This thesis is about global catastrophic risks and the conscious effect of such risks at the level of everyday life. Utilising R. D. Laing's concept of "ontological security", this thesis questions the extent to which risks that loom in the global environment cause a sense of ontological insecurity amongst individuals at the local-level. In addressing this question, this thesis responds to the theories of Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens who maintain that the contemporary age is marked both by the emergence of global risks that exist as the unintended consequences of modernisation and a greater sense of risk owing to how information about such risks is disseminated by the media. While no objection is made to the argument that the global environment has become more objectively threatening, this thesis questions whether individuals in fact perceive such threat in their daily lives. This argument rests on the view that global risks, in the main, lack a tangible dimension needed to elicit a sense of urgency. Seeking to ground the risk literature from the level of theoretical abstraction to that of lived experience, this thesis presents a case study of how risk is perceived in the tourist-dependent township of Akaroa. Despite the fact that New Zealand is generally seen as "safe" and "secure" and removed from the vicissitudes of global events, its economic reliance on international tourism ensures a susceptibility to external forces that disrupt global tourism flows. Given the recent publicity as to how such risks as climate change and peak oil may undermine international tourism in New Zealand, it is clear that areas that are particularly reliant on the international visitor market, like Akaroa, are significantly exposed to global events. This not only makes Akaroa an ideal case study in which to establish the extent to which global risks undermine ontological security in daily life, it also helps measure how seriously individuals in tourist-dependent areas consider the possibility of a substantial tourist decline.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosphy (PhD) / This research applies Bourdieu’s theorising of habitus and cultural capital to understand how class mediates young people’s reflexivity and perceptions of risk. It engages with the theories of reflexive modernity, primarily with the work of Beck and Giddens, who both describe recent processes of individualization, detraditionalization and the increasing importance of the concept of risk. The study seeks to critically engage with Bourdieu’s project, reworking some of his key theoretical ideas such as the possibility of ‘reflexivity’ itself being a new form of embodied cultural capital. It also engages with works that see discourses of risk as central to neo-liberal governmentality. The research entails 380 surveys and nine focus groups at three distinct secondary schools in a large regional Australian city – a public high school in an outer suburb low socio-economic area of the city which offers a specialist sports program; an inner suburb academically-selective public high school where pupils gain an offer of enrolment only through rigorous academic testing; and an expensive private college in the middle of the central business district. Year Eleven and Twelve students (16-18 years) at the three schools were asked about their ambitions; the obstacles they think may stand in the way of achieving their ambitions; and about their perceptions and experiences of inequality and risk. The risks discussed include the problems involved in the day-to-day life of young people as well as their engagement with larger risk discourses about technology and the environment. The data highlights how inequality is experienced or denied by some, and analysed from a distance by others. Reflexivity is present regardless of class position, but is expressed in a variety of ways. There are clear and subtle distinctions in engagement with micro and macro level risks. Overall, the data highlights how class continues to shape practice, perceptions and emotions.

