Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study focuses on the use of participatory research in community development settings. Participatory research, which is normally referred to by the abbreviation PR, is a relatively new social research methodology that arose out of a general sense of dissatisfaction with the way that traditional research was being conducted in development. Participatory research consists of a large variety of related research methodologies that emphasize participation, social learning and action. Epistemologically it is founded on the metatheories of critical theory and to a lesser extent phenomenology and feminism. It is primarily based on the idea of allowing people to participate as full researchers in their own research process so as to create knowledge about their own social reality with which they can initiate change. By creating their own social knowledge, which they use to address and change their social reality, participants become part of a continuous cycle of analysis - action - reflection. By participating as full co-researchers, participants become part of their own dialogical process of social praxis that allows them to enter into a continuous cycle of social learning, capacity building and conscientisation that gives them an increased sense of empowerment which in turn makes them able to engage in their own selfreliant sustainable development initiatives. Both community development and participatory research are grassroot level development initiatives. They both form part of the people-centered, participatory and social learning process - approaches to development. Both share a commitment to: realizing concrete and abstract goals, a social learning process, participation, empowerment, conscientisation, and sustainability. Both these development initiatives are orientated around operating in small homogenous groups as opposed to working with the whole community. In both participatory research and community development the person from outside the community who is initiating the development is required to fulfil the role of guide, advisor, advocate, enabler, and facilitator. Community development and participatory research share a similar research cycle that consists of the following stages: contact making, formal need identification, planning or analysis, implementation or action, and evaluation or reflection. Both research cycles are also committed to the same objectives namely: creating a community profile and need and problem profile, to draw up strategies to address some of the needs and problems, and to monitor and evaluate the strategies that were implemented. Both community development and participatory research therefore share a number of similarities in their objectives and goals, the most important of which is their shared commitment to development in which participation leads to an increase in social learning, capacity building and conscientisation that in tum results in participants experiencing an increased sense of empowerment which allows them to undertake their own self-reliant, sustainable development initiatives. Consequently this study concludes that participatory research is suitable for and beneficial to the practice of research in community development. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie fokus op die gebruik van deelnemende navorsing in gemeenskapsontwikkelling. Deelnemende navorsing, wat alom bekend staan as PR, is 'n relatief nuwe sosiale navorsingsmetodologie wat ontstaan het uit "n algemene gevoel van ongelukkigheid met die beoefening van tradisionele navorsing in ontwikkeling. Deelnemende navorsing bestaan uit "n wye verskeidenheid navorsingsmetodologieë wat klem lê op deelneming, sosiale leer en aksie. Epistemologies is dit gebaseer op die metateorieë van kritiese teorie en tot 'n mindere mate fenomenologie en feminisme. Dit is primêr gebaseer op die idee dat mense volledig moet deelneem as navorsers in hulle eie navorsingsproses sodat hulle, hul eie kennis kan skep van hul eie sosiale realiteit waarmee hulle dan sosiale verandering kan meebring. Deelnemers in hierdie proses word deel van "n aaneenlopende kringloop van ontleding-aksie-refleksie. Deur hulle plek vol te staan as navorsers word deelnemers deel van "n proses van eie dialogiese sosiale praxis wat hulle toelaat om deel te hê aan 'n aaneenlopende siklus van sosiale leer, kapasiteitsbou en psigologiese bewuswording wat hulle "n groter gevoel van selfbemagtiging gee wat hulle dan toelaat om hul eie selfonderhoudende ontwikkelingsinitiatiewe te loods. Beide gemeenskapsontwikkeling en deelnemende navorsing vind plaas op grondvlak. Dit vorm altwee deel van die mensegesentreerde, deelnemende en sosiale leerprosesse van ontwikkeling. Beide is gemik op die realisering van konkrete en abstrakte doelstellings, 'n sosiale leerproses, deelname, selfbemagtiging, psigologiese bewuswording, en selfonderhoud. Beide hierdie benaderings tot ontwikkeling geskied in klein homogene groepsverband. In beide deelnemende navorsing en gemeenskapsontwikkeling is dit 'n persoon van buite die gemeenskap wat die proses inisieer en "n rol speel as voog, adviseer, advokaat, daarstelIer en fasiliteerder. Gemeeskapsontwikkeling en deelnemende navorsing deel "n navorsing siklus wat bestaan uit die volgende stadiums: kontak maak, die identifisering van behoefte, beplanning of ontleding, implementering of aksie, en evaluering of samevatting. Beide hierdie ondersoeksiklusse deel die volgende doelstellings, naamlik: die opstel van 'n gemeenskapsprofiel sowel as "n behoefte en probleem profiel, die optrek van "n strategie!:! om behoeftes en probleme aan te spreek, en laastens om die strategie!:! wat geïmplementeer is te monitor en evalueer. Beide gemeenskapsontwikkeling en deelnemende navorsing deel "n verskeidenheid ooreenkomste in terme van hulle doelstellings, waarvan die mees belangrikste 'n gedeelde toewyding tot ontwikkeling is waarin deelname lei tot "n toename in sosiale leer, kapasitieitsbou en psigologiese bewuswording wat tot gevolg het dat deelnemers "n toenemende sin van hulle eie selfbemagtiging kry wat hulle toelaat om hulle eie selfonderhoudende ontwikkelingsaksies te loods. Hierdie studie kom tot die gevolgtrekking dat deelnemende navorsing geskik is en bevorderend is vir die proses van navorsing in gemeenskapsontwikkeling.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, May 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on June 19, 2009). "Program in American Studies." Includes bibliographical references (p.87-114).

