In recent decades, male protagonists in Australian realist fiction for young adult readers have increasingly become more others-regarding, emotionally intelligent, and self-aware. (John Stephens 2000; Perry Nodelman 2002). Psychologist Roger Horrocks (1995) claims these protagonists are less “tendentious and more realistic” than male protagonists of the past. These boys, despite not bearing the hallmarks of hegemonic masculinity, develop subjective agency and ultimately propose new ways for young men to construct their gender identity. Using Phillip Gwynne’s (1998) Deadly Unna? and David Metzenthen’s (2000) Boys of Blood and Bone as case studies, and my own novel My Private Pectus as creative practice, I explore the construction and deconstruction of hegemonic, complicit, and alternative masculinities in Australian realist young adult fiction. I also analyse the construction of the New Age Boy—a label used by John Stephens for young male protagonists who develop positive self esteem because of their perceived gender differences compared to boys of the hegemonic masculine type. By critiquing the manner in which masculinities are constructed in each case study, and supporting my critique through the literature of leading gender theorists, I question the seemingly homogenous manner in which the New Age Boy gains agency. This question is further explored through my creative practice, as I put into dialogue a protagonist who also recognises his gender differences, but instead of proposing a new and better masculinity, he tries to adhere to and reap the rewards of hegemonic masculinity.

abstract: This dissertation illuminates overlaps in Mormonism and the New Spirituality in North America, showing their shared history and epistemologies. As example of these connections, it introduces ethnographic data from women who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in order to show (a) how living LDS women adapt and integrate elements from the New Spirituality with Mormon ideas about the nature of reality into hybrid spiritualities; and (b) how they negotiate their blended religious identities both in relation to the current American New Spirituality milieu and the highly centralized, hierarchical, and patriarchal Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The study focuses on religious hybridity with an emphasis on gender and the negotiation of power deriving from patriarchal religious authority, highlighting the dance between institutional power structures and individual authority. It illuminates processes and discourses of religious adaptation and synthesis through which these LDS women creatively and provocatively challenge LDS Church formal power structures. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Religious Studies 2012

Text in Afrikaans / The actuality of the pedagogical question concerning the role of ideology, values and norms in the life of man in general and education specifically stimulated the interest of the author and prompted her to examine the past in this respect. The contemporary image of ideology, values, norms, personal and global philosophies are looked at in this study. Particular attention is paid to the ideologies that developed from the Renaissance e.g. Humanistic oriented Realism, Rationalism and Naturalism. Certain role players are briefly referred to. The Communist Educational System influenced more than half of the human race over a period of seventy years resulting in a thorough investigation into this system. The influence of People's Education in education in general was also scrutinized. Because so many South Africans are adherents of Calvinism it was important that attention was paid to: The philosophy of Calvinism; What it entails; How it originated and its impact on South African Education. Particular reference was made to the role of Christian National Education. It is fairly generally accepted that a new period in history of the West in relation to values, norms and education is being entered into. The period discussion is more concerned with spiritual development, culture knowledge and religion of the human race than political and military power, although, the latter is not excluded. It was also necessary to take note of the influence of the New Age movement on values and norms. The study is concluded with the evaluation of ideology, values, norms, personal and global philosophies. Some of the most important conclusions arrived at are that these aspects are interwoven and that education is pertinently influenced by the values, norms, culture, personal and global philosophies of the individual, community and government. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Historiese Opvoedkunde)

Objet volant non identifié, OVNI, depuis ses origines ce phénomène est resté énigmatique et élusif.Cette étude propose d'en étudier les personnes, les soucoupistes, ou les « ufologues » pour reprendre leur propre terminologie et la discipline qu'ils créèrent pour tenter de percer ce mystère.Le soucoupisme, pour reprendre le terme français, s'est construit autour de l'objet ovni pour tenter de l'éclairer de bien des manières. Il n'y a donc pas un seul soucoupisme, mais bien plusieurs, répartis entre les différentes générations : la première, née après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, convaincue de la matérialité des ovnis ; la deuxième, à partir de 1977, qui voit dans cet objet la manifestation de la psychologie humaine ; la troisième, dès le début des années 90, convaincue que l'ovni cache les plus sombres desseins de gouvernements occultes ; et la quatrième, après les années 2000, pour laquelle l'ovni est avant tout un produit médiatique.Ces quatre générations cohabitent encore aujourd'hui, et se nourrissent les unes des autres.Beaucoup de soucoupistes consacrent entièrement leur vie aux ovnis, marqués par une observation, une idée ou une peur. Ils alimentent, en même temps que leur quête de la vérité, une véritable guerre inter-générationnelle où chaque propos est récupéré et détourné à l'avantage du camp qui le brandit.Cette étude en propose un tour d'horizon. / Unidentified flying object, UFO, since its origins this phenomenon remained enigmatic and elusive.This study proposes to study people, saucers, or "ufologists" to use their own terminology, and the discipline they created to try to unravel this mystery.The ufology was built around the UFO object to try to illuminate it in many ways. So there is not a single ufology, but many, divided between different generations : the first, born after the Second World War, convinced of the materiality of UFOs ; the second, from 1977, who sees in this object the manifestation of human psychology ; the third, from the beginning of the 90s, convinced that the UFO hides the darkest designs of occult governments ; and the fourth, after the 2000s, for which the UFO is above all a media product.These four generations still live today, and feed on each other. Many ufologists devote their entire lives to UFOs, marked by an observation, an idea or a fear. They feed, along with their quest for truth, a real inter-generational war where each statement is recovered and diverted to the advantage of the camp that brandishes it.This study provides an overview.

