Can home and family life education incorporate sociological findings, psychological procedures, and frames of reference typical of lower and middle classes into educational techniques and content which will assist adolescents to achieve certain developmental tasks more satisfactorily?

This thesis combines an academic investigation and creative writing practice in an attempt to understand the politics at work within mainstream notions of working-class masculine identity, and the role of literature in these discourses. Beginning with an academic analysis, the formulations and intersection of class and masculinity are outlined, explicating how systems, implemented by the middle-class creation of values, form social narratives whereby men of certain settings with associative lifestyles and practices, are privileged over other less valued groups of men. In this respect, its concerns are primarily with the socio-symbolic. Locating this discourse within an Aristotelian dichotomy of the mind and the body, this theoretical position is then applied in the scrutiny of six mainstream fictional narratives of two historic periods, each originally held to be politically subversive. In calling to question the validity of these original claims, further questions are raised regarding the nature of the mainstream fictional narrative at large, and whether it is an effective way of representing the politics of working-class identity, or whether, by its nature, it serves to reproduce its working-class characters as fixed subjects, immovable from their positions in a stable class system. This line of inquiry is then further explored in the deconstruction of my own creative work, in which I initially sought to represent the concerns of my own working-class heritage. The resulting issues raised with respect to mainstream, linear narrative leading to the investigation of other potential forms of representation for the working-class male, culminating in the exploration of my own shifting identity in a non-linear, multi-directional collection of poetry.

Submitted in the Sociology department at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg / Andrew Chakane 2018

A thesis submitted in full fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Marketing) at the University of Witwatersrand, 2017 / With the rise of globalisation, consumers are increasingly faced with having to make purchase decisions between domestic and foreign products or brands. Therefore, it is important to gain a better understanding of what factors influence consumer decisions when considering a local or global product or brand. Although a number of studies have explored similar topics, a lack of research remains regarding a comprehensive theoretical model that provides a holistic view of factors influencing the decision to buy a global product. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate those factors that influence the purchase decisions of global fashion brands among black middle-class women in South Africa. More specifically, by means of a conceptual model, the present study proposes that ethnocentrism, price, brand knowledge (comprising of brand awareness and brand image), self-image, fashion involvement, brand love, attitude, and perceived quality influence consumers’ buying decisions. The findings of this study seek to fill the gap in literature regarding how emerging black middle-class consumers in South Africa make buying decisions with regard to (global) fashion products. An empirical study was undertaken, in which 500 black middle-class females were asked to complete an online survey to determine which factors influence their choice of global fashion clothing. The obtained data was analysed by means of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) using Partial Least Squares. The findings support all proposed hypotheses, but not all hypotheses were found to be significant. The strongest relationships were found between brand knowledge and perceived quality, brand knowledge and attitude, and self-image and attitude. The weakest relationships were between ethnocentrism and purchase intention, price perception and perceived quality and finally brand love and purchase intention. Furthermore, the findings revealed that quality is the main reason for consumers to consider buying global fashion-branded clothing. On the other hand, price is the biggest drawback of sales of global fashion brands. This study is of significant importance to fashion marketers since it provides adequate insight into how global fashion brands can position themselves and influence consumers’ decisions to buy global fashion products. This study further provides a comprehensive model, adds to knowledge gaps, and provides several managerial implications and directions for future research. / XL2018

