In the past 20 years, Cuba has emerged as a world leader in urban agriculture and sustainable development, having shifted its policies and practices toward local, organic food production and self-sufficiency. This collective case study explored small-scale, unwaged urban agriculture and household livelihoods in Havana, Cuba. Data were collected from three case households through participant observation, in-depth interviews, and photos. Two of the families produce fruits, vegetables and animal products, and the third produces organic fertilizers. For these families, agricultural production requires time and labour, but produces multiple material and non-material benefits at the individual, household, and community level. The findings demand a more nuanced view of household livelihoods and agency in the Cuban context, and the notion of agriculture as work vs. leisure. As global concerns about resource depletion and social justice in food systems increase, much can be learned from families and countries that have successfully implemented alternatives.

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This study draws on empirical evidence to examine theory on the critical question: "What is the impact of the English literacy curriculum on the lives of female adult learners?" I used the critical postmodernist and feminist lenses to examine the lived experiences of four Black African domestic workers and their journey through adult literacy. I used life history and autobiographical writings as the main methodological tools to uncover the biographical experiences of the learners. The postmodernist lens provided a framework to understand the changing identities and the complexities in the lived experiences of the learners. The critical and feminist theories provided the framework to understand the power relations and female oppression in a gendered society. Researching adult literacy in transforming, unstable and uncertain environments is methodologically complex and challenging. In these circumstances it is often serendipity that provides tools for discovery. Thus letter writing and 'in loco' visits into informal settlements provided me with thick description of the adult learners' life worlds, which would have otherwise been closed. In drawing up a literacy curriculum for adult learners the ‘in loco' visits became a vital source of information. A major impact of the adult literacy programme in this study is that it provided learners with a language of criticism, hope and one with which to analyse their social and material conditions. The narrative writing and class discussions gave learners the opportunity to reflect, to be critically conscious of their poverty, to act and dream of their emancipation. The autobiographies were voices for the voiceless learners, offering them a space to explore their feelings through story telling. The story telling opened up possibilities, which was not mere reflection but a complex process of making a difference in the world through diffraction. Autobiographical writing as a narrative form provided the discursive space for learners to become reflective, conscientized and intellectually emancipated. However, they were not always able to assert their empowerment, because of the dominant mediating factors such as economic power relations and socio-cultural contexts. Feminist and critical pedagogical approaches to mediating the curriculum can be emancipatory, in environments of poverty, oppression and powerlessness. Although learners attained critical consciousness and intellectual liberation, only two of the four were able to break the shackles of poverty. The English language created a triple bind for the adult female learners. The dominance of the English language in the global economy, has created demands on adult learners to acquire competency skills in English in order to function optimally in society. The hegemony of the English language led to discrimination, and created class stratification as well as social inclusion and exclusion for learners. They either felt alienated or accepted. This study showed that the dominant indigenous language within their own informal community also causes social inclusion and exclusion. The first dominant pull is that of the English language, the second is the dominant indigenous language from their own communities and finally they are caught with the need for their own language causing a threefold pull or push on the learners' identities, which I call a triple bind. The quest to acquire the dominant language also created schisms in the learners' identities. This research has shown that the chasm between policy intentions and implementation has not been bridged. The promises of equity, redress and social justice as enunciated in Adult Basic Education and Training (from here on referred to as ABET) policy documents are far from being realized. This study revealed that the Department of Education in KwaZulu-Natal placed too much emphasis merely on summative tests and certification and not on the needs of the adult learner. If adult education continues in the same direction there will be no good incentive to work towards a programme that has a direct impact on the lives of marginalized females in particular. The study suggests that ABET curriculum must be situationally relevant to make an impact on learners. The adult literacy curriculum should offer programmes for critical consciousness as well as vocational training for income generation. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2004.

Domestic workers are commonplace in South African society, with most middle to upper-class homes employing a domestic worker. Recently the area of domestic work in South Africa has gained much needed attention with regard to legal issues. Many domestic workers in the past and even currently, are exposed to exploitation and abuse in many forms. The main concern of this dissertation, however, is the woman that does the domestic work. Women have always been concerned with their bodies – the form and shape, dieting, clothes worn, amongst many other things. Although many may not think so, this concern has not escaped domestic workers. This group of women are extremely concerned with their dress and how their clothes and bodies are perceived by the public. This study addresses this issue paying close attention to the woman behind the uniform. Domestic workers often travel daily to get to their place of work. Commuting to work holds a sense of occasion for them, where, since they do not have much in the way of social lives, they dress up to travel to work. This dressing up is two-fold. Firstly the domestic workers in this study dressed up to impress others (especially other domestic workers) and improve their self-esteem. Secondly, their dress is linked to their past and their future aspirations, many of these women have aspired to become professionals in certain fields, but their goals had become unachievable due to their unfortunate circumstances. These issues are explored and discussed in the dissertation below, situated within the context of the domestic workers lives in South Africa, both during and after work. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

The present thesis is a study of the economic consequences of declining real wages in the United States. It proposes that, when the real wages of the majority of the U.S. workforce declined in the 1970s, 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, household labour supply increased. Consequently, real family income in the bottom eighty percent of the income distribution rose. Wage-earning households were not only struggling to maintain their acquired standard of living as real wages were declining, but they were also, perhaps more importantly, trying to raise their standard of living. It was precisely when household labour supply hit a ceiling in the second half of the 1990s, that household debt exploded. Surging household debt from the late 1990s until 2007 – driven primarily by home mortgage debt – suggests that the culturally powerful “American Dream” motivated wage-earning households to seek and expect a continuously rising standard of living via home ownership even in the face of topped out work hours and historically low real wages.

