This study examines women's use of leisure as politics, especially as related to leisure as resistance, leisure and social worlds, and women's body image. Interviews were conducted with fifteen participants and coaches in two all-women's triathlon training groups in Austin, Texas. Both training groups prepared women for participation in the Austin Danskin Triathlon. Qualitative methods, grounded theory and constant comparison guided the interviewing and data analysis process. It was determined that Danskin trainees formed a social world which allowed them to redefine their bodies and redefine the tenets of organized sport. This finding centered around three major areas: initial involvement, community building and resistance. Most participants became involved initially for social reasons even though they often were out of shape or had not previously participated in athletics. Several participants experienced barriers to involvement commonly discussed in gender leisure studies including weight issues, "ethic of care" concerns and fear of not deserving leisure time. During participation in their training programs, the majority of trainees formed a community with their fellow participants which provided them with a safe place and a support structure. As a result, many Austin Danskin triathlon trainees were able to communally resist cultural and societal norms surrounding women's bodies and competitive athletics. As a group, trainees redefined the way women should look and placed function above form. Furthermore, they reclaimed sport from the male norm and instead demanded that it go beyond bigger, better, faster or stronger and instead focus on community, support and teamwork. The results of this study urge leisure providers to create programs that appeal to the whole person - not just the physical. As a result of the data, several hypotheses may be suggested for future study: Do women's only recreation programs provide a crucial link between social world formation and leisure as resistance? What other programs may produce similar results and why?

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Canberra, 2006. / Includes bibliography (p. 438-461)

Texte remanié de : Thesis Ph. D. : Ethnography : McGill University. / Bibliogr. p. 157-163. Index.

Thesis (M. A.)--University of Alberta, 2009. / Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on Dec. 28, 2009). "A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Religious Studies, [Department of Religious Studies], University of Alberta." Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 246-258).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed January 12, 2010). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 312-328).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 597-653).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 312-323).

Stereotype threat and lift occur when a negative or positive group stereotype results in a shift in task performance for group members. Social identity theory (SIT) explains that the socio-structural variables influence the group members’ strategy to maintain a positive group identity and predicts that perceived intergroup conflict would interact with status to affect their experience of the stereotype and potentially impact on stereotype threat and lift on test performance. The experimental design manipulated the task-related group status of science students (assigning 122 students to high status, low status or control conditions) and their perceived intergroup conflict (high and low) with an out-group of humanities students whom they believed to be real but were actually simulated. The high and low status were manipulated using test instructions that activated the stereotype that the science group compared a humanities group either possessed an analytic cognitive ability that was required for test performance and post degree success (high status) or possessed an alternate flexible cognitive ability that was not required for post degree success (low status); whilst the status control condition excluded a diagnostic comparison of cognitive ability. The inter-group conflict and cooperation were experimentally manipulated by presenting hostile or cooperative feedback using intergroup matrices adapted from Tajfel (1981) in a computer simulated interaction with a virtual humanities out-group. The change in status (stereotype threat and lift) and conflict were measured using the Ravens Advanced Progressive matrices (APM) which was presented as the test of performance which measured post degree success. The APM was used as a dependent measure of the group level stereotype-related differences in performance for high conflict-threat, high conflict lift, high conflict control, low conflict threat, low conflict lift and low conflict control conditions. The results showed that status and conflict interact to impact on test performance outcomes of the science students. Specifically, the change in stereotype threat is reversed when science students receive cooperative feedback from the humanities out-group. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sci.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermartizburg, 2011.

National multicultural and multiracial pluralism is a reality of modernity. In Canada multiculturalism has been an official policy since 1971. As a settler society the concepts, values and principles entrenched in multiculturalism, citizenship and immigration reflect a history of racialization. Uncritical views of nation building and citizenship assume that all Canadians have equal opportunity to participate and contribute to the social, economic, cultural and political life of the country. Given the current milieu of globalization, transnationalism and internationalism in an era of interconnectivity, market economies and of focus on economic capital, there is a challenge for Canada to consign a sense of place and equal participation to all its citizens. This is a conceptual thesis that looks at how government policy and dominant hegemony in Canada mediate relationships and identities within and among immigrant communities and other marginalized communities be they bound by geography, economics race, gender, religion or sexuality. Personal-narratives from my own experience as an immigrant are used to highlight how social relations are constituted, synthesized, merged, enacted, intersected, transpired and inspired. The objective is to interrogate the ubiquity of racially esssentialized and exclusionary practices that continue to inform and guide our development as a settler society, no matter how rigorously we may deny or how we frame the practice of racialization. The key issues to be examined are, first, the development of group and individual identity in its relational, political, historical and cultural contexts. The second issue is the development of social relations between marginalized communities as they are affected by government policies in areas of immigration, multiculturalism and citizenship. And finally the thesis examines the practice of Adult Education as contributing to social relations between communities. Identity and identity politics circumscribing the Canadian psyche provides a powerful location for adult learning in general but particularly in situations serving immigrant and newcomers. This thesis develops a lens that contributes to a critical approach to the provision of Adult Education in settlement services, health education, work place training, language acquisition and other services that shape social relations between communities. These programs should incorporate critical theories to make transparent the 'real' history of Canada and students place in the nation.