No description available.

Higher education in the UK has experienced unprecedented levels of expansion over the last 50 years. This expansion has been underpinned by political and social discourses that expound its value to the social and economic prosperity of the country and more recently, towards the delivery of social justice and the social mobility of individuals. Higher education institutions are channelling increasing amounts of resource into supporting these discourses, largely around widening participation and fair access agendas. In juxtaposition, changes to funding models, including the cessation of maintenance grants and increasing charges for tuition fees, are placing significant financial burdens on graduating students, calling into question just how achievable these agendas can be. This research seeks to understand if there is a disparity between the social value and benefits that governmental and institutional discourses claim for going to university, and how individuals perceive the value of a contemporary degree. To do so it draws on the narratives of a panel of over 100 volunteer writers submitted as a qualitative survey on their opinions of and interactions with higher education. Drawn from all over the UK, these writers are participants in the Mass Observation Project, an in-depth, qualitative survey of everyday life in Britain established in 1981. The empirical research is embedded within biographical narrative methods, and seeks to create a landscape of perceptions of the social value of a university education and how these are embedded within people's life stories. Using the depth and retrospective opportunities provided in the qualitative narratives of Mass Observation allows this research to provide a more nuanced understanding of both the long-term impacts of higher education on individuals and how perceptions of its social and economic value have changed over the decades. It suggests that the ability to derive the greatest benefit from going to university is embedded within social backgrounds and therefore ensuring equality is far more complex than simply providing an opportunity to access higher education. This thesis also illustrates how the use of longitudinal and qualitative methods of research can provide alternative viewpoints that should be considered when creating policies that will ensure the greatest benefit to providing value and equality within higher education.

This thesis has two distinct yet interrelated parts. In the first instance, it investigates child domestic work in Iringa ? a small town in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. Second, it examines the participatory action research methodology that was adopted as part of that investigation. Data were collected by a team of researchers that included children and young people who had themselves been domestic workers. A questionnaire, interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with local leaders, employers of child domestic workers and (both current and former) child domestic workers themselves. An agenda for change - that aimed towards the redistribution of power within domestic working arrangements - was developed on the basis of those data and presented to local government authorities in Iringa. This research makes a number of contributions to understandings of both child domestic work and participatory action research methodologies. First, the thesis contends that child domestic work is a complex activity which (despite its frequently exploitative and abusive character) should not be identified as a purely harmful force in the lives of young employees. The multiplicity of ways in which that occupation is experienced can only be uncovered through the incorporation of a range of stakeholders? perspectives. Second, this research found that notions of ?family? were discursively linked to child domestic working arrangements in Iringa. This has inhibited recognition of child domestic work as ?real work?, and contributed to the exploitation of these young employees. This thesis contends that increased formalisation and regulation of child domestic work would offer an opportunity to reconstruct child domestic workers as ?employees? and thereby improve their circumstances. This research has also challenged prevalent notions of children?s incompetence and shown that young people with minimal formal education can (and should) participate as co-researchers in academic endeavours investigating their lives. However, it has also found that young people?s competencies and interests vary, and that notions of appropriate participatory processes have often failed to take such diversity into account. This thesis contends that more participatory forms of evaluation may allow greater flexibility (and relevance) to be fostered when assessing the ?success? of participatory processes. Academics need to be alert to the alienating effects that (unwittingly) ?judgemental? and (unrealistically) ?perfect? accounts of participatory and action-oriented research processes can have on young scholars.