O design do móvel e as relações do usuário com o espaço da habitação popular brasileira são o foco da investigação. É objeto de análise a capacidade de atuação de arquitetos e designers na escolha, distribuição e articulação dos objetos no ambiente da habitação produzida em larga escala no Brasil. Tem-se como grupo social alvo da pesquisa a Nova Classe Média Brasileira, em ascensão desde o início da estabilidade econômica do país em meados da década de 1990. Após o processo de redemocratização e aumento efetivo do consumo com o Plano Real e as políticas de inclusão dos sucessivos mandatos do Partido dos Trabalhadores em âmbito federal, ocorreu a inversão da pirâmide social brasileira, com o surgimento dessa nova classe. Diante da impossibilidade de contratação dos serviços de um arquiteto ou designer de interiores, seja por falta de capital, seja por questão cultural, a Nova Classe Média, maior consumidora do país, acaba por escolher e comprar objetos e mobiliário doméstico sem o auxílio de um profissional da área. Esse processo empírico de escolha resulta em arranjos ineficazes que dificultam a circulação no espaço e acabam por prejudicar a qualidade de vida dessas famílias. O presente trabalho analisou o processo de concepção, edição e estratégia de veiculação de revista popular de decoração pioneira no país, intitulada Minha Casa, lançada em 2010 pela Editora Abril e editada pelo autor desta pesquisa em conjunto com equipe de jornalistas, arquitetos e designers. Unidades habitacionais do programa federal de produção de moradias Minha Casa, Minha Vida, foram usadas como modelos. A comunicação, a adaptação de linguagem, o conceito de produção de conteúdo de decoração, reforma e construção para a Nova Classe Média e seus efeitos integram os resultados dessa pesquisa. / The furniture design and the connections between users and the spaces of Brazilian popular housing are the focus of this investigation. It is the focus of this analysis the ability of architects and designers for the choice, distribution and articulation of objects in large-scale produced housing environment in Brazil. The social group targeted by this search is the New Brazilian Middle Class, that has been rising since the beginning of the economic stability of the country in the mid-1990. After democratization and the effective increase of consumption with the Real Plan and inclusion policies promoted by successive mandates of the Partidos dos Trabalhados at the federal level, the Brazilian social pyramid has turned out, with the emergence of this new class. Given the impossibility of hiring an architect or interior designer services, either for lack of capital, whether for cultural reasons, the New Middle Class, largest consumer of the country, ultimately choose and buy objects and household furniture without the help of a professional. This empirical selection process results in ineffective arrangements that hinder the movement through the rooms and end up harming the quality of life of these families. This study analyzed the process of designing, editing and broadcasting a pioneer strategy of popular decorating magazine called Minha Casa, launched in 2010 by Editora Abril and edited by the author of this research together with a team of journalists, architects and designers. Apartments and houses of the federal program for the production of houses Minha Casa, Minha Vida, were used as templates. The communication, the language editing, the strategy for the production of content on decorating, renovating and building for the New Middle Class and their effects take part of the results of this research.

A pesquisa partiu da seguinte pergunta: quais as repercussões sobre a situação escolar das crianças das camadas populares do aumento das camadas médias na escola pública? Para respondê-la realizamos um estudo etnográfico em uma escola do município de Ribeirão Preto na qual esse fenômeno estava presente. Foram realizadas observações em sala de aula e em outros espaços da escola, além de entrevistas com diretores, orientadores, professores, pais e alunos. Os resultados da pesquisa de campo foram surpreendentes, pois revelaram que a relação entre usuários de camadas médias e a escola pública é muito mais complexa do que supúnhamos. Levadas por dificuldades econômicas, algumas famílias das camadas médias transferem os filhos da rede particular para a pública. Numa tentativa de pôr a escola pública em moldes que não afetem o seu prestígio, alguns pais participam da APM e do Conselho de Escola. Imersos no preconceito social contra os pobres, desejam excluir alunos pobres vistos como mais ameaçadores. Mas a equipe dirigente e o corpo docente não permitem, utilizando a defesa de tais alunos como forma de se contrapor aos pais na disputa pelo poder que se instala. Diante desta resistência, os pais deixam de participar de tais órgãos, mas procuram exercer pressão direta no fazer dos professores. As crianças, imersas neste universo de conflito e preconceito, reproduzem a discriminação na relação com os colegas. / The research has arisen from the following question: \"what are the repercussions on lower class children due to the increase of middle class students in public schools?\" In order to answer that question, we have carried out an ethnological study in a school in the city of Ribeirão Preto where this phenomena was evident. Not only observations (inside the classroom and in other areas in the school) were made, but also interviews with directors, advisers, teachers, parents and pupils. The results of the field research were stunning since they show that the relation between students from the middle class and the public school is much more complex than we would imagine. Due to economic problems, some families, which belong to the middle class, transfer their children from private schools to public ones. Some parents end up joining an APM (an association of parents and teachers) and the School Council so that they can \"control\" the public school in such a way that it does not affect their prestige. As parents are immersed in social prejudice against the poor, they want to exclude poor students once they are seen as the most threatening ones. However, the directors and the teaching faculty do not allow that to happen - they defend poor students as a way of opposing to parents in the fight for power. Having to face this opposition, parents normally give up taking part of school groups but, on the other hand, they put pressure on what teachers are doing. The children, immersed in this universe of conflict and prejudice, propagate discrimination in the relation with their colleagues.

