The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria (GF) offers new approaches and challenges in international aid for health. Little research is available exploring the experiences of individuals and communities working within the confines of GF policies in Latin America. The study fills this gap through a qualitative exploration of local experiences with tuberculosis (TB) services and the GF in Nicaragua. <p>This study sought to examine local stakeholders (administrators, health personnel and persons affected by TB) experiences related to GF policies relevant to TB services in Nicaragua. The study drew from a population health perspective and was informed by an ethnomethodological approach. Key themes focused on TB control, health systems and health rights. Data collection involved contextual analysis, participant observation, in-depth interviews and focus groups. The study involved 6 months of fieldwork in Nicaragua from November 2005-April 2006. Fieldwork was conducted with the support, participation and assistance of the Centre for Health Research and Studies, the Damian Foundation and the National Tuberculosis Control Program. <p>Analysis of findings shows various internal and external challenges in communication/procedural and disbursement/execution aspects of the GF grant. In TB control, participants identified private sector participation, case detection & reduced abandonment as improvements resulting from the GF project, though sustainability was a key concern. In health systems, concerns of efficiency and efficacy in the use of funds were commonly expressed. The focus on human resource development via the GF was considered a strength of the project. Community participation and the reduction of stigma, two facets of health rights, were perceived to have improved through the GF grant; however, remain identified as key issues for improving the context of TB in Nicaragua. The experiences of people working to implement or receiving TB services and GF activities in Nicaragua offer valuable insight into the strengths and challenges of this country-driven approach to aid for health. The GF needs to give more attention to such experiences a resource for improving flexibility and assuring sustainability in program strengthening and human resource development.

This interdisciplinary dissertation is a study of the ways in which we sensually embody and experience ow world. It is a metaphilosophical account that begins within orporeality; indeed, it is suggested that this isthe place where the philosophic urge is argued, elaborated, and reflected upon. While many studies of embodiment tend to focus upon "the body" as object, cultural artefact, or text for cultural inscription, the approach used in this dissertation is with the incarnation (the making flesh) of interaction in particular socio-physical milieux. The shift is thus from investigation of bodies to bodying, from noun form to transitive verb of incorporealization. This shift is felt necessary in order to better understand the so-called dualisms of traditional Western philosophic thought: mindbody, self-other, self-world, nature-culture, etc., and Tantric inspired Eastern philosophies of self-all relationality. It will be suggested, taking the lead from Leder (1990), that these apparent dualisms are not so much "add-ons" to philosophies of being, but arise in the experiential body itself. This dissertation endeavours to rethink certain "givens" of everyday life, such as perception of time and space, place, enacted memory, having empathic feelings for others, and so on, from within bodily experience and occidental-oriental philosophies of being. Certain neurological disorders are examined for their way of deconstructing elements required to construct a meaningful incarnated life-world. The process of embodiment is not only what the body is, but what it does. My construction of what is necessary for embodiment studies therefore considers bodily praxes (cultural and individual), as well as the sensual, sensate experiences arising in the body. The image of a ball game is evoked in various ways throughout the dissertation not only because it well describes the dense layers of interaction and an emergent sense of bodiliness, but it also illustrates reciprocity and situatedness. This thesis is intended to contribute to the health sciences as well as cultural studies. It draws upon the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty, J. J. Gibson's ecological psychology, neurological studies and case histories, and the Eastern tradition of Tantrism in its Mahayanist Buddhist and Taoist forms.

