Mothering is a complex and multifaceted occupation that encompasses the nurturing work that women engage in. It addition, it has been established that ethnicity, class, and gender have effects on motherhood that need to be taken into account when looking at the occupations of motherhood across cultures. One important task that occurs within a mothers’ daily routine is that of making meals for their children. This dissertation sought to gain a rich, in-depth description of the phenomenon of the mealtime experience for African American mothers of low socioeconomic status and young children living in an inner-city environment in the Midwest. This study used a phenomenological approach with modified photovoice and photo-elicitation interviews to capture the essence of mealtime for African American mothers raising young children. Six mothers were recruited for the study and consented to two in-depth interviews. Individual interviewing occurred along with a second photo elicitation interview with the participant’s photographs. Phenomenological analyses were used for textual data; the photographs were analyzed separately and then together with the textual data from the photo-elicitation interviews. Results of this study indicated the intricate complexities of the occupation of mealtime and mothering with African American mothers. From the photo-elicitation interviews, five themes and three subthemes emerged: (a) Sometimes it doesn’t happen smoothly, (b) We’re all together, (c) We sit there and we talk, (d) It’s an accomplishment, and (e) We’re in the kitchen together. Three subthemes also emerged: (a) Putting in the effort, (b) It was kind of a teaching moment, and (c) It’s like déjà vu. This research (a) promotes a greater understanding of mothers’ perceptions around mealtime with their young children, especially those mothers who have varied cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds; and (b) suggests a need for increased family-centered and culturally aware training. This study demonstrates how photo techniques can enhance the depth of phenomenological analysis to explicate meaning around mealtime occupations with a diverse group of mothers.

Yes / Visual representations of prisons and their inmates are common in the news and social media, with stories about riots, squalor, drugs, selfharm and suicide hitting the headlines. Prisoners’ families are left to worry about the implications of such events on their kin, while those incarcerated and less able to understand social cues, norms and rules, are vulnerable to deteriorating mental health at best, to death at worst. As part of the life-story method in my research with offenders who are on the autism spectrum, have mental health problems and/or have learning difficulties, and prisoner’s mothers, I asked participants to take photographs, reflecting upon their experiences. Photographs in this case, were primarily used to help respondents consider and articulate their feelings in follow-up interviews. Notably, seeing (and imagining) is often how we make a connection to something (object or feeling), or someone (relationships), such that images in fiction, news/social media, drama, art, film and photographs can shape the way people think and behave – indeed feel about things and people. Images and representations ought to be taken seriously in researching social life, as how we interpret photographs, paintings, stories and television shows is based on our own imaginings, biography, culture and history. Therefore, we look at and process an image before words escape, by ‘seeing’ and imagining. How my participants and I ‘collaborate’ in doing visual methods and then how we make meaning of the photographs in storying their feelings, is insightful. As it is, I wanted to enable my participants to make and create their own stories via their photographs and narratives, whilst connecting to them, along with my own interpretation and subjectivities. / The Leverhulme Trust RF-2016-613\8

Bakgrund: Sjukhusens vårdavdelningar är den sista vårdplatsen för många människor, vilket innebär att många också dör i den kontexten. Organisationen är i huvudsak utformad för akutsjukvård och vård i livets slutskede är inte prioriterat, vilket gör att akutsjukvårdsmiljön är sämre utformad för den döende personen och närstående. Det finns behov av fler studier som fokuserar på vård i livets slutskede från dessa vårdkontexter.                                                                                                                                                                                                   Syfte: Syftet var att utforska närståendes erfarenheter av vad som är betydelsefullt i vårdmiljön inom akutsjukvården vid vård i livets slutskede. Metod: Den här studien är kvalitativ och designad utifrån tolkande beskrivning. Två akutsjukvårdsavdelningar i södra-mellersta Sverige rekryterades. Nio närstående, sex kvinnor och tre män, i åldrarna 23-63 år, deltog i studien. De blev individuellt intervjuade vid ett tillfälle. Vid intervjun användes fotoelicitering med utgångspunkt från bilder de själva hade tagit. Intervjuerna spelades in digitalt (ljud) och transkriberades ordagrant. Tolkande beskrivning användes för analys av materialet. Resultat: Närståendes erfarenheter av vårdmiljön presenteras i tre mönster, vilka är relaterade till varandra: Sensoriska upplevelser i den fysiska vårdmiljön som inkluderar visuella intryck, ljud och oljud samt ljus; Utrymme för privatliv och sociala relationer i den personliga vårdmiljön och avslutningsvis; Personalen som representanter för den institutionella vårdmiljön som omfattar förhållningssätt, möjliggöra orientering samt struktur och kontinuitet. Slutsats: Studien påvisar tre mönster som omfattar närståendes erfarenheter av det som är betydelsefullt. Betydelsen av sensoriska upplevelser, privatliv och sociala relationer samt personalen förhållningssätt och agerande beskrivs. Erfarenheter i och av vårdmiljön kunde öka eller minska deras stress i en svår livssituation. Utifrån dessa fynd är det av stor betydelse med ökad medvetenhet hos personalen om hur viktig vårdmiljön är och att miljön för vård i livets slutskede vid akutsjukvårdsavdelningar behöver uppmärksammas och tas om hand i större omfattning. / Background: Hospitals are and will continue to be the last place for care for many people, which also means that a lot of people die in these settings, within organizations for acute care. The main focus is not care at end-of-life and it is not prioritized, which means that these acute care environments not are adapted to the needs of dying persons and family members. More studies aiming at end-of-life care in acute care settings are needed.              Aim: The aim with this study was to explore important dimensions of the care environment in acute care settings from family members´ perspective during end-of-life care.                                                                Method: The design for this study was qualitative and used interpretive description. We recruited two acute care units from different hospitals in south-mid Sweden. The participants were nine family members, six women and three men, aged 23-63 years. They were at one occasion individually interviewed with the use of photo-elicitation and these photographs were participant-produced. These interviews were digitally audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The interviews were analysed with interpretive description.                                               Findings: These findings show family members´ experiences of the acute care environment, as described in three, interrelated patterns: Sensory experiences in the physical care environment including visual impressions, sound and noises, lighting; Space for privacy and social relations in the personal care environment; and Staff as representatives for the institutional care environment including attitude and manner, orientation, and structure and continuity.                                                                                                                                                              Conclusions: According to these findings three patterns are described from family members´ perspective, increasing or decreasing their distress in a demanding situation. Sensory experiences, privacy and social relations are of importance, just as staff. In line with these findings it is crucial with increased awareness among staff of how important the care environment is and the need for focusing more on and taking care of the end-of-life care environment in acute care settings. / Forskningsprogrammet DöBra / Plats och rum för vård i livets slutskede

