This doctoral thesis discusses issues concerning participation for children and young people, educated in special schools for pupils with learning disability, LD. The overall purpose of this doctoral thesis is to elucidate the preconditions of participation for persons with LD, in past and present times. A further purpose is to look into how ideas belonging to persons with LD relate to the social categorisation of LD, especially in the sphere of education. How has this category been established up to our time? Nowadays, which ontological and epistemological conceptualisation and which stance on society do persons with LD express in a first-person perspective? What can persons with LD expect of other persons, knowledge and society? Two young people with LD, called Elin and Blomman, told their life-stories with focus on those years they spent in special school. To this effect, thirteen tape-recorded interviews were conducted, constituting the empirical data. A Foucaultian model was applied in the analysis of their life-stories, which were then interpreted in a hermeneutic way of understanding. The first-person perspective of what it means to live with LD appears to be complicated and full of contradictions. Time spent in school included, after all, meaningful education in terms of challenges, traditional knowledge of subject matter, socialising and moments of happiness. However, Blomman also demands existential knowledge. He wants to arrive at an understanding of his difficult life. "Good-enough-for-disabled-persons”-thinking by others is obvious. The results also demonstrate that participation in social networks gives support and serves as a sounding board. Elin and Blomman relate with a blend of both closeness and distance to others in special school, which is attended by both ”the disabled” and ”those who sit in a wheelchair”. Blomman agrees with the fact, that ”fully grown-ups” decide upon certain things. He has not yet taken upon himself the role of being grown up. Yet, he has a good grasp of his own shortcomings. Elin looks upon herself as a competent and successful relationship-builder. Persons with LD try to understand what it means to be disabled. They seek to understand themselves and they themselves in social relations to others, exactly as everybody else. According to Blomman, there is nothing wrong with his personality. By uttering these words he offers teachers and providers of education and many others, an exciting train of thought.

Information is one of the most essential resources in our contemporary societies, as it guideshuman thinking, planning and subsequent actions, which in turn generates consequencesthat are desired or not. The Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in 2008, the tsunami in Indonesiain 2004, the Space Shuttle Challenger destruction in 1986 are just three instances ofdramatic situations, emerging continuously, where information plays a crucial role. Thisstudy investigates the phenomenon of the lack of needed information, predominantlyexperienced with difficulties in human, social and industrial affairs. Consequently, thechallenge is to understand why such situations emerge. Two approaches are utilized toexplore this challenge using an interpretivist tradition. The first is a hermeneutic approach,the second a grounded theory approach. The first approach – theoretically oriented –investigates numerous theoretical bodies, selected with the assumption that they can explainthe addressed challenge. The results show that there are no comprehensive theoreticalbodies that can fully account for the phenomenon of the lack of needed information.Furthermore, there is no consensus on what “information” is – the very core of thechallenge, which gave the foundations for a formulation of an alternative notion ofinformation and is instrumental for the present investigation. Thus, no a priori theory isused to guide the empirical investigation. The second approach – empirically oriented –investigates fifty empirical cases, where the lack of needed information is clearly manifested.The results present an initial outline for a possible future theory of information inadequacy,constituted by the dichotomy of information-lack and information-overflow. Informationlackis dominated by: “information is non-existent”, “information is insufficient”, “information is censored” and “information is undelivered”. Whereas, information-overflow isdominated by: “information is ambiguous”, “information is redundant”, “information isirrelevant” and “information is undervalued”. The two main dichotomous characteristics andtheir interrelations result in patterns of various information inadequacies. The keyconclusion of the present study is that while dramatic situations are increasing everyday,there is as yet no theoretical body designed to comprehensively account for the phenomenonin context; only partial accounts are found. Thus, the empirical investigation suggests thatthe phenomenon of the lack of needed information seems to emerge because of diversefactors, ranging from political and cultural structures, through human individualcapabilities, and ending with procedural and technological artefacts. This study advocatesthat further research is needed to fully account for and explain instances of the lack ofneeded information, and that such an account requires an innovative and interdisciplinary focus.

