Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2999-01-02

Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2999-01-01

Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2999-01-01

In recent years the New Age movement has attracted much attention in our society and the reaction to it has often been one of fear and confusion. The purpose of this exploratory study is to provide empirical data on the movement in an unbiased, nonjudgmental way. The qualitative research approach, and more specifically the phenomenological method, are utilised in order to arrive at some understanding of the phenomenon and what it means to its adherents Firstly, a framework comprising vertical historical streams (the alternative tradition in the west, the eastern philosophies, humanistic and transpersonal psychology and the new physics) from which the movement issues, and horizontal levels which represent different layers of the movement (the commercial, the level of personal empowerment, social transformation, and the rebirth of the sacred), is established in order to give context to the seemingly contradictory data on the New Age movement. Secondly, central concepts concerning the spiritual dimension of the movement are isolated and explored in unstructured interviews with carefully selected participants. Next, the vision and expectations of a New Age are explored and the New Age worldview with regard to the concept of God, an holistic cosmology, anthropology and theodicy is investigated. This is followed by discussions of the central issues of direct knowledge as opposed to dogma and doctrines, and the important goals of personal, social and planetary healing and transformation. From these data an ideal-typical South African New Ager is constructed, providing the reader with an instrument with which to identify manifestations of the movement. Reasons for the movement's growth are found in disillusionment with modernity and the subsequent spiritual reawakening and paradigm shift that followers are experiencing. It is concluded that the core of the New Age movement represents a popular manifestation of the constructive postmodern worldview that is espoused by leading thinkers of our time. / Religious Studies and Arabic / D. Litt. et Phil. (Religious Studies)

Thesis (PhD )--Stellenbosch University, 1978. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: no abstract available / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: geen opsomming

Repetitive stress injuries are common in the workplace where workers perform repetitive tasks continuously throughout the day. Muscle fatigue may lead to injury either directly through muscle damage or indirectly through changes in coordination, development of muscle imbalances, kinematic and muscle activation variability, and/or movement instability. To better understand the role of muscle fatigue in changes in movement parameters, we studied how muscle fatigue and muscle imbalances affected the control of movement timing, variability, and stability during a repetitive upper extremity sawing task. Since muscle fatigue leads to delayed muscle and cognitive response times, we might expect the ability to maintain movement timing would decline with muscle fatigue. We compared timing errors pre- and post-fatigue as subjects performed this repetitive sawing task synchronized with a metronome using standard techniques and a goalequivalent manifold (GEM) approach. No differences in basic performance parameters were found. Significant decreases in the temporal correlations of the timing errors and velocities indicated that subjects made more frequent corrections to their movements post-fatigue. Muscle fatigue may lead to movement instability through a variety of mechanisms including delayed muscle response times and muscle imbalances. To measure movement stability, we must first define a state space that describes the movement. We compared a variety of different state space definitions and found that state spaces composed of angles and velocities with little redundant information provide the most consistent results. We then studied the affect of fatigue on the shoulder flexor muscles and general fatigue of the arm on movement stability. Subjects were able to maintain stability in spite of muscle fatigue, shoulder strength imbalance and decreased muscle cocontraction. Little is known about the time course for adaptations in response to fatigue. We studied the effect of muscle fatigue on movement coordination, kinematic variability and movement stability while subjects performed the same sawing task at two work heights. Increasing the height of the task caused subjects to make more adjustments to their movement patterns in response to muscle fatigue. Subjects also exhibited some increases in kinematic variability at the shoulder but no changes in movement stability. These findings suggest that people alter their kinematic patterns in response to fatigue possibly to maintain stability at the expense of increased variability. / text

No description available.

This study examines solidarity and fragmentations between trade unions and civil society organisations under the Labour and Civil Society Coalition LASCO, during the fuel subsidy mass-protest in Nigeria. To understand the basis of LASCO’s mobilisation during the strike/ mass-protest and the tension that follows the suspension of the strike within the alliance, the study utilises the literature on Social Movement Unionism especially in South Africa, with emphasise on trade unions community and political alliances. The classical SMU literature especially applied in South Africa and Brazil revealed that authoritarian industrialisation and repressive Apartheid work-place regime prompted unions to use innovative strategies of using their bargaining power to challenge the state, by rendering themselves ungovernable both in the work-place and in the society through linkages with communities. This study, relying on a case study method and participant observation of the strike and mass-protest in Kano, revealed that SMU mobilisation in Nigeria was triggered by predatory and weak state, whose rent seeking permeates the administration of subsidy in the oil industry. Secondly, the study argued that the tensions and divisions within LASCO alliance following the suspension of the perceived unilateral suspension of the strike by the Trade Unions explains the political and class orientation of both trade unions and civil society organisations. The study argues that Trade Unions behaviour in the context of the strike lean towards Hyman pessimist view of trade unions or what Beiler et’al called accommodatory strategy, a view that see unions as negotiators of order both in the work-place and in the larger society. On the other hand the civil society organisations typified multi-level organisations with different orientations that always seek for transformation of the social order or what Beiler et’al called transformatory strategy.

No description available.

Focusing on the city of Atlanta from 1972 to 2012, Halting White Flight explores the neighborhood-based movement to halt white flight from the city’s public schools. While the current historiography traces the origins of modern conservatism to white families’ abandonment of the public schools and the city following court-ordered desegregation, this dissertation presents a different narrative of white flight. As thousands of white families fled the city for the suburbs and private schools, a small, core group of white mothers, who were southerners returning from college or more often migrants to the South, founded three organizations in the late seventies: the Northside Atlanta Parents for Public Schools, the Council of Intown Neighborhoods and Schools, and Atlanta Parents and Public Linked for Education. By linking their commitment to integration and vision of public education to the future economic growth and revitalization of the city’s neighborhoods, these mothers organized campaigns that transformed three generations’ understanding of race and community and developed an entirely new type of community activism.