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This dissertation presents three separate studies designed to investigate the relationship between marriage and physical activity behavior. First, a systematic literature review of nineteen articles presents qualitative and quantitative articles from 2000 to 2010 that focus on the relationship between marriage and physical activity and/or exercise. Based on the findings from the review, social support (or lack of support), culturally-determined gender roles, environmental factors such as income level, and intrapersonal factors such as self-efficacy each influenced spousal physical activity. Secondly, a qualitative study based on interviews and photographs from twenty-four married individuals utilized Social Cognitive Theory to explore the mechanisms, determinants, and influences of spousal physical activity. Findings indicate verbal persuasion by husbands encouraged wives, yet verbal persuasion by wives was perceived as nagging by men. While verbal persuasion by husbands increased a small number of wives' sense of self-efficacy, the majority of women felt that persuasion increased motivation, not necessarily confidence. Findings also highlighted the power of modeling to increase husbands' physical activity. Overwhelmingly, men reacted more positively to modeling than verbal persuasion. Lastly, a second qualitative piece employed General Systems Theory to conceive of the marital unit as a type of system working within other broader systems. Findings highlighted the desire for increased quality time as a motivator for physical activity within the marital system. Also, the larger cultural, occupational, and familial systems greatly influenced marital dyads. Cultural expectations to be the primary caregiver negatively impacted wives while occupational pressures negatively influenced both parts of the marital dyad. Regarding the familial system, parents cited the influence of their own parents as well as a desire to "pass on" exemplary physical activity habits to their children. Finally, couples with children highlighted an increase in exercise frequency yet decrease in exercise intensity.

Recent studies have reported that African American couples in the military are less likely to divorce than their civilian counterparts. This dissertation was designed to document the experiences of African American military couples in order to understand the challenges they face while serving in the armed forces and the strategies they have used to maintain their marriages. A grounded theory approach was utilized to produce 12 main themes that categorize experiences of both the individual and the couple within the context of their respective military branch. Photo-elicitation was incorporated into semi-structured interviews with 10 couples to identify what they consider to be the important aspects of their marriage, the ways in which their relationships were impacted by the demands of duty, and their perspectives on the role that race plays in an institution that has been characterized as relatively race-neutral.