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Departamento de Sociologia, 2006. / Submitted by Allan Wanick Motta (allan_wanick@hotmail.com) on 2010-05-13T13:44:15Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2006_GabrielMouraPeters.pdf: 1940430 bytes, checksum: 7416febf3a4c6df35b744d95a179be33 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Daniel Ribeiro(daniel@bce.unb.br) on 2010-05-13T21:42:04Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2006_GabrielMouraPeters.pdf: 1940430 bytes, checksum: 7416febf3a4c6df35b744d95a179be33 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2010-05-13T21:42:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2006_GabrielMouraPeters.pdf: 1940430 bytes, checksum: 7416febf3a4c6df35b744d95a179be33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-01 / O trabalho desenvolve uma exegese dos quadros teórico-metodológicos de análise da vida social avançados por Pierre Bourdieu e Anthony Giddens, concentrando-se nas formas pelas quais cada um destes autores ataca o problema fundacional da relação entre os planos da agência e da estrutura, tomados como as duas dimensões essencialmente constitutivas de qualquer retrato ou investigação do universo societário. O exame de tal problemática justifica-se pelo fato de que a teoria da prática de Bourdieu e a teoria da estruturação de Giddens têm como alicerce comum a tentativa de superação de um espectro de dicotomias inter-relacionadas que atravessam a história do pensamento científico-social no século XX, tendo sido expressas por uma variedade de rótulos binomiais, tais como subjetivismo/objetivismo, individualismo/holismo e micro/macro. A investigação das inovações conceituais e teses sócio-ontológicas desenhadas nas teorias dos autores supracitados é situada contra o pano de fundo de uma apresentação de tais antinomias, as quais indicam a tendência, corporificada em uma impressionante diversidade de perspectivas teórico-metodológicas, à formulação de concepções do relacionamento entre a ação individual subjetivamente propelida, de um lado, e as propriedades estruturais ou institucionais de formações coletivas, de outro, nas quais uma primazia ontológica e/ou explanatória é aprioristicamente imputada a uma destas esferas. Nesse sentido, o foco da exposição das armaduras teórico-analíticas de Giddens e Bourdieu se dirige ao elenco dos argumentos pelos quais ambos buscam demonstrar os limites de soluções teóricas unilaterais ao problema da articulação entre as instâncias da agência e da estrutura, ao mesmo tempo em que tecem instrumentos heurísticos orientados precisamente no sentido da captura da relação de condicionalidade recíproca estabelecida entre as mesmas no desenrolar da existência sócio-humana. Este percurso exegético desemboca, por fim, na conclusão de que a teoria da prática e a teoria da estruturação consistem em versões distintas de um modelo praxiológico-estruturacionista de investigação do mundo social, um enfoque que tem como pedra de toque a tese (trivial apenas à primeira vista) de que a caracterização da vida societária como fluxo ininterrupto de práticas configura-se como o ponto de partida heuristicamente mais frutífero para a construção de um retrato acurado dos processos simultâneos de constituição da sociedade pelos agentes e de constituição dos agentes pela sociedade. ____________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT / The work develops an exegesis of the theoretical-methodological frameworks of social analysis formulated by Pierre Bourdieu and Anthony Giddens, focusing on the ways through which each of these authors tackles the foundational problem of the relation between the spheres of agency and structure, taken as the two essentially constitutive dimensions of any portrait or investigation of the societal universe. The exam of this problematic is justified by the fact that Bourdieu’s theory of practice and Giddens’s theory of structuration have as their common foundation the attempt to overcome a specter of inter-related dichotomies that stalk through the history of XXth century social-scientific thought, being referred to through a variety of binomial labels, such as subjectivism/objectivism, individualism/holism and micro/macro. The investigation of the conceptual innovations and social-ontological theses drawn in the theories of the above quoted athors is situated against the backdrop of a presentation of such antinomies, which indicate the tendency, embodied in an impressive diversity of theoretical-methodological perspectives, towards the formulation of conceptions of the relationship between subjectively propelled individual action, on the one hand, and structural or institutional properties