This thesis was undertaken to explore the philosophical principles elaborated by Mary Parker Follett (1868-1933) and to examine their relevance in the contemporary workplace. The contention within this thesis was that concepts Follett expounded bear close resemblance to postmodern notions of organizing; juxtaposition of Follettian and postmodern philosophy and a postmodern take on research methodology add credence to the contention and allowed the researcher to examine the practical relevance of the notions explored. A case study within a manufacturing company provided the venue for the practical exploration of Follett's ideas. The original intent of the researcher to conduct focus groups interviews, which would lead to a contextually relevant survey instrument, was changed by the participants. Observation and interviews, which the employees of SEI preferred, allowed an examination of several of the most important of Follett's ideas: "power-with" rather than "power-over"; the "law of the situation"; democratic "small group government"; integration as a more favourable manner of dealing with conflict over voluntary withdrawal, domination, and compromise; the benefits of coordination; circular response in the creation of people; and individual and society as process. The stories of the participants are told and contemporary insights add to those provided by Follett over seven decades ago. It was found that many of Follett's ideas have applicability in a contemporary company. The interviewees displayed exceptional ability to comment regarding the application of Follettian principles within their workplace setting. My integration as researcher-participant allowed for personal transformation based on the experience of the research with its collaboration with the employees, lending credence to the most profound of Follett's insights--the reciprocal creation of people--the circular manner in which we create as we communicate. The significance of the study lies in the process itself--the opportunities provided for the circular creating and communicating of meaning. The study may encourage readers to reexamine the nature of their relationships, as well. While that examination is not the purpose of this research--no claim of generalizability is offered--it is hoped that others may learn lessons from the documentation of the process of this study.

Abstract Sales work is an occupation which constantly is available for people. Salespeople are always wanted, but only few of them can reach exquisite performance. For most people, selling is easy. However, it also brings the harshest challenge to human nature. Sales representatives could easily lose their resolution of achieving goals when they are encountered customers¡¦ endless problems and sales resistance. They always face tremendous achievement pressure, which could destroy their strong will in no time. In most people¡¦s impression, a professional sales manager has to be a person and a rich speaker. However, holding the same position, and having close observation toward numberless business chargers, I possess different opinion. A successful sales manager is usually prudent, self-disciplined, and achieves goals through effort of the whole team members. He learns humbly, and accumulates wisdom through his team group, as well as foster excellent ability, and great fortitude from failure experience. Thus, he becomes a top manager in his field. This paper discusses the resulted problems and their processing strategies when a sales manager confronts his customer. The author takes his past work experience as a sales manager in a British lubricant oil company as examples. Using the narrative analysis and participant observation method, this paper illustrates living challenges and work experiences on the managements of business and sales. Moreover, the great wisdom and excellent experience from above mentioned cases are respectively verified by the strategic problems solution models of Mckinsey and Company. Keywords: Qualitative Research¡BNarrative Analysis¡BParticipant Observation Method

This thesis has two distinct yet interrelated parts. In the first instance, it investigates child domestic work in Iringa ? a small town in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. Second, it examines the participatory action research methodology that was adopted as part of that investigation. Data were collected by a team of researchers that included children and young people who had themselves been domestic workers. A questionnaire, interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with local leaders, employers of child domestic workers and (both current and former) child domestic workers themselves. An agenda for change - that aimed towards the redistribution of power within domestic working arrangements - was developed on the basis of those data and presented to local government authorities in Iringa. This research makes a number of contributions to understandings of both child domestic work and participatory action research methodologies. First, the thesis contends that child domestic work is a complex activity which (despite its frequently exploitative and abusive character) should not be identified as a purely harmful force in the lives of young employees. The multiplicity of ways in which that occupation is experienced can only be uncovered through the incorporation of a range of stakeholders? perspectives. Second, this research found that notions of ?family? were discursively linked to child domestic working arrangements in Iringa. This has inhibited recognition of child domestic work as ?real work?, and contributed to the exploitation of these young employees. This thesis contends that increased formalisation and regulation of child domestic work would offer an opportunity to reconstruct child domestic workers as ?employees? and thereby improve their circumstances. This research has also challenged prevalent notions of children?s incompetence and shown that young people with minimal formal education can (and should) participate as co-researchers in academic endeavours investigating their lives. However, it has also found that young people?s competencies and interests vary, and that notions of appropriate participatory processes have often failed to take such diversity into account. This thesis contends that more participatory forms of evaluation may allow greater flexibility (and relevance) to be fostered when assessing the ?success? of participatory processes. Academics need to be alert to the alienating effects that (unwittingly) ?judgemental? and (unrealistically) ?perfect? accounts of participatory and action-oriented research processes can have on young scholars.

Thesis (D. App. Psych.)--Victoria University (Melbourne, Vic.), 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 139-149). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.