With the judicial system worldwide investigating finance companies for misleading disclosures, deception has become a topical issue. However, deception is an area that has historically not been favoured in academia. The paper aims to determine whether disclosure practices of failed companies show more characteristics of deception than those of viable companies. The research will involve a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methodologies, including the use of content analysis and the software DICTION. An index of deception is constructed. The higher the deception score, the more deceptive the authors are deemed to be. This study tests this argument with respect to the prospectuses of a sample of failed and non-failed New Zealand finance companies.

Trumpalaikė emigracija suformuoja naujo tipo šeimas. Šioms šeimos skiriamas vis didesnis dėmesys, kadangi šioje srityje yra atlikta kol kas labai mažai mokslinių tyrimų. Darbo tikslas – išanalizuoti šeimų, patiriančių trumpalaikę emigraciją, išgyvenimus ir gautą pagalbą. Darbo klausimas: Kokius išgyvenimus patiria šeimos, kuriose egzistuoja trumpalaikė emigracija. Siekiant pasiekti užsibrėžtą tikslą bei uždavinius, pasitelktas kokybinis tyrimas, pusiau standartizuotas interviu. Tyrimo imtis – 5 moterys gyvenančios Vilkaviškio rajono savivaldybėje, kurių vyrai dirba tolimųjų reisų vairuotojais, tačiau visiškam duomenų pilnumui papildomai atlikti dar trys interviu. Jos buvo atrinktos panaudojant tikslinę tiriamųjų atranką bei „sniego gniūžtę“. Duomenys apdoroti atliekant turinio arba kitaip content analizę. Atlikus tyrimą paaiškėjo, kad šeimos, kurios išgyvena trumpalaikę emigraciją, patiria gana įvairius išgyvenimus. Tai labai priklauso nuo šeimoje vyraujančių tarpusavio santykių, sugebėjimo pasidalinti vaidmenimis, įvykus pokyčiams joje, taip pat nuo vaikų amžiaus, bendravimo su jais, vyrų emigracijos trukmės. Kuo vyrai ilgiau būna išvykę, tuo šeimos susiduria su tam tikrais sunkumais. Svarbiausia, kad dauguma jų nesikreipia pagalbos, nors pripažįsta, kad ji yra reikalinga. Tuo tarpu kitos nieko nelaukę kreipėsi pagalbos pas atitinkamus specialistus, anot kurių, ši pagalba yra efektyvi. O ši pagalba joms yra teikiama pagal poreikį. Nepaisant to, kad pusė tyrimo dalyvių teigė... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Short term emigration forms families of a new type. The latter families receive more and more attention, as a number of researches in this field is rather low. Aim: analyze experience of families, suffering from short-term emigration and assistance they get. Question: what is experience of families, suffering from short-term emigration? In order to achieve the set aim and objectives, a qualitative research and a semi standardized interview have been implemented. Sample: 5 females, living in the municipality of Vilkaviškis district, whose husbands work as long-distance drivers. However, in order to collect the full data, other 3 questionnaire have been added as well. The latter have been selected by intended choice of the respondents and using a “snowball” method. Data have been processed using a content analysis method. The results of the research have revealed that experience of families, suffering from short-term emigration, differ, depending on a type of dominant relations, an ability to share roles in case of changes; also on the age of children, communication with them, duration of communication between fathers and children, etc. Longer the husbands are away, larger troubles the family faces. The main point is that the majority recognizes that they need assistance, but does not ask for it. However, others are asking the professional help immediately, and, as the specialists put it, this type of assistance was very efficient. The assistance for the abovementioned... [to full text]

The booming organic food industry has led to an increased complexity in the way in which organic foods are marketed. Consumers now encounter a multitude of reasons for why they should (or should not) purchase organic foods. This research examines the promotion of organic food from four different food companies (three grocery stores and a food delivery program) as a way to uncover the narratives used to describe and endorse organic food. With an analysis of website and in-store content from chain, organic and local companies, I have used previous research in the area of organic food discourse to identify themes within the selected content. This study concludes that while there are important commonalities among the narratives, it is not the organic food itself that these commonalities stem from, but rather the company context (company goals and values) that frame the promotional narratives. / Graduate