This dissertation examines how bipolar disorder, a common and disabling psychiatric condition, is made relevant as a participants’ concern in a site of massively consequential psychological business – the psychotherapy session. As its central thesis is the claim that the practices by which bipolar disorder gets done as bipolar disorder are invariably absent in most formal accounts of the disorder. In this regard, the dissertation provides an empirically grounded description of a range of discursive practices associated with the doing of bipolar disorder in psychotherapy. This is undertaken from a discursive psychological orientation that draws extensively from ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, and Wittgensteinian philosophy. Following a review of bipolar disorder as a diagnostic psychiatric category, consideration is given to alternate conceptualisations which suggest the category is constructed in-and-through complex socio-historical practices which are often occluded and considered irrelevant to the category’s situated deployment. This notion is used to provide a more sustained examination of how one might ‘get at’ such practices in situ by way of conducting ethnomethodological and conversation analytically informed investigations. In consideration of how one might approach psychological categorisation practices in talk-in-interaction, a discursive psychological orientation is developed which stresses the social, public nature of psychological categories in use. The empirical materials examined in the dissertation are drawn from a corpus of audio recordings of seven ‘naturally occurring’ psychotherapy sessions involving a clinical psychologist and five clients for whom the category ‘bipolar disorder’ has demonstrable relevance. Practices examined include those relating to the production and recognition of what might count as a bipolar disorder ‘symptom’, the manner in which ‘moods’ operate as account production devices, and the methods by which psychological terms (such as ‘thought’ and ‘feel’) operate in-and-as situated practices involved in psychotherapeutic business.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Bowling Green State University, 2007. / Document formatted into pages; contains xii, 205 p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 72-76). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1995. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [262]-297).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Santa Cruz, 2001. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 431-454).

A tese procura compreender quais ações sociais estão presentes na recepção e produção de obras de arte contemporânea. O ponto de vista da etnometodologia é de que os processos de interação são originários e formais, pois o sujeito fenomenológico não se percebe, é sempre o outro para o qual se dirige. E, ao mesmo tempo, as ações sociais e interpretações são orientadas por métodos (pressupostos e subentendidos) compartilhados entre agentes. Para investigar estes métodos, deve-se situá-los no contexto de uso, as circunstâncias concretas, que os tornam observáveis e relatáveis (accountable) por meio de operações de visibilização e/ou ocultamento, antecipação e/ou aguardo. A etnometodologia observa as ações sociais em situações rotineiras, nas quais os agentes lançam mão do conhecimento que compartilham e esperam que os outros façam o mesmo. É quando se age sem pensar. As artes são frequentemente analisadas segundo as diferenças produzidas nas relações cotidianas, oferecendo outros olhares e deslocamentos para o que já é habitual. Não negamos esta condição, mas compreendemos também que a observação de artes não se dá fora do mundo social. Cotidianamente, os agentes utilizam recursos de identificação das circunstâncias em que se encontram, do interlocutor com quem interage e do ambiente onde se insere. O que significa que estes recursos estão disponíveis a qualquer pessoa e são levados para o interior de galerias e museus, à revelia de observadores, artistas e instituições. Para qualquer um que ocupe a posição de observador da obra, as circunstâncias concretas da recepção (a obra, o texto da crítica, a fala do artista, a ação dos outros visitantes, etc.), exigem, deste agente, operações semelhantes às utilizadas no cotidiano. Estas operações foram investigadas nas entrevistas com público e artistas, nas quais se buscou reconhecer quais recursos e métodos compartilhados com a obra, o público, os outros artistas e a crítica, eles lançam mão quando ocupam as posições de observador ou produtor de obras de arte. / The thesis seeks to identify the social actions present in the reception and production of contemporaty art. According to ethnomethodology, the interaction processes can be classified as both originative and formal, because the phenomenological subject does not perceive itself, it always addresses to someone else. Moreover, social actions and interpretations are guided by methods (implied and expected) shared among agents. Those methods should be investigated in the context of use, the actual circumstances that make them observable and reportable (accountable) through operations of visualization and/or concealment, forwardness and/or retention. Ethnomethodology observes the social actions in everyday situations, in which agents make use of the shared knowledge and hope that others do the same thing. It is when one acts without thinking. Works of art are often analyzed by the differences they produce in everyday life, introducing other perspectives to what is usual. We dont deny that carachteristic, but we also understand that art observation belongs to the social world. In everyday life, the agents use action resources to investigate the actual circunstamces, auditors and locations. Therefore, those resources are available to anyone and are taken inside galleries and museums regardless of those institutions, the public and the artists. The actual circumstances of reception (the work of art, the critics text, the artists speech, the other visitors actions, etc.) demands of anyone in the observer role procedures similar to those of everyday life. In the interviews with the public and the artists, we tried to identify, through the discourses, which resources and methods are shared with the work, the public, other artists and criticism.

