may prompt to us to think that place does not matter anymore, I establish that this caste group uses the language of place to organize and mobilize itself on a stronger basis in precisely this context. </p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to partner with the community to learn and conceptualize how to integrate a spiritual and leadership development program in order to promote social and family responsibility in African American and Latino at-risk males who have become single fathers and to become responsive to the Word of God in their lives.</p>