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This thesis examines how young children experience games and how that question is relatedto gender. The examination of this question is conducted through interviews with a group of24 Swedish fifth-grade pupils. The paper also draws from theories and concepts found inestablished literature on gender and games. The results of this thesis informs the theory ofviolence as a masculine preference as well as the separation of gender identities from biologicalsexes.

In this thesis I look at the question of Taiwanese identity by focussing on characteristics that have come to be considered natural human identity attributes worldwide. I look at historical discourses that have depicted and constructed these attributes as essential to the nature of human beings. Biological theory, terminology, modes of classification, and conceptions of human being established in the natural sciences, and imported to the social sciences, have created a general international discursive regime that employs notions of blood relations, lineage, family, nation-ness, race, ethnicity an ongoing constructions and contestations of identity. The discourse on identity as a matter of heritage is echoed in the science of linguistics with the classification of languages into natural family groups. Linguistic group as an identity marker complicates and is complicated by the general discourse on identity also employing “family talk. I try to show that the human being conceived principally as a biological being, became the focus of techniques of population control and institutional reproduction of social subjects in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Europe, especially with mass education, and that this process was replicated in the industrialization and modernization of Taiwan. In Taiwan, as in Europe, techniques of what Michel Foucault calls “biopower” were deployed in the process of strengthening the productive powers of the nation state in the international struggle of the survival of the national fittest. For Foucault the spatial and temporal patterns of interaction these institutional processes employed created the kind of social subject that is a precondition for capitalist expansion. In addition to the implicit training that modern institutions employ, there are also explicit educational programs that are grounded in scientific and social theories that modern societies propagate in the curricula of public systems of education. The Taiwanese learned that their identities, as Chinese citizens, were determined by blood lineage, that is, by racial association. I will explain that in China and Taiwan these positivistic, essentialist and biological ideas of identity, were picked up from the western biological and social sciences by Chinese intellectuals at the turn of the twentieth century. In combination with Confucian ideas on family these ideas were consciously selected by the Nationalist government in Taiwan and employed in the production of a specific form of Chinese citizenry in Taiwan. Reinforcing deeply entrenched discourses on race, long expressed in historical China, these biological and familial conceptions were deployed for political purposes in education programs designed to legitimise the right of the Nationalist government to rule China and then Taiwan. Finally, the metaphor of biological family that was employed in an understanding of nation-ness in Taiwan has also come to determine thinking about the natural association between languages, nations and races. In the science of linguistics, languages are depicted as having evolved in the same way races do. In these classifications, official national languages, which historically are the dialects of dominant social groups, are determinative of socio-economic class reproduction, being considered the summit to which all speakers of all secondary dialects are compelled to aspire. The question of language education for identity in Taiwan will be examined in light of these preconceptions, processes and programs. I show that language, nation and race have tended to be cast in discourse as naturally combined elements that determine identity. As a result of colonial educational processes these identity terms tend to be understood as both natural attributes and, as naturally adhering to each other. Nationalities, national or official languages, constructed races, and constructed ethnicities tend to be combined in a globalized discourse to produce dominant images of certain societie’s identities. The English language in Taiwan will be shown to be understood as “a white” language. In colonial discourse nations, races, ethnicities and language types have each been imbued with specific values and statuses. Therefore, dominant images that combine these attributes serve to create intra-national and international human hierarchies. In Taiwan, American English has the potential of raising the status of its learners in the national and international hierarchy toward the high point represented by America as the imperial centre. In Language and Symbolic Power (1991) Bourdieu describes attributes that distinguish groups as different forms of symbolic capital. I want to hold that the nation/social space of Taiwan represents one node within a global network where capitalist forces continue to entrench privilege and power of national and international elites whose place in this hierarchy, whose opportunities for material and social advantages, are determined by the relative statuses of their nations, races, ethnicities and languages. “Black”, “brown”, “white” and “yellow” people, speakers of specific official languages, or what are considered derivative dialects, are imbued with a matched set of symbolic forms of capital that have come to have specific social values. These help to determine specific life opportunities in different social settings. I focus on two related settings in Taiwan where expressions of different forms of symbolic capital have significance for Taiwanese identity. The first is the struggle between what have come to be understood as two ethnic groups in the latter half of the twentieth century that I will designate as mainlanders and islanders. The second is the context of English language teaching where certain accents and racial distinctions have come to play a part in the promotion of English as an important form of cultural capital. The struggle between the mainlanders and islanders will be shown to have affected relative opportunities for achieving English skills, to continue class stratification in Taiwan, and to further endanger traditional island cultures and languages.