of collective formations, on the other, in which an ontological and/or explanatory primacy is aprioristically imputed to one of these spheres. The focus of the exposition of the theoretical-analytical armors of Giddens and Bourdieu is directed towards the reunion of the arguments through which both try to demonstrate the limits of unilateral theoretical solutions to the problem of the articulation between the instances of agency and structure, while weaving, at the same time, heuristic instruments oriented precisely towards the capture of the relation of reciprocal conditionality established between those instances in the course of human social existence. This exegetical path leads, at last, to the conclusion that the theory of practice and the theory of structuration consist in two distinct versions of a praxeological-structurationist model of investigation of the social world, an approach that has as its cornerstone the thesis (a trivial one only at first sight) that states that the characterization of societal life as an endless flow of practices constitutes the heuristically most fruitful starting point to the construction of an accurate portrait of the simultaneous processes of constitution of society by agents and of constitution of agents by society.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T23:14:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo4211_1.pdf: 1472666 bytes, checksum: 1b7fb2d1cb0b5564e9752ddf0c7f2d17 (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar uma discussão do conceito de confiança nas relações amorosas, que possa ser útil às novas inquietações e indagações sobre as relações afetivas da contemporaneidade, considerando-se os atuais padrões de relacionamentos adotados. Para tanto, partiu-se de alguns autores que contribuíram na elucidação do tema no âmbito das Ciências Sociais: Georg Simmel, Michel Foucault, Niklas Luhmann, Zygmunt Bauman e Anthony Giddens. Em Georg Simmel, podem-se apontar três possibilidades para pensar o problema da confiança nas relações amorosas: 1. o surgimento de uma moral geral-particular resultaria no reconhecimento mútuo entre homens e mulheres, viabilizando a confiança entre eles, 2. as mulheres conquistariam a liberdade social , através da repetição da objetividade criada pelo homem. Neste caso, a confiança seria restrita ao âmbito público e 3. as mulheres seriam capazes de combinar os elementos subjetivos e objetivos, sendo a confiança no amor possível apenas entre elas. Os homens viveriam então, num estado solipsista. A confiança nas relações amorosas, em Michel Foucault, poderia ser extraída de uma determinada formação discursiva, e criada pelas subjetividades dos objetos do mundo, e, portanto, variante e envolvido tanto pelas práticas de sujeição quanto pelas de liberação. Segundo Niklas Luhmann, a confiança é importante porque reduz a complexidade social. Nas relações amorosas, esse conceito deve ser visto a partir de sua teoria dos sistemas ou perspectiva neo-funcionalista. A fragilidade das relações amorosas no mundo contemporâneo é refletida na sensação de perigo que depende da ação de terceiros ou de fatores sociais o que pode levar o indivíduo a correr o risco resultado da decisão do agente e envolver-se menos. Superando-se esta possibilidade da relação entre risco e perigo, o amor seria transformado em confiança, esvaziando-se. Para Zygmunt Bauman, o amor líquido é definido por relações de interesse e de extremo egoísmo. As relações afetivas são comparadas às bolsas de valores, e a confiança costuma ser transformada em desconfiança, em um curto período de tempo. A durabilidade e a estabilidade das relações são trocadas pela preocupação do indivíduo em conectar-se à rede narcísica do mundo contemporâneo. Com uma visão mais otimista acerca do amor, e pode-se dizer aqui, da confiança nas relações amorosas, Anthony Giddens parte da democratização da vida pessoal, enfatizando as conquistas das mulheres e a combinação entre equidade, liberdade e autonomia. Ao final da análise deste trabalho, a fidelidade evidenciou-se como um elemento central da confiança nas relações amorosas. Tentou-se, portanto, apresentar algumas categorias que pudessem refletir as motivações dos indivíduos relativas à infidelidade: 1. Desejo (necessidades biológicas e psico-sociais), subdivido em: a) Desejo sexual e b) Desejo-paixão; 2. Reconhecimento social/não reconhecimento social; 3. Manutenção da relação; 4. Combustível da relação; 5. Teste; 6. Auto-encorajamento para terminar a relação; 7. Forma de encorajar a(o) parceira(o) para terminar a relação; 8. Razão instrumental; 9. Vingança e 10. Sistema Social. Essas categorias foram criadas para iluminar o debate sobre a contraditória valorização da fidelidade e sua negativa empírica no mundo hodierno, e enfatizar a necessidade de re-pactuar o vínculo amoroso, admitindo que o amor possa ser suplantado, considerando as elevadas chances do esvaziamento do sentimento, mas preservando os sentidos de amizade e de humanidade

