This dissertation is an experiment in thinking with the story, not about the story in order to erase the boundaries between analysis and narrative. CASA, Community Action Stops Abuse, is the context for this research on the lived realities and meaning of working with an empowerment philosophy. A University-Community Initiative (UCI) grant with CASA and the University of South Florida is the occasion to study the communicative aspects of individual and collective perceptions of empowerment. The dissertation focuses broadly on two UCI project goals: developing a collaborative relationship and producing a booklet of stories about the work of paid staff and volunteers. The heart of the dissertation is my relationship with the CASA workers and how scholarship and advocacy intersect with a philosophy of reciprocal and compassionate empowerment.

Since the issue of dating violence emerged onto the research agenda in the 1980s, researchers have focused upon measuring the prevalence of physical violence occurring in young people’s intimate relationships, using quantitative methods. Surveys, which have limited young people’s reporting to stating whether or not they have perpetrated or sustained any of a fixed range of predetermined violent acts, have formed the dominant methodological approach. In the main, dating violence studies have focused on researching university students in the United States of America, and young people not attending American universities are an under-researched population in the dating violence literature. The dearth of qualitative approaches to past studies of dating violence has meant that young people’s own accounts of their experiences, attitudes and perceptions of dating violence and abuse have been afforded minimal focus. Feminist theoretical approaches to dating violence research are now emerging, contributing a valuable gendered analysis of the issues. Through qualitative interviews with forty five young people aged 16-21 (23 men and 22 women), recruited primarily from a Further Education college and an organisation working with young people not in education, employment or training, this thesis explores young people’s attitudes, perceptions and experiences of violence and abuse in intimate dating relationships, through a feminist theoretical lens. The study is couched in a rich body of feminist empirical and theoretical literature, which conceptualises intimate partner violence as primarily an issue of men’s violence against women, perpetrated with the rationale of maintaining power and control. The impact that popular theoretical discourses of gender equality and female empowerment may have upon young people’s capacity to acknowledge ongoing gender inequalities is also considered in this thesis. The findings of the current research indicate that young people’s dating relationships (and experiences of heterosexuality in general) reflect ongoing gender inequalities which are influenced to a great extent by patriarchal modes of power and control. The accounts of young men and women in this study established dating relationships as sites of imbalanced gender power, with many modes of men’s power control, surveillance and monitoring of their girlfriends described as ‘normal’ and acceptable. There was a widespread perception among the participants that dating violence is an issue of ‘mutual combat’ where women are just as likely as men to be perpetrators, even though their experiences of dating violence largely reflected the pattern of female victims and male perpetrators. In regard to violence against women by men, many of the participants perceived men’s violence to be understandable in the face of women’s provocation, particularly in cases where women are perceived to be ‘cheating’. For a significant minority of young people, intimate relationships are sites of violence and abuse, with women disproportionately the victims. The findings from this study indicate a lack of awareness of the avenues of support that can be accessed by young people experiencing dating violence and abuse. The findings also highlight a requirement for direct educative strategies to challenge some young people’s support for men’s violence against women.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Studies by feminists frequently investigate reasons why poverty reduction strategies involving income and work generation projects for poor women fail to deliver on set economic and social goals to provide jobs, income, education and skills training. Several reviews over a number of decades indicate a prevalence of welfare-oriented interventions that apparently contradict the intended transformative potential of economic empowerment, gender equality goals and anticipated outcomes included during the design of national policies and programmes. Different theoretical frameworks have, over time, been called upon to account for and have attempted to explain these shifts, changes and contradictions. Studies of women and work in developing countries in the 1970s and 1980s were mostly led by economists who commented on the perceived failure of policies and projects, and continued to investigate the cause of this anomaly. Given that the majority of these experiments combined both social and economic goals these policy findings were later viewed with skepticism leading to further probes about recurring failures, and the lack of progress to improve the status of poor women. After decades of scientific research on gender inequality and a slow pace of change with regard to poor women’s economic status in developing countries, feminists revealed a disturbing finding: the lack of sound, ethical evaluation criteria and frameworks. This influenced a dramatic shift to alternative normative (value-based) approaches in which ethical and moral debates on development policy implementation flourished. Pointing to a general lack of empirical