No description available.

This exploratory grounded theory study is a comparative analysis of kinship and foster care in the province of Ontario. This study sought the perspective of three constituent groups—caregivers (N=22), workers (N=14) and youth (N=9)—from both kinship and foster care constituent populations. The total number of participants was 45. This is one of the first comprehensive qualitative studies in the province of Ontario since the inception of the kinship model of practice implemented by the child welfare system in 2006. The study resonates with important practice, policy and research implications for Ontario and beyond. Recruitment for the study was generated through various child welfare organizations and a kin grandparents support network. Findings from each of the three groups include the following: (1) specialized kin workers recognize the complexities and unique needs of kinship placements; (2) foster parents and kin caregivers have very different needs related to training, financial remuneration and support; and (3) youth experience feelings of loneliness and frustration when moving to different placements, but also acknowledge the importance of relationships, particularly to their assigned worker. The analysis of these three group converges to a very simple but poignant conclusion: kinship programs are unique and require a level of intervention that is separate and discrete from the current foster care paradigm.

This exploratory grounded theory study is a comparative analysis of kinship and foster care in the province of Ontario. This study sought the perspective of three constituent groups—caregivers (N=22), workers (N=14) and youth (N=9)—from both kinship and foster care constituent populations. The total number of participants was 45. This is one of the first comprehensive qualitative studies in the province of Ontario since the inception of the kinship model of practice implemented by the child welfare system in 2006. The study resonates with important practice, policy and research implications for Ontario and beyond. Recruitment for the study was generated through various child welfare organizations and a kin grandparents support network. Findings from each of the three groups include the following: (1) specialized kin workers recognize the complexities and unique needs of kinship placements; (2) foster parents and kin caregivers have very different needs related to training, financial remuneration and support; and (3) youth experience feelings of loneliness and frustration when moving to different placements, but also acknowledge the importance of relationships, particularly to their assigned worker. The analysis of these three group converges to a very simple but poignant conclusion: kinship programs are unique and require a level of intervention that is separate and discrete from the current foster care paradigm.

Univ., Diss.--Paris, 2004.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Anthropology, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

This Report applies the theories of Structuration and reflexivity to the Internet in Amman, Jordan, to argue how the Internet can challenge authority as embedded in kinship social formations. In the first place, the Internet can be an empowering agent by challenging authority; at the same time, kinship’s social and moral codes can structure the reflexivity that users derive from the Internet and guide the Structuration to which the Internet can lead. This Report argues that there is a symbiotic relationship between the Internet and kinship. Situating Internet usage within kinship would challenge the ontological and epistemological centrality of the “the media text” in Media Studies. Furthermore, situating Internet usage within kinship would highlight users’ emerging Structuration, which can lead to counter-hegemonic currents in Amman. Then, the Report explains how and why an anthropological approach to media, including the Internet, would be especially suitable for exploring the Internet’s functions in users’ lives. Finally, the Report uses an interview of an Arab woman student to show how kinship’s social and moral codes structure user’s reflexivity on one hand, and the Internet’s ability to encourage reflexivity-- eroding kinship’s codes-- on the other hand. An anthropological approach would offer the conceptual and methodological tools for understanding how media usage in general is a social process, and that reflexivity and structuration emerge within that process, rather than assuming technological determinism. This is crucial in the context of the “Arab Spring,” where the Internet has challenged authority. Thus, this Report proposes kinship as a form of authority and social structure and the Internet as a conduit of Structuration. / text

published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy

No description available.

This thesis explores the complex web of social relations created by the use of donor insemination (DI) in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The experiences of pursuing parenthood and creating a family using this method of assisted conception are contextualised through attention to the practices of Donor Insemination Programmes and the discourses used by parents, their families and health professionals. Sociologists and other social scientists have drawn attention to the social and cultural consequences of the fragmentation of biological/genetic, gestational and social parenting that follows the use of third party gametes. This thesis explores the implications of these procreative arrangements for the meanings attached to cultural concepts such as 'kinship', 'family', and 'parenthood'. Variation in the way these families respond to issues associated with the use of donor sperm in the conception of a child is also highlighted. The thesis also explores the dominant discourse in the New Zealand context of children's 'right' to know their genetic origins, and how this is played out in the perceptions and actions of health professionals, parents of children conceived by DI and their kin. The research is exploratory and qualitative, drawing on semi-structured interviews with parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles of children conceived by DI, and with health professionals working in DI programmes. The inclusion of the perspectives of extended family members and health professionals constitutes a unique contribution to research on families with children conceived by DI. The secrecy, anonymity and confidentiality that have surrounded DI practices have long hindered the study of families with children conceived by DI. Despite a trend towards information-sharing in DI in New Zealand, the thesis shows that for these families, patterns of secrecy and disclosure are complex, variable and embedded in particular social and relational contexts.

Diaspora invokes a way of living. Geographic displacement, either voluntary or forced, brings about heightened processes of negotiation between the past, the present and the future. Effectively, diaspora creates a space for dialogue about notions of individual subjectivity and group representation, as well as global and local belonging. These processes contribute pivotally to the identity development of diasporic people, and this plays out continually as is evident in the choices diasporic people make about the way they live. This thesis explores one aspect of the lives of elite diasporic Indian families in Singapore - cricket. The central question is how these diasporic people become 'Indian' through their participation in the sport. There are two major components - cricket and family. Firstly, I identify cricket as a site of diasporic negotiation in the lives of these Indians. I explore their practice of this activity as a physical and ideological space in and through which they negotiate their identity. In a country where cricket is not common practice, the Indian domination of the widespread 'public culture' of their country of origin reflects their intensified investment in Indianness. This results in the creation of a minoritized and largely exclusive social space. By participating in cricket, they play out their diasporic Indian identity. This is a myriad process of social construction and transformation of Indianness at individual and collective levels. Through active and concerted social labour in the cricket arena, translation of relevant Indianness into a foreign setting effectively creates a new Indian ethnicity. It is the very negotiation and mobilization of their ethnicity that facilitates the thriving of this elite Indian diaspora. The other major component in this thesis is that of the family in diaspora. This is important because most of the elite Indians moved to Singapore as nuclear family units. Decisions made and the structures of their lives take into account the impact upon the household at individual and collective levels. I explore and highlight the importance not only of families doing diaspora together, but that of the varied individual contributions of family members to cricket and how their various parts support one another's negotiation of their Indianness. Divided broadly into three categories of fathers, mothers and children (male and female), I look at their different ideals, attitudes and involvement in the sport. From my research, I found that fathers were the ideological spearhead and instigators of interest for cricket within families; mothers played support roles; and children participated for a variety of reasons. Boys played because it was deemed the natural thing for Indian boys as it is 'in their blood'. Girls on the other hand, played for a variety of different reasons which differed from their male counterparts. Their participation was a concerted effort in an attempt to get forms of Indianness that are reflected and constructed in cricket, 'into their blood'. This thesis is framed by the concept of doing Indian diaspora in Singapore. I explore the cricket arena as a key site of identity negotiation in three realms - the individual, the family, and the wider Indian network/community. This analysis seeks to highlight the importance of each realm in reinforcing and supporting one another's projects of constant and complex formation processes of Indianness.