A Muskego Inninuwuk methodology provided the foundation to explore experiences of individuals who possess both Indigenous (Cree) and non-Indigenous ancestry in the development of their identities. Natural conversations facilitated sitting with and listening to Cree Elders and engaging with mixed-ancestry Cree individuals about the stories of their identities. The overall goal was to create space for individuals to express impacts of systems, relationships and ways to come to understand their overall wellbeing and connection to ancestors through stories of identity. Elders shared stories of disconnection and intergenerational experiences that caused diversion from the natural progression of Cree identity development as impacts of colonization. They also shared their stories of re-connection and healing. Common experiences mixed-blood Cree participants highlighted: the impact of colonization on their understanding and expression of themselves as individuals and as members of community, the complexity of their experiences of identity, and how wellbeing is connected to healing. Stories shared processes of healing, decolonization and resurgence of Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing in reclamation of self.

This practicum project uses a holistic approach for the culturally sensitive design of a housing option for Indigenous post-secondary students. This project addresses the role that interior design can play in creating a supportive work-live environment. The proposed student accommodations will differ from what is offered at the University of Manitoba campus by incorporating design elements that will: reflect Indigenous cultural values; use a holistic approach to space planning; offer flexible space options that supports community ties and relationship building; create designs that speak to the local cultures; and honour the past students of the Canadian residential school system.

I have chosen to use the forum of jewellery, particularly lockets, to investigate the notion of a public and a private self as a main theme. In this text I will bring up different aspects of the locket to show which tools I have to work with, and then I will research the actual theme from a sociopsychological point of view. Jewellery can be used as a manifestation of a public self and it can be a connection to a private self. The jewellery holds the possibility to tell its story when worn and the person wearing it might fill it with his/her own emotional value that might and might not be in correlation with the artists’ intent. The way lockets are and have been used is influencing the way we look at them; it charges them with symbolical meaning. The locket becomes a representation of a private, intimate part of the person wearing it. The locket has an outside and an inside, a public and a private part. When worn, it communicates to both the wearer and his/her surroundings. The action of opening a locket and of wearing a locket are deliberate acts that revolve around both the transgression between public and private and the secrecy of its content. These different aspects of the locket are tools that I can use in my work. The creation of an outer, public-, self works as a tool to help us interact with each other. It simplifies communication, places us in an understandable setting (society) and might also help us improve our influence on our social status. In some situations this public self can give rise to a feeling of alienation and discomfort. The risk is that we identify ourselves with a one-dimensional image of ourselves. Or that we experience a too big gap between our public and private self. The representational self can also become an integrated part of our identity. In that sense we create ourselves. As the borders between our private and public sphere become more blurry, it might be hard to keep the balance between the public and the private self. The increased availability for social interaction sometimes restrains the private self and this stresses the need for determining and keeping a private sphere for oneself.  I believe that the feeling of an outer and an inner self often is based in an ambivalence towards a social situation. That I pay attention to a framework that both attracts and repulses me. It is in those situations that our split self becomes apparent, and can be felt, but also questioned. I create my own public self. But there has to be a balance between our public and private self, and that stresses the need of setting up personal borders, not only for a bigger social benefit, but also to be able to cope with, to interpret and process everyday-life.  I believe that the urge of addressing the personal, and bringing up different aspects of identity within jewellery art, springs from the preconception of jewellery as no more than an embellishment. That is also why it becomes interesting. From my part I see an excitement in the contradiction of using what might be considered a fashion attribute to problematize, make aware of an awkward attitude towards the presentation of the self.  To use the physical aspects of the locket to talk about a mental state, and an emotional reaction to a social situation. Because that is what the imbalance of a public and a private self does with me: it evokes an emotional reaction to the social situation I find myself in.