Research about gestational surrogacy is limited from the surrogate’s perspective, yet third party reproduction is on the rise worldwide, and specifically in Canada. The experiences, relationships, and meanings of Canadian surrogate mothers are the focus of this research. Eight women’s narratives are studied to better understand the process of their gestational surrogacy experience. The purpose of this study was to learn more about surrogacy by paying attention to how surrogate mothers story/narrate their experiences. The good surrogate discourse, which influences meaning making, was uncovered when analyzing how surrogate mothers narrate their experience within gestational surrogacy positions, roles, and procedures. Further analysis focused on discourses of motherhood, gender, biomedical practice, fertility, ethics, and legislation which actively shape the stories that can be told, and limit the identities that are available. Similarly, these discourses influence relationships as surrogates monitor their need for connection with the surrogate child. Professionals in the field of child and youth care (CYC) including family practitioners, counsellors, and anyone working with children, youth, and families need to be mindful of their practice if third party reproduction is an issue as counselling support for grief and loss may be necessary. / Graduate

This dissertation study examined and gave voice to the experiences of a group of street involved youth, those who had received special education support and services during their school years. They are not spoken about in the literature. Special education is complex, diverse, and encompasses many exceptional pupils for whom services and supports are provided in the school system. Many street youth belong to this group with exceptionalities such as learning disability, mild intellectual disability or behaviour. Using narrative analysis and structuration theory frameworks, the life history narratives of fifteen street youth who were in special education classes were co-constructed and analysed. In addition, a survey question gathered how many new in-takes at a drop-in for street youth self-identify as youth who were in special education. Furthermore, data was gathered from service providers in education and social services through semi-structured interviews and two focus groups. Youth participants considered citizenship in special education as exclusionary and actively resisted it because of the social connotations such as ‘being stupid’ which were attached to it. Youth emphasized that teachers and support staff seemed unaware of the complex environmental factors that impacted on their ability to be successful in school. They reported that once they were formally identified and placed in special education, they were put in a holding pattern that often did not lead to graduation. Special education was focused on classifications according to deficit discourses rather than engaging these students in learning or in having their identified learning needs met. Although study participants dropped out of school a number of times, they kept returning either to complete secondary school or enroll in college, mostly without special education designation and supports. Service providers, educators and special services staff should mentor such youth, provide opportunities for addressing learning problems, and deliver quality instruction for students with identified learning difficulties and needs. There is a dearth of alternative and transitional post-secondary programs to meet the specific needs of these students.

Following the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Afghan women suddenly gained high visibility all over the world. Since then, representations of Afghan women in the Western media and notably in the U.S. news media provide a critical concern to scholars. Much of the relevant literature on this topic speaks to the fact that the dominant portrayal of Afghan women in the Western media has shown them as passive victims of war and violence, to be liberated only by the Western military intervention. However, the question remains as to how the popular fictional narratives, as another vivid source of information, represent Afghan women to the Western readers. To address this question, A Thousand Splendid Suns, as a popular novel authored by Khalid Hosseini, an Afghan novelist, was selected. Bormannian fantasy theme analysis of this novel conveys the passivity of women in the context of Afghanistan. The findings reveal that the portrayals of Afghan women in the novel correspond with the images of Afghan women in the Western media. Moreover, an examination of a sample of book reviews of the novel unveils the important contribution of Khalid Hosseini to the Orientalist discourse.

No description available.

For those living in resource rich countries such as Canada a positive HIV diagnosis no longer means an imminent death. In response to this change, numerous treatment and therapeutic institutions have arisen to assist individuals with managing their illness. Illness narratives then, the stories people tell and retell about their illness experience, are constructed by and within this multiplicity of medical frameworks that can interact in ways that are both complimentary and contradictory. Drawing on ethnographic data obtained through two months of participant observation and seven in-depth interviews at an HIV/AIDS treatment facility in Vancouver, British Columbia I discuss how illness narratives reveal the presence of and an orientation towards the powerful discourses of medicine. Some of the frameworks evident in the narratives I examine include biomedical understandings of health and disease, support group dialogues on self-empowerment, tenets of complementary and alternative medicines, clinical models of low-threshold access to health care, notions of health services as a human right, and addiction treatment concepts. In order to afford a place for the institutional discourses of medicine in my analysis, the subjective experience of illness is contextualized with reference to it’s situatedness amongst the myriad of other voices that both construct and constrain narrative production. Ultimately, I seek to demonstrate how the incorporation of disparate institutional voices into a subjective story of illness reflects the development of a unique orientation to the institutions of medicine an understanding that I conceptualize as medical consciousness.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2007. / Thomas L. McHaney, committee chair; Audrey Goodman, Pearl A. McHaney, committee members. Electronic text (247 p.) : digital, PDF file. Title from file title page. Description based on contents viewed Mar. 27, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-247).

Zugl.: Münster (Westfalen), Universiẗat, Diss., 2008.