No description available.

M.A. / The problem setting, as a basis for this study, is the application of central New Age ideas contained in three op Phillips' texts which are presented as juvenile texts. It was necessary to ascertain to which extent the application of New Age perceptions moved preconceived boundaries and thus caused a change in observation and consciousness. It was further imperative to analyse the manner in which Phillips integrated viewpoints of the New Age in order to indicate the shift of boundaries and the change in consciousness coupled herewith. The most important standpoints of the New Age were theoretically explored during this study. The conclusion was drawn that the focus within the New Age is on movement of boundaries and change in consciousness. Holism was indicated as the core around which the New Age movement centres. It was also found that Phillips applied the holistic train of thought in her texts in order to portray the relationship between antropos and cosmos, as well as to establish transformative relationships. In view of the aforementioned goals, the main focal point of the study was the holistic way in which the most central New Age ideas were incorporated into Phillips' texts. The idea-contents of the three texts, as well as Phillips' art of writing can be proffered as transformative holistic.

This thesis elaborates the results of the research I carried out wtihin the year 2009 in a paid course of female tantric initiation. The theme of the thesis was inspired by my previous interest in the Goddess movement. As this movement is not yet concretized in the Czech republic, I have chosen participating in a closed women's group which is very close to it due to a specific combination of religion, philosophy and psychology. My goal was to find out what form the women's spirituality has in the Czech environment and what kind of women are drawn to it. While the first part of the thesis deals with the universal characteristics of the current eclectic spirituality generally described as the New Age movement, the second part is devoted to the research itself. I come to the conclusion that the symbol of the Goddess, the key idea of the thesis, is not perceived only as a religious concept but also as a medium by means of which women define their needs and problems resulting from their femininity. By this particular case, I advert to the very psychotherapeutic dimension of women's spirituality. Keywords: New Age, tantra, The Goddess, body, spirituality, femininity, self-realization, strength, motherhood

The main topic of the Diploma thesis is a complex design to rescue cathedral Notre-Dame in Paris. The work is firstly focused on the reconstruction of the structure including its collapsed parts and preserving a link to the destructive fire in 2019. The mainstay of the thesis is a design of new roof space and its use by broad public. Due to uncertainties about the structure stability disrupted by the fire a great emphasis has been put on the weight reduction of the newly built roof structure. The design makes a genuine attempt to be sensitive with respect to the spiritual function of the cathedral, thus the public roof access is separated from the cathedral itself thanks to a newly built underground spaces that are also included in the design.

This essay examines in what ways the natural wine movement resembles a religious new age movement. The purpose behind this is to prove that the religious landscape that contains new age is vast. And that there still are domains where scientist haven’t ventured. This empirical study is done through an examination, using a qualitative method, of the book Naturligt vin written by Emil Broomé and Emil Arvidson. By using theories from Bruce Lincoln and Charles Tillys, this essay concluded that the natural wine movement can be defined and seen as a religious new age movement.

The individual's experience of inner authority takes centre stage in the majority of scholarship on New Ageism, with many writers highlighting this theme as a defnitive characteristic of the spiritual culture. The aim of this thesis is to explore this topic and to ascertain the place of the individual and the collective within two commercial New Age feld sites in London. The qualitative data which lead this investigation were collected from a yoga centre called Shanti and a Suf dance organisation called the Suf Order. From this data, the thesis identifes an individual-collective dialectic, one which manifests in particular forms and with divergent orientations; the result is a multiplicity of types of individualisms which include collective forces. The study makes the case for this argument by focusing on four modes in which, at both sites, the individual and the collective co-produce each other. One, the (collective) class culture of the practitioners informs and is informed by the (individual) ideologies of self that the informants assert. Two, the (collective) capitalist context of the organisations infuence and are perpetuated by the ways the (individual) representatives of those organisations express themselves. Three, (collective) shared principles regarding 'positivity' and 'energy' enforce and are sustained by the (individual) feelings of the student. Four, the (collective) communities of practitioners depend on and contribute to the (individual) set apart status of the teacher. These four manifestations of the individual-collective dynamic appear with different orientations in each feld context; in all versions and in both settings, individual and collective are both present and mutually- constituting forces, but at Shanti the dialectics lean more towards the personal and at the Suf Order, the 'same' dialectics lean more towards the social. Each organisation refects and adds to the intersections, both in their forms and their orientations. In so doing, the two New Age centres present divergent balances of the individual-collective dynamic that correlate with the personal and social dispositions of their respective student bodies.