No description available.

This study examined women’s committees in two public sector unions in British Columbia with predominantly female memberships over a twenty year period. The question addressed was how and under what circumstances the committees could secure gains for women, given a context where women remain at a power disadvantage relative to men. Gains sought were of three types: 1) improvements in contract clauses particularly beneficial to women; 2) increased female participation in union governance; and 3) structural changes conducive to future increases in female participation in union governance. Structures as defmed included both formal structures and other regularized procedures, including processes of communication, decision making and resource distribution. Based on literatures from several disciplines, a power model was developed that guided data collection. Data were collected via archival research and semi-structured interviews, and analyzed qualitatively. The study found that the structures governing how the committees operated were significant factors in committee effectiveness and that the active cooperation of the leadership and/or the membership ensured that structures conducive to committee effectiveness existed. The committees’ major challenge was to align their goals with those of the leadership or the membership in order to generate the level of support that would permit them to achieve their goals. The degree of alignment between committee and membership goals affected to what extent the committee could secure goals not supported by the leadership and was the major variable affecting committee power. However, committee power was not necessarily associated with the level of gains achieved for women because both leadership and membership actions and existing union structures could induce outcomes for women not orchestrated by the committees. As a result of this research, the initial power model was refined and the restrictions on the committees’ and leaderships’ use of power were clarified. The utility of crossing the disciplinary boundaries between organizational theory, industrial relations, and political science to explore how power is exercised in unions was demonstrated. Support for the political model of organizations was generated, suggesting that insights gained from the study of unions might advance organizational theorizing. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

AFRIKAANS: Die pastorale betekenis van prediking vir die kerklidmaat is al indirek in studies behandel. Hierdie studie fokus direk op die betekenis van prediking in die pastoraat . Die prakties-teologiese model, waarvolgens die navorsing gedoen is, is die kultureel-linguistiese teologiese model, wat die rol van die groep se tradisie as interpreterende, semiotiese sisteem in die lewe van die lidmaat beklemtoon. Die navorsing is op ’n narratiewe manier gedoen, saam met medenavorsers. As praktiese teoloog het ek die navorsing met die aannames van die sosiaal-konstruksionisme gedoen. Narratiewe speel veral 'n groot rol in die identiteitsvorming van die lidmaat en van die geloofsgemeenskap. Pastoraat, soos beskou binne die raamwerk van die kultureel-linguistiese model, vind op ’n narratief-hermeneutiese wyse in die prediking plaas. Prediking begelei die lidmaat tot die interpretasie van gebeure in sy of haar lewe, in die lig van die narratiewe identiteit van die geloofsgemeenskap. Die identiteit van die geloofsgemeenskap ondergaan sy vorming deur die Bybel as die basisnarratief, deur die geloofstradisie en deur die konteks waarin die gemeenskap verkeer. Dit is ’n dinamiese proses wat voortdurend herinterpreteer word, daarom word die lidmaat voortdurend uitgenooi, veral deur prediking, tot herinterpretasie van sy of haar eie narratiewe identiteit. Die Bybel as basisnarratief funksioneer op intratekstuele manier in die narratiewe identiteit van die gemeente en die lidmaat deurdat dit as realistiese narratief interpreteer word, en dit daag tot narratief-hermeneutiese interpretasie. Die navorsing se keuse vir pastorale prediking is: ’n intratekstuele, narratiewe, pastorale prediking model. ENGLISH: The role of the sermon in the pastoral care of the member of a congregation has previously been researched indirectly. The present research focuses directly on the role of the sermon in pastoral care. The practical theological model for this research is the cultural-linguistic theological model, which emphasizes the group's tradition as an interpretive semiotic system in the life of the congregation member. The research was carried out in a narrative way, together with co-researchers. As a practical theologian, I did the research using the assumptions of social constructionism. The role of narrative is particularly important in the shaping of identities, both of the individual and the congregation. Pastoral care, as viewed within the framework of the cultural-linguistic model, is achieved in the sermon in a narrative-hermeneutical way. The sermon helps the congregation members to interpret events in their lives in the light of the narrative identity of the group. The identity of the group is shaped by the Bible as underlying narrative, by the tradition of the faith community and by the context. It is a dynamic process that is ever changing; therefore the member is continually invited through the sermon to a re-interpretation of his or her own narrative identity. The Bible, as the fundamental narrative, functions in an intratextual manner in the narrative identity of the community and the individual, through its interpretation as a realistic narrative, and it represents a challenge to attempt new narrative hermeneutical interpretations. The research proposal for pastoral preaching is: an intratextual-narrative-pastoral sermon. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

MA (Xitsonga) / Ehansi ka M.E. R. Mathivha ya Tindzimi ta Afrika, Vutshila ni Ndhavuko / See the attached abstract below

