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In this analysis of public speeches from four American presidents from the Republican party, the ways in which those presidents discuss and position American defense activities and stances are examined, to track the progression from the 1960s to the present. Presidents from one party were chosen, who presided over a period of active armed conflict or cold war. The addresses analyzed comprised public addresses to Congress or the American people. The analysis groups recurring frames--conceptually developed based on framing and agenda setting theories--into thematic categories for each president. Some frames were more salient for certain presidents than for others. Other frames were common and pervaded the presidents’ remarks to Congress and the public. America’s struggle against a faceless enemy, American military might as a guarantor of, and the importance of the United States’ commitments to its international partners were all prevailing frames which emerged in the analysis.

Psychology's literature regarding fatherlessness is not only grim, mainly pointing out the negative consequences of fatherlessness, but it also does not provide much specific information about fatherless individuals' experiences. A pilot study revealed that fatherless individuals do not always suffer from the loss of their father and that they also have the ability to overcome the negative consequences commonly associated with father loss. The research questions for this study presented themselves naturally after reviewing the literature and after considering the results of my pilot study, namely, “What do fatherless individuals actually experience in being fatherless, and what is the nature of the experience of being fatherless in people who seem to display successful coping and resilience?” Phenomenology and the Grounded Interpretive research method were employed to explore in depth the lived experience of three participants. My interviews show that cultural, family, and educational background and the individual's interpretations of his or her situation significantly contributed to how fatherlessness was experienced. In contrast to the generally grim literature on fatherlessness, the results of the present study suggest that the consequences of fatherlessness do not have to be as grim as they are generally portrayed. While fatherlessness is difficult, there is hope for the fatherless in that they can overcome the negative implications of their situation-a finding that contributes to a more holistic understanding and a perspective of fatherlessness that has not yet been sufficiently been documented by the literature.

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Based on the narratives of young people this research explores the rise in youth violence in Kenya¿s secondary school system and wider society and the potential for peacebuilding to address youth violence. Of particular concern is the gradual change in the profiles, patterns and intensity of the conflict, as evidenced by the increase in the number of youth militias. This increase is often attributed to unemployment and poverty ¿ yet, to date, no systematic research has been produced on the extent to which the youth participation in violence occurs through choice or coercion, or indeed both. Worryingly, a significant number of young people involved in this violence are secondary school students. The findings of this research indicate that despite responses to youth violence in the school and wider Kenyan society, the violence is unabated. Notably, approaches continue to be top-down, generic, superficial and ineffectual. By marginalising the narratives of the youth who participate in and/or observe the violence, current institutional policies and approaches are decontextualised - from both the particular and the wider Kenyan context. This leaves intact the root causes of the violence. This research raises important questions concerning generic, top-down, quick-fix, outmoded cultural paradigms, hierarchical and questionable homogeneous pedagogical approaches to peacebuilding in both the schools and wider Kenyan context. In attempt to address these deficiencies the research seeks to find out approaches to peacebuilding and the Kenyan education systems that can respond to youth violence. This research proffers three key dimensions that can be incorporated in order to ensure effective and sustainable peace: experiences, worldviews and attitudes of the actors. The research, which utilises a constructivist grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2006), was conducted in fourteen secondary schools in Nairobi and the Rift Valley provinces ¿ two provinces that have been at the centre of youth violence and militia activities. These provinces were also selected in order to reflect the multi-cultural and multi-ethnic character, and the different types of schools in Kenya.

The secondary use of Dementia Care Mapping (DCM) data, if that data were held in a data warehouse, could contribute to global efforts in monitoring and improving dementia care quality. This qualitative study identifies requirements for the secondary use of DCM data within a data warehouse using a user-driven approach. The thesis critically analyses various technical methodologies and then argues the use and further demonstrates the applicability of a modified grounded theory as a user-driven methodology for a data warehouse. Interviews were conducted with 29 DCM researchers, trainers and practitioners in three phases. 19 interviews were face to face with the others on Skype and telephone with an average length of individual interview 45-60 minutes. The interview data was systematically analysed using open, axial and selective coding techniques and constant comparison methods. The study data highlighted benchmarking, mappers’ support and research as three perceived potential secondary uses of DCM data within a data warehouse. DCM researchers identified concerns regarding the quality and security of DCM data for secondary uses, which led to identifying the requirements for additional provenance, ethical and contextual data to be included in a warehouse alongside DCM data to meet requirements for secondary uses of this data for research. The study data was also used to extrapolate three main factors such as an individual mapper, the organization and an electronic data management that can influence the quality and availability of DCM data for secondary uses. The study makes further recommendations for designing a future DCM data warehouse.