Majoriteten av de som lever med skyddade personuppgifter i Sverige är kvinnor som flyr från före detta partners. Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur kvinnor som lever med skyddade personuppgifter ser på sin vardag, sin identitet och sin tillit till individer i deras närmaste omgivning samt till samhället. Vi har besvarat syftet med hjälp av teoretiska utgångspunkter från Anthony Giddens och Erving Goffmans teoretiska perspektiv och begrepp som berör individen och individens sociala interaktioner i samhället. Vi har genom online-intervjuer intervjuat kvinnor som levt skyddat under varierande tidslängder, från sex månader till åtta år. Kvinnorna är i åldrarna 30 till 50 år och har olika bakgrunder till varför de lever skyddat men med den gemensamma nämnaren att de alla flyr från män som de tidigare haft en relation med. Denna studie har en fenomenologisk ansats där vi har utgått ifrån informanternas livsvärld för att få förståelse för hur informanterna upplever fenomenet som är att leva med skyddade personuppgifter. I vårt resultat av studien så har vi kommit fram till att den förändrade situationen resulterat i att kvinnornas liv satts på paus och deras personliga utveckling har till viss del stannat av, vilket deras vardag till stor del har påverkats negativt av. Deras utsatthet har resulterat i en bristande tillit till sin omgivning och även till myndigheter och samhället. Majoriteten av kvinnorna känner att samhället åsidosätter kvinnornas rättigheter och placerar dem på skyddade boenden för att de inte ska behöva ta ansvar för dem. De flesta känner en liten upprättelse över att de har fått skyddet och blivit betrodda av rättsväsendet, dock upplever kvinnorna att de inte har fått en fullständig upprättelse eftersom de tvingas leva begränsat medan gärningspersonen ofta går fri.

The concept of ontological security has grown extensively in the International Relationsliterature, owing to the new explanations it generates for states’ security- and identity-relatedbehavior. In the process, however, the concept has become sprawling, vague and incoherent,due to the multitude of different understandings of the concept. To improve the concept’sadequacy, counter the risk of conceptual stretching, and provide the foundation for a commonresearch agenda, this essay constructs a typology to divide and classify the ontological securityliterature in IR. The typology’s main contribution is the dimension of ontological insecuritymechanisms, understood as the different ways that the ontological security of an agent can bethreatened, and the different types of existential anxieties that follow. To test and illustrate thistypology, the essay conducts an empirical case study of Russia’s engagement in the conflict inSyria since 2015. The results strongly indicate the presence of all ontological insecuritymechanisms, thus clearly implying that Russian behavior in Syria is driven by ontologicalsecurity concerns. The findings also demonstrate the typology’s usefulness and fruitfulness inmore closely specifying the nature of the ontological insecurity in particular cases.

In this thesis theoretical meaning of the concept of individualization is examined. Compilation and comparison of the concepts of individualization as they are understood by Ulrich Beck, Zygmunt Bauman and Anthony Giddens are put forward. Critiques of the concept of individualization are analyzed with focus on controversial issues of the concept of individualization. The analysis shows four types of objections: 1. Concepts of theorists of individualization are not based on empirical research, therefore they do not match the reality correctly. 2. In the conceptions of theorists of individualization, the individuals seem to be independent on the culture and on other people. 3. Social classes and gender status to some extent still affect the life of the individuals. 4. Individualization does not have the same effect on everybody. The analysis also shows that the controversial issues are the result of different meaning which give to the individualization creators of the concept and its critics. Theorists of individualization understand the individualization as macro-social phenomenon, whereas critics of individualization understand the individualization as the change of life and behaviour of the individuals due to the effect of various ambivalent processes. The question, how to connect those meanings...