Bibliography: leaves 192-203. / This thesis has two parallel processes of investigation. Firstly, it is an investigation of the extent to which a trade union can successfully participate in the struggle for working women's rights at work and concerning motherhood and childcare, and in the struggle for the realisation of the political aspirations of women workers within a capitalist society. Secondly, the thesis examines the ideological position of the Food and Canning Workers Union in order to refine the theoretical understanding of the woman question in South Africa. Research methods have relied on use of archival documents, both published and unpublished; oral history; secondary sources on the union being studied and on South African society; as well as classical and contemporary texts on the theory of women's oppression and its interconnection with exploitation. The research has been hindered by the historical repression meted out by the South African state, which has forced people into exile, banned written sources, and removed archival material from South Africa. The recent repression has severely hampered the extent of interviewing and discussion, as well as made the process of research and writing of the thesis a difficult undertaking. The union's organising strategy is examined in terms of the following three issues: 1. Because of their dual responsibilities as worker and mother, and because of their relatively unorganised position, women workers are ultra-exploited. What role can a union play in fighting against the various aspects of this? The specific aspects of ultra-exploitation found in the food and canning industry are temporary employment and periodic unemployment; child labour; piece-work; excessive overtime. 2. The inclusion of women into wage labour faces them with a task of combining motherhood and wage labour. How can a union win demands to assist these women workers with this task? The two ways in which the union confronted this question were maternity rights and childcare facilities. 3. The assault on working class in terms of the right to work, the right to live where one chooses, the right to family life, and the right to a decent standard of living was a burden to working class women in particular.

The membership numbers of most of the Protestant denominations in the United States have been decreasing for a number of years. Much of the research studying this phenomenon has used demographic data and surveys of former members to understand reasons for leaving. This qualitative study uses a phenomenological perspective to understand the lived experience of eight former members of the Sunrise Mennonite Church. One former leader and three current church leaders from the Sunrise Mennonite Church were also interviewed for their perspective of the costs and benefits of church membership. The findings of this study were consistent with the literature across two main themes. First, a significant attraction and benefit of church membership is the support and fellowship experienced from close friendships within the church. Relationships as a whole are important, and negative interactions within the church can serve to damage one's satisfaction with a church as a whole. A second factor affecting church membership is the change experienced by church members and the change that occurs in the culture of the surrounding community. These changes lead to new and different preferences of the church members, and if these can not be incorporated into their churches, these members may leave their church. / Master of Science

No description available.

No description available.

Tapered beams and columns are often used in single story gable framed steel buildings for reasons of economy. By varying the resistance to bending in similar proportion to the bending moments, more economical structures can be obtained. The beam and column connection, or knee area, is generally subject to the greatest bending moments. It is therefore comprised of the deepest sections of the tapered members, which also possess the least resistance to shear buckling. The web element's stress distribution in this region of relatively complicated geometry is unknown. For this reason, web stiffening plates are commonly used to brace the slender web elements against elastic shear buckling. The design and proper installation of these relatively small elements, while proven to be effective, is also costly. Because it is desirable to remove the stiffeners, the shear behavior of unstiffened tapered members near the moment connection was the primary focus of this study. Four knee area specimens were tested to failure under simulated gravity load conditions. The specimens were analyzed according to the AISC shear provisions for prismatic members. The appropriateness of a modified shear force, which accounts for the influence of inclined flanges, and the role of initial web imperfections were examined as well. Finally an analysis method which most consistently produces conservative results is proposed. / Master of Science

Previous research has noted that members of research ethics committees are unclear about the extent of their roles. In this study, research amongst members of independent ethics committees (IECs) about how the ‘expert’ and ‘lay’ roles are understood and operationalized offers an explanation for this lack of clarity. IECs were selected for study because they have only addressed one type of research (Phase 1 ‘healthy volunteer’ studies) and this limited remit suggested that it would be in such committees that the member roles would have become most pronounced. Drawing on findings from the sociology of professions and employing a phenomenological approach to understanding, 20 semi-structured interviews with both expert and lay members of these committees revealed that a number of members were not only unclear about the roles, but unclear too whether they, or certain of their colleagues, were in which membership category. Notwithstanding this fact, and paradoxically, the ‘expert’ designation was seen as granting its members a privileged position on the committees. The expert member was seen to be either a medically qualified member or one tightly associated with the medical model. Such a repository of expertise being with the medical model privileges this model in ethics review such that other matters formally to be scrutinized by ethics committees become marginalised. Participant safety was the prime concern of the ethics review for IEC members. This relegated other matters including the adequacy of the insurance arrangements, the readability of the consent forms, the fairness of the inclusion criteria, and so forth, into areas of lesser concern. That this occurs though when the science, the safety and the methodology of the trials are already – separately - subject to an independent analysis by a body of experts, whose statutory role is to concern itself with these issues such that no trial may occur without their sanction, is of significance. IEC members were cognizant of this duplication of role but unable to resolve it. The situation could be accounted for as due to capture by the medical model and a cognitive dissonant process. Members’ training and education were found to have been neglected because under the medical professions’ gaze no other type of knowledge was considered necessary in ethics review. The study revealed that the medical profession’s dominance of such committees accounts for the members’ role uncertainty and as such allies itself to Freidson’s theory of professional dominance. If such a concept has been thought to be an obsolete one, this study suggests such a notion of the status of the theory is premature. The medical model’s status is implicitly accepted such that nothing else need be considered. The research calls for further studies to corroborate such findings in other research ethics settings and for a debate about what society wants its ethics committees to focus upon in their review.