studies addressing policy implementation, arguments by these standpoint feminists proposed that policy and project implementation in different contexts lag far behind achievements in research and policy evidence. This assumption about the lack of integration of policy evidence with appropriate feminist theory, underpins my main motivation in this thesis. My intention is to apply a new feminist lens in order to examine the gendered nature of the historical period in which transitional policies in South Africa were implemented in the aftermath of authoritarian apartheid policies. The current thesis argues for adoption of the political ethics of care (PEOC) as an appropriate normative feminist policy research approach providing excellent criteria for exploring the gendered dimensions of new social policies and programmes implemented during the first policy cycle of reform towards democratising South African society (also referred to as the transition 1994-2001). At the time of its conception, my investigation proceeded with the realisation that iv many projects and programmes were evolving; and that contextual impact assessment criteria in the field of gender and development policy remained an emerging new research terrain lacking appropriate and critical gendered social indicators for monitoring, evaluation and theory building. Most of the newly formulated policies included results of previous research recording the historical role and socio-economic effects of apartheid policies. However, an urgent need existed for new critical gender perspectives to address important post-apartheid issues of vulnerable groups – such as women, youth, physically challenged and children – and arguing for their full citizenship, including economic citizenship and integration into job creation. The evolving policy relational structures that were embarked on during this reform, such as democratic state-civil society partnerships, new democratic decision-making, dialogical processes and policy service programmes, were in dire need of exploration and re-examination using alternative and new feminist theoretical lenses. This study explored the field of social policy implementation in the context of this transition period. It investigated the phenomenon of income generation projects (IGPs), being a development that was new to the South African professional social work disciplinary field. Used as a key macroeconomic policy mechanism, IGPs were embedded in policy relational structures (in the form of partnerships or consortiums) during the transition period. They formed a key part of policy interventions in social development as prescribed by the White Paper on Social Welfare (Department of Welfare, 1997b) having a dual purpose: to reduce poverty and unemployment, and to promote gender-sensitive strategies. The qualitative nature of the design used for this study is combined with a post-modernist and post-structuralist, gendered case study approach drawing on programme evaluation research techniques. Direct observation, documentary analysis, depth interviews and focus groups sessions formed part of a comprehensive data-gathering research strategy used in different micro-project and community settings in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Three broad research questions were pursued throughout this enquiry, addressing the following: the extent to which income generation projects as proposed within the National Developmental Policy Framework were addressing poverty and gender inequality in a satisfactory way; what appropriate normative frameworks and concepts to study these existed; and whether the PEOC could serve as an alternative framework; and how a user perspective could be incorporated in public debates and policy-making. v A sample of four partnership project cases, targeting poor black women (and men) from three different community settings – being semi-rural, peri-urban and urban – as primary beneficiaries met the selection criteria for this longitudinal, in-depth study that drew on purposive and theoretical sampling approaches. All the projects or programmes included in the sample were engaged in job creation and social development work involving multiple stakeholders and partners. A significant part of the study focussed on the formation of partner relationships or consortiums between government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), together with grassroots community-based self-help project participants (beneficiary) groups and individuals. Information and data collected were audio-taped, transcribed and analysed to assess the impact and social effects of newly implemented policy structures and processes on subjects. Alternative feminist theoretical and analytical approaches, being a care perspective that combined critical gender assessment methodologies and feminist ethics (political ethic of care) were applied to argue for more critical and appropriate, gendered research studies that could capture the important link between macroeconomic policies and evidence of unpaid care work embedded and performed within the development sector. By foregrounding the invisible unpaid care work performed by low intensity citizens in this sector, the state’s role and interaction as a development partner with NGOs and poor citizens in the implementation of social development policies that involved job creation and IGPs became apparent. This thesis concludes by reiterating feminist proposals for a more inclusive notion of citizenship and calling for on-going studies to monitor perspectives on gender equality and work creation. More importantly, it suggests that PEOC could serve as an important research and analytical framework to document and integrate the right and access, by both men and women, to care, a critically important gender equality principle so often neglected in existing studies and scholarship.