A tese procura compreender quais ações sociais estão presentes na recepção e produção de obras de arte contemporânea. O ponto de vista da etnometodologia é de que os processos de interação são originários e formais, pois o sujeito fenomenológico não se percebe, é sempre o outro para o qual se dirige. E, ao mesmo tempo, as ações sociais e interpretações são orientadas por métodos (pressupostos e subentendidos) compartilhados entre agentes. Para investigar estes métodos, deve-se situá-los no contexto de uso, as circunstâncias concretas, que os tornam observáveis e relatáveis (accountable) por meio de operações de visibilização e/ou ocultamento, antecipação e/ou aguardo. A etnometodologia observa as ações sociais em situações rotineiras, nas quais os agentes lançam mão do conhecimento que compartilham e esperam que os outros façam o mesmo. É quando se age sem pensar. As artes são frequentemente analisadas segundo as diferenças produzidas nas relações cotidianas, oferecendo outros olhares e deslocamentos para o que já é habitual. Não negamos esta condição, mas compreendemos também que a observação de artes não se dá fora do mundo social. Cotidianamente, os agentes utilizam recursos de identificação das circunstâncias em que se encontram, do interlocutor com quem interage e do ambiente onde se insere. O que significa que estes recursos estão disponíveis a qualquer pessoa e são levados para o interior de galerias e museus, à revelia de observadores, artistas e instituições. Para qualquer um que ocupe a posição de observador da obra, as circunstâncias concretas da recepção (a obra, o texto da crítica, a fala do artista, a ação dos outros visitantes, etc.), exigem, deste agente, operações semelhantes às utilizadas no cotidiano. Estas operações foram investigadas nas entrevistas com público e artistas, nas quais se buscou reconhecer quais recursos e métodos compartilhados com a obra, o público, os outros artistas e a crítica, eles lançam mão quando ocupam as posições de observador ou produtor de obras de arte. / The thesis seeks to identify the social actions present in the reception and production of contemporaty art. According to ethnomethodology, the interaction processes can be classified as both originative and formal, because the phenomenological subject does not perceive itself, it always addresses to someone else. Moreover, social actions and interpretations are guided by methods (implied and expected) shared among agents. Those methods should be investigated in the context of use, the actual circumstances that make them observable and reportable (accountable) through operations of visualization and/or concealment, forwardness and/or retention. Ethnomethodology observes the social actions in everyday situations, in which agents make use of the shared knowledge and hope that others do the same thing. It is when one acts without thinking. Works of art are often analyzed by the differences they produce in everyday life, introducing other perspectives to what is usual. We dont deny that carachteristic, but we also understand that art observation belongs to the social world. In everyday life, the agents use action resources to investigate the actual circunstamces, auditors and locations. Therefore, those resources are available to anyone and are taken inside galleries and museums regardless of those institutions, the public and the artists. The actual circumstances of reception (the work of art, the critics text, the artists speech, the other visitors actions, etc.) demands of anyone in the observer role procedures similar to those of everyday life. In the interviews with the public and the artists, we tried to identify, through the discourses, which resources and methods are shared with the work, the public, other artists and criticism.

In South Africa the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination is the capping external examination taken at the culmination of twelve years of schooling. Levels of success in the examination offer examinees access to a variety of career options. High levels of success in the mathematics examination are a pre-requisite for entry into studies linked to so-called elite careers. However, performance of examinees in the NSC Mathematics examination is not of a requisite standard and only a few examinees achieve results that fall within the high levels of the achievement bands. In order to give mathematics teachers and others insight into performance in the NSC Mathematics examination, various forms of feedback are provided. One purpose in doing so is to provide teachers with an understanding of the examinees' ways of working in order for them to adjust their classroom practice to address mistakes displayed in the work of the examinees. The feedback provided is primarily of a superficial kind with the mere listing of such mistakes. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether or not it is possible to analyse the production of the responses of examinees in the NSC mathematics examinations more meaningfully.