This narrative ethnography is based on seven years of research collaboration with the Walpole Island First Nation (WIFN). The study focuses on local perceptions of risk as they relate to ecosystem integrity, human health and well-being. Discourse analysis of generic and nuanced community narratives reveals diverse yet complementary situated knowledge that are firmly rooted in Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe) cultural teachings, values and practices. Gerald Ryle and Clifford Geertz's conceptualization of thin and thick description is used to parse out the various components of what I've identified as a community genre of toxic talk. Within this model, thin description refers to observations of the surface metamorphoses of the physical environment through pollution and other anthropogenic changes. Thick description emerging from the analysis of elegies and echoes of loss and discourses of resistance illuminates the discursive tactics employed by community members to resist Western frameworks of risk analysis and re-situate the topic of environmental health within the wider interpretive matrix of structural violence. A proposed Shell refinery expansion project is used as an example of how WIFN actively mobilizes discourses via oral tradition in the struggle for environmental justice. Through the strategic use of toxic talk, the community draws attention to environmental issues while simultaneously laying bare to a wider, non-Native audience the historical scaffolding of Native issues that are part and parcel of contemporary environmental crises and their effective mediation and resolution. The 'discursive movement' from elegies and echoes of loss to discourses of resistance reframes Walpole Island residents from those who are defined by survivorship to those who embody and evoke a spirit of survivance. The dissertation concludes with a semiotic critique of the Western medical terms chemophobia and risk perception. This leads to the advancement of toxic talk as an alternative framework for acquiring a more politicized, historicized and humanized understanding of environmental concerns at Wal pole Island. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Parents of children with autism shoulder substantial responsibility for navigating intervention to address autism-related concerns, and face conditions of high uncertainty and stress to do so. There is a lack of holistic research explaining how parents cope and respond to the complexity and obstacles that characterize their situation as they navigate multiple forms of intervention across multiple systems of care. The purpose of this qualitative study was to develop a social psychological explanation in the form of a substantive theory of how Ontario parents of children with autism navigate intervention under complex informational conditions. I used grounded theory methods, a constructivist approach and symbolic interactionist analytic framework for this research. The findings are primarily based on 45 in-depth (90-minute) interviews with 32 mothers from different urban and rural Ontario regions (fathers participated in 3 cases), and 9 professionals with expertise supporting parents. Documents were also analyzed. The central process of navigating intervention, labeled making your own way, consists of adjusting to the need to navigate intervention, in which parents construct the meanings that prepare and motivate them for taking action to navigate intervention. Adjusting consists of 4 interdependent sub-processes that together explain parents’ action: defining concerns, informing the self, seeing what is involved, and emotionally adapting. I portray the central process according to three overlapping heuristic stages: beginning the autism journey, handling transitions, and easing off. Many parents develop a strong sense of urgency to which they can respond by going into high gear, expending substantial personal resources sometimes at unsustainable rates in the pursuit of intervention. The findings have implications for supporting parents to improve outcomes including parent stress. The central process of making your own way is generically transferrable to other healthcare consumer populations. Other conceptual elements have theoretical relevance for consumer-centered areas of health research. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Parents of children with autism shoulder significant responsibility for navigating many varying services and treatments (intervention) to address autism-related concerns, and experience great uncertainty and stress as they do so. There is a lack of research explaining how these parents respond to the complexity and obstacles they encounter as they navigate intervention. Using qualitative research methods, I interviewed 32 urban and rural Ontario parents (mostly mothers) and 9 professionals with expertise supporting parents to understand in detail how parents respond to their situation by making their own way to intervention. The resulting analytic findings have implications for improving support for parents of children with autism to reduce stress in their lives and improve other outcomes. The theory developed is also relevant for understanding how other healthcare consumer populations navigate intervention, and contributes to general knowledge in different consumer-centered areas of health research.