This thesis explores how people struggle to make livable lives in the conditions of existence of seeking asylum in the UK. The study is based on ethnographic research, conversations and participant observation, with people seeking asylum in Manchester. Grounding the research in their narratives is a contribution to decolonizing knowledge and doing justice to the sentience of people who are marginalized and pathologized. The narratives are brought into dialogue with feminist and decolonial philosophy and political theory, and with empirical studies of 'refugeedom' from a number of disciplines, to produce a new field of connection from which to map the terrain involved in theorizing livability. While the whole thesis seeks to respond to the narratives, there is a detailed focus on three dimensions which participants emphasize as crucial to livability: settlement in Manchester; the prohibition of employment; the asylum application procedures. These are moments in which livability is claimed as both ethics and practice. From the perspective of the narratives and the ethics which permeate them, livability opens up into questions of recognition, social justice and care. People claim commonality: recognition as human, equality and inclusion in social goods, and care in public settings. These are the practical and ethical supports of livability. The narratives point also towards critiques of 'refugeedom', the policies and practices that form the discursive and material conditions within which people seeking asylum attempt to make livable lives.

Women continue to be in the minority in school administration in public schools in the United States, although the majority of teachers are female. The role of assistant principal is the gateway to school administration. The purpose of this study was to describe the essence of the transition from teaching to school administration, the role of a female assistant principal, and the career aspirations of female assistant principals. This study used a phenomenological approach to understand the essence of the transition for the participants. Six women were interviewed using a semi-structured interview protocol to collect data on their experiences transitioning to the role of assistant principal. Using the process of horizonalization, the data were transcribed and analyzed using statements and quotes from the interviews to develop themes common to all participants. Findings revealed that these women continually seek to better themselves, others, and their organizations. They experienced a significant sense of loss as they transitioned to their new role. Lastly, the supports needed by women as they continue in their career as school administrators were uncovered.

Women tend to be underrepresented among cyclists in many Western cities. The literature on gender and cycling identifies two main reasons to explain the gender gap: differences in risk aversion, and unequally shared domestic responsibilities. While urban cycling policies often focus on developing cycling infrastructures to encourage cycling, this research argues that such approach is not sufficient to achieve diversity among cyclists. The case study of Lyon, in France, provides a good example, as increased cycling infrastructures over the past few years have not prevented the existing gender gap among cyclists in the city. This research uses qualitative methods and feminist theories to investigate the reasons for the lower representation of women among cyclists in Lyon. It focuses especially on the role of the gendered meanings attached to cycling in explaining the gender gap, i.e., how cycling is perceived, interpreted, and appropriated by women. Female cyclists, non-cyclists, and members of cycling associations have thus been interviewed to understand their motivations and barriers to cycling. Numerous aspects impacting negatively cycling levels among women have been raised throughout the interviews, some not directly related to cycling infrastructures. These include a lack of representation of women among cyclists, restraining social norms, and gender inequalities in general. These findings underscore the importance to take into consideration, besides cycling infrastructures, social and cultural factors that may encourage or not women to cycle in urban cycling policies to close the gender gap.

No description available.

The clothing industry can be linked to problematic issues of social equity and environmental sustainability worldwide. This is manifested in the every-day consumer behavior of industrialized societies, which heavily relies on geographically distant labor and resources. Therefore, this thesis looked at the interconnection of social equity and environmental sustainability from a nexus perspective. Nexus approaches are increasingly defining the pathway to sustainable development, yet they typically represent resource-efficient and technological solutions. This form of problematizing water sustainability can keep long-term societal justice problems ‘beneath the surface’, meaning that they are less considered. The WPR approach was used as an analysis tool to understand underlying implications of water sustainability problematizations in the clothing industry. An embedded single case study on the Sweden Textile Water Initiative (STWI) was conducted, which included and integrated literature review, brand document analysis and semi-structured interviews. The initiative’s goal is to help clothing brands to address water sustainability issues along the supply chain. The results show that water sustainability stands in connection to four overarching themes; environmental issues, economic issues, technological issues and socio-political issues. There is a consensus in the literature and amongst the industry representatives that the problems connected to water sustainability in the clothing industry mainly occur on factory level in producing countries. Additionally, the results show that brands have difficulties to act on their responsibility as strong influencers of the supply chain if there is not a business case. Overall this thesis concludes that the classical nexus approach is not a sufficient solution to water sustainability issues if resources make up the center of analysis and social implications are only considered secondary effects.

Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych) / Women and their bodies are at the very centre of a prevailing cultural obsession regarding strict standards of body weight, shape and image. The pressure to achieve unattainable body-beautiful standards has given rise to women having a negative relationship with their bodies. This preoccupation with body image has resulted in an increasing sense of body dissatisfaction, chronic dieting and anxieties associated with self-worth and appearance. The primary aim of this thesis is to explore the relationship a group of female participants have with their bodies. The major thrusts of this study are: to explore on a deeper level how they make personal meaning of the concepts of body and body image within their own lives. To explore the way in which women understand their broader social context, as playing a role, in relation to their perceptions and attitudes of their bodies. In this respect, a closer examination of their awareness of the more complex gender issues, will be undertaken, by means of the emerging discourses within the research process. Whilst this study generally locates itself within a social constructionist understanding of body image, it actively draws from feminist theories. The literature review outlines empirical, feminist and social constructionist approaches to body image and explores the social constructionist approach more broadly. It utilises discourse analysis and therefore positions itself within a qualitative paradigm. Three one-and-a-half-hour focus groups were conducted with eight women who are psychology honours students. A discourse analysis was carried out on the transcriptions of the three focus groups. The findings revealed that the participants were aware of the way in which the wider cultural context impacted on their perceptions and attitudes regarding their bodies. They understood the way in which body image is socially constructed and specific to the current cultural context. They identified the current body ideal (norm), to be waif like and very slender. Despite this understanding of the body ideal as socially constructed, they continued on a personal level to evaluate themselves against the body ideal, giving rise to personal feelings of inadequacy and dissatisfaction.

No description available.