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This dissertation examines the influence of love and other emotions on sexual and drug-related HIV risk among female sex workers who inject drugs and their intimate, non-commercial partners in Tijuana, Mexico. My work on a public health study along the Mexico-U.S. border and independent ethnographic research in Tijuana suggests the importance of emotions in shaping sex workers' relationships and health risks. Love is a universal human emotional experience embodied within broader cultural, social, and economic contexts. A growing body of cross-cultural research suggests that modern relationships have transformed to emphasize love and emotional intimacy over moral or kinship obligations. Particularly in contexts of risk and uncertainty, intimate relationships provide emotional security. Drug-using couples may engage in unprotected sex or even needle sharing to convey notions of love and trust and help sustain emotional unity, but such acts also place partners at heightened risk for HIV. For female sex workers in Tijuana who endure poverty, marginality, and an increased risk of contracting HIV, establishing and maintaining emotional bonds with intimate partners may be of paramount importance. Yet little is known about how female sex workers' intimate male partners shape their HIV risk perceptions and practices. Moreover, male partners' perspectives are critically absent in HIV prevention strategies. This dissertation is nested within Proyecto Parejas, a study of the social context and epidemiology of HIV among sex workers and their non-commercial male partners in Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Through semi-structured and ethnographic interviews, photo elicitation interviews, and participant observation, I got to know seven of the couples in Tijuana who are enrolled in Parejas. I examine their relationships through the lens of critical phenomenology, which combines concern with experience, emotions, and subjectivity with political economy perspectives that argue sex work, drug use, and HIV/AIDS is not randomly distributed but historically and structurally produced. My work suggests that female sex workers and their intimate partners experience their relationships in gradations of love and emotional content. These relationships hold significant meaning in both partners' lives for emotional and material reasons, and shape each partner's HIV risk within and outside of the relationships. Couples choose not to use condoms with each other, often to define themselves as a couple. Sex outside of the relationship occurs for economic and culturally conditioned reasons, but does not necessarily diminish the meaning of the primary relationship. Motivations and ability to use condoms with clients and outside partners are context dependent and, in order to preserve trust and unity, sexual risks are typically not discussed. Partners share drugs and syringes with each other as a sign of care within a context of scarce material resources. Emotionally close couples tend to confine their sharing within the relationship, whereas less close couples also share with friends and family in more social forms of drug use. Given their vulnerability within a milieu of poverty, social marginalization, and discrimination, love alone cannot explain the HIV risk that female sex workers and their partners face. Nevertheless, emotions are significant factors in both risk taking and risk management. This study encourages researchers, practitioners, and policy makers to consider the affective dimensions of HIV risk within sex workers' intimate relationships as an integral part of a multi-level strategy to address each partner's health and wellbeing.

Photographs traverse the world in many forms and for many purposes. They follow and trace movements and networks of people, and have become essential objects in linking the past, present, and future of migrating communities. Vernacular photographs found in the home, encompass a substantial field of neglected knowledge and should be accorded greater attention and analysis in social science research. Vernacular images in academic research are often described as ordinary and mundane, their representational aspects are perceived to be repetitive and unremarkable (portraits, family snapshots etc.). However, this thesis argues that vernacular photographs are privileged objects and it is their universality and social embeddedness that elevates their significance in social science research. Unlike public or institutionalised photographic archives, vernacular archives operate within active social contexts and are alive with social agency. In this thesis, I use Alfred Gell’s anthropological theory of Art and Agency as the framework for conceptualising the social agency of photographs. To support these claims, this research examines the personal photographs found in the vernacular archives of a Gujarati migrant group in Christchurch, New Zealand. The photographs presented by members of this group are found at the centre of their social lives, mirroring their experiences and relationships in visual form. I use the Chakra Wheel as a visual metaphor to symbolise the nature of this group and their photographs. This metaphor speaks directly to the phenomenon of transnationalism and acknowledges that, for migrant communities, these transitioning processes are complex and elaborate, where the foundations of kinship and homemaking are constantly shifting. Vernacular photographs are at the centre of these transnational exchanges and networks, shifting from place to place, creating tangible and virtual threads between individuals, families, villages, and communities. They anchor these relationships at various sites, such as the wall in the family home, in albums, wallets, and on the internet. Vernacular photographs mirror these complex processes, and silently record and embody the social lives of people in a visual way. The mirrored reflection of the vernacular photograph can be both objective and subjective. By using the vernacular photograph as a research medium, in ethnographic research, we can get closer to the lived reality of people’s social lives. To emphasise the privileged position of vernacular photographs, I have chosen to use the methodology of photo-elicitation to position the photograph at the centre of enquiry. The methodology used in this thesis borrows some essential concepts from the discipline of phototherapy. Phototherapy claims that photographs can open up an exploration of us and others and, when the participant has primary agency, the affective force of the photograph is powerful and insightful. This thesis strongly supports these assumptions. Phototherapy uses photographs to explore the thoughts and unconscious processes of individuals. I argue that, in social research, photographs can also be used to explore and ‘open up’ the social world, by positioning the participant as the prime authority of their images, and their images as the vehicle of engagement and communication. By using vernacular photographs in this way, I look at both ‘on the surface’ and ‘below the surface’ of the image, making links with Barthes’ photographic theory and his concepts of ‘studium’ and ‘punctum’. In this thesis, the participants are the curators of their own personal archives. Their photographs give an emic view of their world, emphasising the importance of their migrant history, ancestors, village home, community, and cultural identity. Their photographs mediate agency between persons and places: keeping alive personal and spiritual relationships in the here and now; reinforcing essential familial knowledge systems; and assisting in creating and maintaining community identity and belonging.

The colonial legacy of development aid has been widely discussed in academia. This study uses postcolonial theory to shed light upon how one Finnish NGO’s visual imageries affect the representation of the African continent. The thesis adds underexplored perspectives by highlighting the perceptions of five Finnish African diaspora members in Finland, giving a voice to the subaltern. Using qualitative semi-structured interviews combined with the photo-elicitation technique the study emphasizes through thematic analysis that the NGO’s visual imageries affect the everyday lives of the Finnish African diaspora by reproducing imageries that reflect colonial undertones. Results also indicated that the photos reproduce the single story of Africa in the Finnish society, affecting how the Finnish majority perceives the diaspora members. The diaspora members felt disappointed by the misrepresentation of the African continent, but they also provided solutions to overcome these very existing hierarchies.