Dagens mångkulturella samhälle avspeglas inom vården där vårdpersonal dagligen möter patienter från olika kulturer. Kommunikationssvårigheter relaterade till språkbrister kan uppkomma i mötet med patienter som inte förstår och talar svenska. I omvårdnadsarbetet ställs detta på sin spets, i synnerhet när det gäller vård vid livets slutskede. Denna studie syftade till att kartlägga och tolka vårdpersonalens upplevelser av möjligheter och svårigheter i omvårdnaden av denna patientgrupp. I studien har en kvalitativ metod med en hermeneutisk forskningsansats använts. Totalt åtta semistrukturerade djupintervjuer genomfördes med undersköterskor och sjuksköterskor som arbetade på en hospiceavdelning i södra Sverige. Studien resulterade i tio deltolkningar som sedan bildade tre nya deltolkningar på en högre nivå. Slutligen gjordes en huvudtolkning: att en individanpassad vård kan ses som en möjlighet för att överbygga svårigheter och problem som uppkommer i mötet med patientgruppen. Möjligheterna och svårigheterna för att åstadkomma en individanpassad vård återfanns i yttre faktorer, hos patienten och hos personalen. Culture Care teorin användes för att skapa en djupare förståelse för delar av studiens resultat. Vidare multidisciplinär forskning och utbildning krävs för att vården ska kunna leva upp till hälso- och sjukvårdslagens krav om vård på lika villkor. / Today’s multicultural society is reflected in healthcare as professionals encounter patients from different cultures on a daily basis. Communication problems related to language deficiencies consequently occur in interactions with these patients. This can lead to inadequate care delivery at the end stage of life. The aim of this study was to identify and interpret health care professionals’ experiences of opportunities and challenges in delivery of nursing care to this patient group. A qualitative method was used with a hermeneutic approach. Eight semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with healthcare professionals working at a hospice in Southern Sweden. The results identified ten sub-interpretations which were distilled into three over-arching interpretations which lead to the following singular conceptual interpretation: Individualized care is viewed as an opportunity to overcome problems that arise when meeting this group of patients. The possibilities and challenges to achieve individualized care came from a combination of external, patient and staff factors. Cultural Care Theory was applied to parts of the study results to achieve greater understanding of the subject. Furthermore, multi-disciplinary research and education is necessary to ensure that health care providers can live up to The Act of Health Care requirements for care delivery on equal terms.

The thesis contributes to the research field of education, or more specific to the field of religious education. The aim of the thesis is to interpret how young adults of today describe and understand their lives, with a specific focus on existential themes, and furthermore, to develop useful concepts that can help us understand individual meaning-making in a social and cultural context. The meaning-making of young people and how they explore and develop their understanding is, in the thesis, seen both as an individual process and at the same time something socially shared. The theoretical understanding of the social context takes its point of departure in Berger and Luckmann’s theory about the social construction of reality. The methodological approach is empirical and the study is based on 21 deep-interviews with men and women between 19-29 years old. Their statements are analyzed using a hermeneutic - interpretive method. The thesis gives a picture of the young adults’ understanding of death and the meaning of life. But the study also addresses vital existential themes for the young adults around the questions: who am I, what do I want to choose and where am I heading. Still another important theme is insecurity. One important contribution of the thesis is the development of new concepts that describe the young adults’ understanding of their lives, in terms of personal and shared configurations. In the material I have seen three different kinds of shared configurations and I speak of those in terms of: life-views, taken for granted perspectives and institutions. The dynamics that the personal configurations give examples of can be understood both in light of the shared configurations but also in light of the personal agency that the young adults show signs of.

<p>The first aim of this work has been to analyse and understand the ways in which a group of ANC-women politicians reason about bridewealth/<i>lobola</i> – an institution about which they express differing views, in particular about whether or not it is oppressive to women. The main body of the empirical material is based on 27 interviews conducted in South Africa in the period 1996-1998. </p><p>One finding of the study is that there are <i>explicit defining</i> discourses on <i>lobola </i>as well as more <i>implicitly </i>expressed understandings. The explicit discourses make a distinction between ’good <i>lobola</i>’ – which is expressed in a family-related discourse as ’a bond between families’ – and ’bad <i>lobola</i>’ which is expressed in, for instance, an economic discourse about ’the purchase of women’. The family-related discourse is interpreted as part of a discursive strategy to create <i>spaces for action</i> with respect to relations of gender-related power. (Re)definitions of <i>lobola</i> may be used not only to counter men’s abuse of monetary <i>lobola</i> but also to counter ’traditional’ gender meanings associated with <i>lobola</i>. Furthermore, explicit discourses on <i>lobola</i> are interpreted as a ‘political discourse’ which is formed both in relation to pragmatic ‘political realities’ but also in relation to hegemonic Western discourses. The political discourse on <i>lobola</i> in connection with ‘African identity’ constitutes a discursive strategy to provide <i>discursive space</i> in order for ’Africans’ to be able to (re)interpret a cherished but also controversial institution. </p><p>A second aim of the study has been of a self-reflexive character. It consitutes a critique of a ‘doing gender’ theoretical perspective as well as an attempt to transcend the ‘actor/structure dichotomy’ in sociological analysis. </p>