This thesis explores the workings of the information technology (IT) industry in the South Indian city of Chennai, and its impact on middle-class identity formation. It adopts a distinctly gendered approach in its analysis, while also commenting on themes that travel beyond conventional feminist research. It draws on a variety of qualitative sources, including 61 interviews with IT employees, managers and executives, diversity consultants, IT union leaders, labour rights activists, bureaucrats and college placement officers; participant observation at IT conferences, protest meetings, and political events, as well as limited observation on the 'office floor'; and diverse documentary material, including government and industry reports, websites and legal frameworks. The aim of this narrative-driven thesis is to capture some of the complexities of IT employees' lived realities, contextualised within the local and global processes that impact this transnational industry. The thesis begins with an exploration of specific practices within the industry that contribute to employees' heightened insecurity and situates fledgling attempts at collective action on labour issues within performances of 'middleclassness'. It then unpacks the construction of gender roles by and through the industry, while identifying sites of contestation and agency for employees. This is followed by a closer examination of the industry's diversity and inclusion initiatives, specifically those concerning workplace sexual harassment, as seen through a socio-legal lens. Finally, it problematises the hegemonic figure of the 'techie' through an analysis of IT employees' multiple identities and their articulation within the workplace. Collectively, the data chapters challenge the normativity of discursive framings of employees and policies within the industry. More broadly, this thesis calls for 'thick descriptions' (Geertz 1973: 6) of labour relations in local contexts, while emplacing these within transnational capital circuits. It also argues for a more nuanced interrogation of the fluidity of class formation through employment in certain industries, particularly in postcolonial settings.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2016-10-04T16:56:53Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Flavia Suzue de Mesquita Ikeda.pdf: 899072 bytes, checksum: 501241e651da0c493c67da07e2cecd0f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-10-04T16:56:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Flavia Suzue de Mesquita Ikeda.pdf: 899072 bytes, checksum: 501241e651da0c493c67da07e2cecd0f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-06-30 / The main objective of this dissertation is to investigate the construction of senses in televised images from the so-called “C class”, especially on Globo TV channel. That interests how, from the appropriation and denomination of a deprived sociological sense of class, the TV station has contributed and fixed images related to this audience. The study is guided by the concept of myth which is offered by Roland Barthes in his semiological analyses of discourse and mass culture. The mythical speech can understand writings or representations and all media that can suit as a support, as far as the naturalisation of ideologies and social practices are observed. Authors from different theoretical perspectives, who are relevant to this proposal, are investigated. Television is approached from its insertion in cultural industry, according to references from critical theory, bearing in mind its important role to the formation of a common repertoire towards different classes, areas and groups concerning a debate about reality. It is highlighted that television had developed itself linked to social, economic and political transformations that have influenced not only its technical evolution, but also its content and discourses. This dissertation involves a retrospective through moments of our television history, searching intersections between the content and televised outreach, plus increase, maintenance or transformation of consumer market at certain moments, based on authors such as Hamburger, Ortiz, Bucci and Motter, among others. We emphasize images formulated in fiction from patterns of collective consciousness about Brazilians. The interest is to reflect about the way such figures are activated in imagination about urban and regional outskirts, contributing to constructions related to this “C class”. Texts from Marcelo Neri that specifically deal with this “C class” and search to locate the group in terms of the “new middle class” are summoned to oppose authors such as Jessé Souza and Márcio Pochmann. At Globo, the symbolic recognition of the existence of this “new middle class” has been reflected in humorous, fictional and news programs. We consider the years of 2011 and 2012, when the “C class” theme at this TV station lined not only the press, but also arose researchers’ interest, those who were involved in television studies, mostly soap operas. For analysis, we scrutinize the soap opera called “Cheias de charme”, that had stood out in the time period mentioned above because of its formal and content elaboration related to the “Class C”, besides the recent ideas of modernization and social transformation / O objetivo deste trabalho é investigar a construção de sentidos nas imagens da chamada “classe C” na TV, em especial na Globo. Interessa como, a partir da apropriação de denominação de classe esvaziada de sentido sociológico, a emissora tem contribuído para criar e fixar imagens referentes a esse público. O estudo é norteado pelo conceito de mito oferecido por Roland Barthes em suas análises semiológicas dos discursos da cultura de massas. A fala mítica pode compreender escritas ou representações, e todas as mídias podem servir de suporte, na medida que se observe a naturalização das ideologias e práticas sociais. Recorremos a autores de diferentes frentes teóricas pertinentes à proposta. A televisão é abordada a partir da inserção na indústria cultural, conforme referências da teoria crítica, tendo em vista seu importante papel para a formação de um repertório comum a diferentes classes, regiões e grupos e para o debate da realidade. Destaca-se que a TV se desenvolveu imbricada a transformações sociais, econômicas e políticas que influenciaram sua evolução técnica, mas também conteúdos e discursos. Operamos uma retrospectiva mediante seleção de momentos da história da nossa televisão, buscando interseções entre o conteúdo e alcance televisivos e a ampliação, manutenção ou transformação de mercado consumidor em dados momentos, a partir de autores como Hamburger, Ortiz, Bucci e Motter, entre outros. Sublinhamos imagens formuladas na ficção a partir de padrões da consciência coletiva sobre o brasileiro. O interesse é refletir como tais figuras são acionadas no imaginário sobre as periferias urbanas e regionais, contribuindo para as construções relativas à "classe C". Convocamos textos que tratam especificamente da “classe C” e buscam situar o grupo em termos de “nova classe média", como Marcelo Neri, contrapondo a autores como Jessé Souza e Márcio Pochmann. Na Globo, o reconhecimento simbólico da existência de uma "nova classe média", refletiu em programas de humor, ficção e jornalismo. Ressaltamos os anos de 2011 e 2012, quando o tema da “classe C” na emissora pautou não só a imprensa, mas também despertou o interesse de pesquisadores envolvidos nos estudos de televisão, sobretudo de ficção teledramatúrgica. Para análise, abordamos especificamente a telenovela Cheias de Charme, que destacou-se no período citado por elaborações formais e de conteúdo relacionadas à "classe C" e às ideias de modernização e transformações sociais recentes