(Agro)pastoralism in Sahelian Niger, as elsewhere, operates through household enterprises. Katsinen-ko’en (Fulбe) households, interconnected within kin and community networks, utilize a range of flexible strategies to manage a variety of ecological and economic risks. This dissertation argues that (agro)pastoralist households and communities maintain or improve viability in risky environments first by employing various mobility patterns, among other strategies, and relying on the tightly knit interdependence between household and herd. Secondly, households that most successfully sustain a cooperative integrity (i.e. partnerships between husband and wife, or wives, and parents and children) to negotiate decisions and strategies best withstand adversities such as droughts. The continuance of vital links between household and herd helps the household enterprise more easily weather difficult times and profit during advantageous times. Thirdly, the transfer of endowments from parents to children of ecological, economic and political knowledges and socio-economic networks ensures the continuity of family livelihoods. This dissertation analyzes a range of household/herd mobility patterns on a livelihood continuum from sedentary agropastoralism to exclusive pastoralism, and the household decisions that lead to those mobilities. In this way, it adds to a growing body of literature that examines household strategies employed in very uncertain natural environments, contributing to pastoral studies and environmental anthropology. By folding household economics and political ecology into household ecology, it analyses resource and asset transfers within and between households, all under the influence of the natural and political-economic environments. Contributing to development anthropology, I argue that the most important buffer against the risks of unpredictable environments is a stable, undivided household, migrating with and managing its own herd. I conclude by showing how development research and projects should support household/herd integrity to enhance livelihood security. When government or development agencies institute policies and projects that remove children from the household, or separate households and herds, they endanger the integrity of the household and the reproduction of livelihoods that make essential contributions to national economies. Rather than urging pastoralists to modify their livelihoods to fit images held by ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION administrators, these organizations and agencies should help pastoralists to build on adaptations that already facilitate their management of risky environments.

The link between mental health and income of military personnel remains relatively understudied in Canada. This research sought to determine whether household income is associated with poor mental health in terms of suicide ideation, suicide attempts, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and mood and anxiety disorders in various military samples. First, associations of household income and several DSM-IV diagnosed mental disorders were examined in active military personnel and the Canadian general population using the Canadian Community Health Survey Cycle 1.2 (CCHS-1.2; a representative sample of Canadians ages 16-64, n=28,688) and corresponding Canadian Forces Supplement (CCHS-CFS; a representative sample of active duty personnel ages 16-64, n=8,441). Second, associations of household income with categories of mental health conditions were examined in Canadian veterans using the Survey on Transition to Civilian Life (STCL; a representative survey of 3,154 former regular force personnel released from the military between 1998 to 2007, ages 15-67). Multiple logistic regression analyses, adjusted for sociodemographic variables, were used to determine associations between household income and mental health conditions in the three populations. Military characteristics (such as rank, branch, years of service, and previous deployment) were examined for potential influence on the household income-mental health relationship in the military and veteran samples. The primary hypothesis for this study was that lower income would be concomitant with poorer mental health in all three populations. This hypothesis was confirmed in the Canadian veteran population and general population. With respect to active service members, the results were less definitive; although trends in the data suggest that household income is associated with mental disorders, statistical tests were non-significant. The results of this study have important implications for future policy formulation and program development for military and veteran personnel; for active personnel, more thorough mental health screening procedures and prevention strategies focused on those in lower income brackets may have significant health and economic implications. For veteran personnel, the incorporation of knowledge and understanding of the impact of income on mental health into transition to civilian life policies and support programs may provide similar benefits.

This study aims to investigate the domestic and work organization at the mansions located in the south of Västmanlands county years 1705-1849. The study takes into account the manors' size, ownership, owners' status and social changes. The study includes both large manors with noble owners and smaller manors with bourgeois owners.  The study examines how the households were formed, how they changed over time and how thet may have links to the Manor's ownership and size. The organization of labour is studied on the basis of how it changed over time and what it may have links to the owners ' status and the manors size. The focus is to answer how the connection was between household size, its composition, organization of labour and the owner’s status in the society.  Also if a difference can be seen between the strategies of the noble owners compared to the bourgeois owners.

The following is a qualitative study designed to collect and study elderly (>65) perceptions of in home lifestyle monitoring technology. Data were collected through three focus groups, organized and analyzed for results. The focus groups were run in a semi-structured manner with the co-moderators presenting questions from an original valid instrument. The study suggests that nearly all of the participants are comfortable with current technologies and around 50% of the sample group would be interested in using the new proposed technologies. The study also suggests that the participants have a high level of current wellness and are generally comfortable in their current residence. / Fisher Institute for Wellness and Gerontology