The first aim of this work has been to analyse and understand the ways in which a group of ANC-women politicians reason about bridewealth/lobola – an institution about which they express differing views, in particular about whether or not it is oppressive to women. The main body of the empirical material is based on 27 interviews conducted in South Africa in the period 1996-1998. One finding of the study is that there are explicit defining discourses on lobola as well as more implicitly expressed understandings. The explicit discourses make a distinction between ’good lobola’ – which is expressed in a family-related discourse as ’a bond between families’ – and ’bad lobola’ which is expressed in, for instance, an economic discourse about ’the purchase of women’. The family-related discourse is interpreted as part of a discursive strategy to create spaces for action with respect to relations of gender-related power. (Re)definitions of lobola may be used not only to counter men’s abuse of monetary lobola but also to counter ’traditional’ gender meanings associated with lobola. Furthermore, explicit discourses on lobola are interpreted as a ‘political discourse’ which is formed both in relation to pragmatic ‘political realities’ but also in relation to hegemonic Western discourses. The political discourse on lobola in connection with ‘African identity’ constitutes a discursive strategy to provide discursive space in order for ’Africans’ to be able to (re)interpret a cherished but also controversial institution. A second aim of the study has been of a self-reflexive character. It consitutes a critique of a ‘doing gender’ theoretical perspective as well as an attempt to transcend the ‘actor/structure dichotomy’ in sociological analysis.

Due to a lack of effective writing strategies and inhibition of English language proficiency, university students in China are found to produce little and shallow content in their English academic writing. Similar problems are also embodied in the academic writing of Chinese overseas students who struggle to survive in the target academic community. The purpose of this study was to investigate the writing processes of second language (L2) writers, specifically examining the writing strategies of three Chinese post-graduate students in an Australian higher education institution. The study was prompted by the paucity of research in the writing strategies used by Chinese students in English academic writing in an authentic context. Although it was too small in scale to generalise in the field of L2 writing, the study will stimulate research in L2 writing theory and practice. Based on a review of theories related to L2 writing and research in Chinese and English writing strategies, the writing strategies used by three Chinese post-graduate students while writing academic papers in English were investigated. Their understandings of English and Chinese writing processes, the issue of transfer of Chinese writing into English writing and cultural influence of native language on L2 writing were explored as well. Qualitative hermeneutic multi-case study methods were employed to provide a richer description of the writing strategies used by the three students to develop a deeper understanding of the L2 writing process. Data were provided by three Chinese post-graduate student writers in Public Health who were observed undertaking different tasks. Ally, a Masters student, was observed completing one of the assignments for a course. Susan and Roger, both doctoral students, were observed working on a second stage proposal and a journal paper respectively. Data collected from semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, retrospective post-writing discussions and papers were categorised and analysed using topical structure analysis and cohesion analysis. The findings suggest that writing in a second language is a complicated idiosyncratic developmental process influenced by cognitive development, social/educational experience, the writer's first language (L1) and second language (L2) proficiency and cultural factors as well. These proficient writers were found to utilise a broad range of writing strategies while writing academic papers in English. This study in some degree supports Silva's (1993) finding that the L2 writing process is strategically, rhetorically, and linguistically different from the L1 writing process. Most of the metacognitve, cognitive, communicative and social/affective strategies except rhetorical strategies (operationally defined in this study as organisation of text or paragraphs) were found to transfer across languages positively. These student writers were noticed to have difficulties in acculturating into the target academic discourse community because of their background of reader-responsibility which is regarded as a crucial feature in Eastern rhetoric and is distinguished from writer-responsibility in English rhetoric (Hinds, 1987, 1990).

No description available.