No description available.

O design do móvel e as relações do usuário com o espaço da habitação popular brasileira são o foco da investigação. É objeto de análise a capacidade de atuação de arquitetos e designers na escolha, distribuição e articulação dos objetos no ambiente da habitação produzida em larga escala no Brasil. Tem-se como grupo social alvo da pesquisa a Nova Classe Média Brasileira, em ascensão desde o início da estabilidade econômica do país em meados da década de 1990. Após o processo de redemocratização e aumento efetivo do consumo com o Plano Real e as políticas de inclusão dos sucessivos mandatos do Partido dos Trabalhadores em âmbito federal, ocorreu a inversão da pirâmide social brasileira, com o surgimento dessa nova classe. Diante da impossibilidade de contratação dos serviços de um arquiteto ou designer de interiores, seja por falta de capital, seja por questão cultural, a Nova Classe Média, maior consumidora do país, acaba por escolher e comprar objetos e mobiliário doméstico sem o auxílio de um profissional da área. Esse processo empírico de escolha resulta em arranjos ineficazes que dificultam a circulação no espaço e acabam por prejudicar a qualidade de vida dessas famílias. O presente trabalho analisou o processo de concepção, edição e estratégia de veiculação de revista popular de decoração pioneira no país, intitulada Minha Casa, lançada em 2010 pela Editora Abril e editada pelo autor desta pesquisa em conjunto com equipe de jornalistas, arquitetos e designers. Unidades habitacionais do programa federal de produção de moradias Minha Casa, Minha Vida, foram usadas como modelos. A comunicação, a adaptação de linguagem, o conceito de produção de conteúdo de decoração, reforma e construção para a Nova Classe Média e seus efeitos integram os resultados dessa pesquisa. / The furniture design and the connections between users and the spaces of Brazilian popular housing are the focus of this investigation. It is the focus of this analysis the ability of architects and designers for the choice, distribution and articulation of objects in large-scale produced housing environment in Brazil. The social group targeted by this search is the New Brazilian Middle Class, that has been rising since the beginning of the economic stability of the country in the mid-1990. After democratization and the effective increase of consumption with the Real Plan and inclusion policies promoted by successive mandates of the Partidos dos Trabalhados at the federal level, the Brazilian social pyramid has turned out, with the emergence of this new class. Given the impossibility of hiring an architect or interior designer services, either for lack of capital, whether for cultural reasons, the New Middle Class, largest consumer of the country, ultimately choose and buy objects and household furniture without the help of a professional. This empirical selection process results in ineffective arrangements that hinder the movement through the rooms and end up harming the quality of life of these families. This study analyzed the process of designing, editing and broadcasting a pioneer strategy of popular decorating magazine called Minha Casa, launched in 2010 by Editora Abril and edited by the author of this research together with a team of journalists, architects and designers. Apartments and houses of the federal program for the production of houses Minha Casa, Minha Vida, were used as templates. The communication, the language editing, the strategy for the production of content on decorating, renovating and building for the New Middle Class and their effects take part of the results of this research.