Abstract This thesis explores Henri Tajfel’s Social Identity Theory (1981) with a specific focus on the process of self-categorization. Tajfel’s theory provides the theoretical framework to understand the social category of Métis as a social group. Eight self-identified Métis adults were interviewed individually utilizing a semi-structured interview to explore their Métis self-identification and operationalize the conceptual framework. The three main research questions used to develop the conceptual framework are: 1) what are Métis characteristics?, 2) Do self-identified Métis adults evaluate the Métis group to which they identify as positive, negative or both?, 3) Do self-identified Métis adults feel like they fit in or belong to the Métis group? Both open ended and closed ended questions were used to explore Métis adults’ perspectives related to their social self-categorization. Data were analyzed; conclusions were drawn and verified utilizing the recommendations of Miles and Huberman (1994). Findings were theoretically interpreted utilizing the social identity perspective. The study’s results support the use of Tajfel’s theoretical conception of a group as a conceptual framework in understanding the experience and perspective of the Métis participants in this study.

The Canadian-descendent Old Colony Mennonites first arrived in Bolivia from Mexico in 1967. Their collective identity has been shaped by a series of migrations through several countries, including Russia, Canada and Mexico. In this thesis I look at which memories are retold and how they are used to define their identity as an anti-modern people, and vice versa, how this identity filters their memories. I also look to see what it is that the Old Colony Mennonites recall of their migration history: the years before arriving in Bolivia in the 1960s, the pioneer years and succeeding decades of life in Bolivia. In addition, I examine how they have used their history to define their worlds and how their views on technology, language, and clothing are articulated by historical accounts.

The objective of this practicum project was to address the lack of overall cohesion of identity and culture in Winnipeg’s Cultural District through the development of a Bistro and Lounge. Theoretical concepts of placemaking helped ground the design within Winnipeg and it’s performing arts community. The project investigates how the relationship between an interior and its surrounding community context might influence one another. Aspects of performance theory, used in conjunction with theories of performativity provided a framework for the design in order to relate the act of performing to the simple rituals of the everyday. Finally, the project seeks to explore the performance opportunities a bistro and lounge environment present when the private element of a dressing room is introduced in to the space. The intention of the facility is to provide the user with a place to socialize and a means to feel as though they have assumed the role of a performer for the evening. Most importantly, this facility will provide the district with another rich, cultural experience, different from what is already available.

Dans ses ouvrages, Gender Trouble et Undoing Gender, Judith Butler soutient que le sexe est une norme politique destinée à promouvoir l'hétérosexualité. Elle réfute l'idée d'un genre social s'appuyant sur un sexe biologique et considère que les deux concepts sont des produits de la performativité des normes. Le cas des intersexués est particulièrement intéressant pour illustrer ces théories. Ces individus présentent en effet une anatomie qui remet en cause le dimorphisme sexuel et soulèvent le problème de la construction d'une identité sexuelle cohérente sur un corps androgyne. Les romans d'apprentissage, Le choeur des femmes de Martin Winckler et Middlesex de Jeffrey Eugenides décrivent le parcours de deux personnages intersexués et mettent en évidence l'action des normes décrites par Judith Butler. Ils révèlent notamment l'action performative du langage ainsi que la collusion entre savoir et pouvoir. Ils nous invitent à imaginer une société où la catégorisation sexuelle serait moins restrictive. In Gender Trouble and Undoing Gender, Judith Butler challenges notions of sex and gender and contests that gender is the social construct of a biological sex. She affirms that both of them are gendered concepts and she develops her theory of gender performativity. Intersexuality is particularly pertinent to illustrate these concepts. Intersex individuals cannot be distinctly identified as male or female and they face the problem of building a coherent gender identity on an ambiguous biological sex. The bildungsromans, Le choeur des femmes by Martin Winckler and Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides introduce intersex main characters who have to overcome many obstacles in their search for identity. They realize the impossibility of describing their condition or their feelings because of the performativity and the paucity of the language and discover that knowledge and power are indissociable. Their struggles call us to re-evaluate sexual identification. / Graduate