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Mitt examensarbete handlar om hur arbetslösa ungdomar med försörjningsstöd kan se på sin situation, sin framtid och praktik som en språngbräda ut i arbetslivet. Uppmärksamhet läggs på de möjligheter och hinder som de ser på sin väg. Examensarbetet bygger på en kvalitativ studie där tre ungdomar intervjuats. Karolina Bozic, ungdomshandläggare vid Arbetsmarknadsenheten i Halmstad, har även hon intervjuats för att ge en bild av arbetet med de arbetslösa ungdomarna som har försörjningsstöd. Resultatet av mina intervjuer har analyserats utifrån de faktorer som enligt Giddens (2003) ger en förståelse för hur arbetslösheten kan påverka en människa. Vidare har jag kopplat resultatet till Bunar och Trondman (2001) som menar att föreställningen om framtiden bildas av de möjligheter man ser och de faktorer som formar ens liv. De talar även om det tragiska gapet, skillnaden mellan vad man vill och det faktiskt möjliga. Som en grund för analysen finns tidigare forskning uppdelad kring inträdet på arbetsmarknaden, att bli vuxen, kommuners arbete gällande arbetslösa ungdomar med försörjningsstöd samt synen på praktik. I mitt examensarbete kommer jag fram till att praktik har olika innebörd. Den kan stå för en merit, en chans att prova på ett yrke, någonting att göra och kontakter för framtiden. Praktiken kan även vara ett verktyg för personlig utveckling, något som kanske inte syns i arbetsmarknadseffekter men som har betydelse för individen. I mitt examensarbete framgår också att utbildning har stor betydelse. För de ungdomar jag intervjuat står utbildning, eller frånvaron av den, som den största möjligheten respektive hindret för att få ett jobb. Ingen av ungdomarna är särskilt motiverade för att studera vidare, men de kan se utbildning som den enda vägen ut ur sin arbetslöshet. Att vara arbetslös ungdom problematiserar inträdet i vuxenlivet. Lön skapar möjligheten att kunna försörja sig själv och planera sitt liv och sin framtid. Mitt examensarbete vittnar om ungdomar som står på tröskeln till vuxenlivet där jobb kan ge dem tillträde. Vuxenlivet med möjligheten att själv kunna bestämma över sitt eget liv är i många delar synonymt med arbetslivet. Att stödja ungdomarna i att hitta sin väg är ett betydelsefullt arbete för studie- och yrkesvägledare.

Long-term unemployment is a social problem that is expected to increase in the coming years because of the on-going recession. Unemployment creates dilemmas both for the individual and society in form of an increased pressure on the individual to be reflexive in their identity and self-development and for society which wants to regulate unemployment and keep it under control. In the regulation letter for the Public employment Service for the year 2023, it was clearly formulated that the authority must work to prevent people from falling into long-term unemployment. The purpose with this study is thru qualitative interviews with —Public employment officers, job coaches and recruitment staff— investigate if the first two´s tips to the unemployed people matches what the recruitment staff really want to see in the applications for example.. The empiric of this study will be analyzed with help of Anthony Giddens theory about the modernity and self-identity with terms like, Ontological security, disembedding and expert systems. The result of this study shows that there are divided meaning both within and between the professions, in what are expected from a unemployed person and how they should put themselves at the market in form of how to use the application documents. What also brings to the light it that it often is bad quality on the application documents. These disagreements and dilemmas that the job seeker encounters challenge its ontological security and can negatively affect them. / Långtidsarbetslöshet är ett samhällsproblem som befaras öka under de närmsta åren till följd av den pågående lågkonjunkturen. Arbetslöshet skapar dilemman både för individ och samhälle i form av en ökad press på individ till reflexivitet i sin identitet och personlig utveckling, och för samhället som vill reglera arbetslösheten och hålla den kontrollerad. I regleringsbrevet för Arbetsförmedlingen inför år 2023 var det tydligt formulerat att myndigheten ska verka för att förhindra att människor hamnar i långtidsarbetslöshet. Syftet med den här studien är att genom kvalitativa intervjuer med 3 olika grupper —arbetsförmedlare, jobbcoacher och rekryterare— undersöka om de två förstnämndas råd matchar det rekryterarna säger att de verkligen vill ha.. Empirin analyseras med hjälp av Anthony Giddens teoretiska ramverk kring det senmoderna samhället och självidentitet, med begrepp så som urbäddning, expertsystem och ontologisk trygghet. Resultatet på denna studie visar på att det råder stor oenighet både inom och mellan professionerna i vad som förväntas av en arbetssökande och hur den ska marknadsföra sig själv i form av ansökningshandlingar, men där det också framkommer att det ofta råder dålig kvalité på de ansökningshandlingar man tar emot. Dessa oenigheter och dilemman de arbetssökande stöter på utmanar dess ontologiska trygghet, och kan påverka den arbetssökande negativt.