Jürgen Habermas’ The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere has been described as outdated and incompatible with 21st century democracies. Among other things, Habermas’ initial formulation excluded the state from the public sphere. Recently, a revised model of the public sphere has emerged that positions the state and other law-making bodies at its centre. Although some theorists have embraced this revised model, others continue to exclude the state or oversimplify its role. While some research has examined how parliaments fit into this revised model, no research has been published on this in a Canadian context. This thesis attempts to fill this gap by answering the research question: Does the Canadian House of Commons constitute a form of the public sphere? To answer this question, the Canadian House of Commons is explored along three dimensions of the public sphere – structure, representation, and interaction. This system of classification conforms to the essential function and institutional criteria of classical theory and also accounts for revised models of the public sphere. Ultimately, this work argues that the Canadian House of Commons satisfies the structural and representational dimensions of the public sphere. Its interactional dimension, however, is found to be inconsistent with public sphere theory due to a lack of real deliberation and the pervasiveness of party politics.

This qualitative research study focuses explicitly on understanding the experiences and perceptions of urban Aboriginal women living with HIV/AIDS. Stigmatizing attitudes and language have serious impacts upon the lives of HIV-positive Aboriginal women. The ways our society presently addresses the women needs to change. With the insights and assistance of four Aboriginal women living with HIV, this project adds to the presently sparse qualitative literature in this research area. Current research indicates that there are many factors associated with urban Aboriginal women being at higher risk for infection and lower physical and mental health, such as race, socio-economic conditions, isolation, oppression and violence, family history, substance abuse, discrimination, and often the responsibilities of childrearing. However, current research analysis and presentation is insufficient, and more in-depth questions arise. Material was collected using semi-structured, open-ended questioning conversations with the participants. Two guiding research questions were asked: 1) What is it like for you, living with HIV right now? and 2) What would you want other people to learn from your experiences? The women’s stories provide an avenue for participants to voice some of their triumphs and challenges about being an Aboriginal woman living with HIV/AIDS. For the community at large, this is also an opportunity to hear first hand, important information such as this. In this work, I have tried to adhere to the tenets of Indigenous methodologies by allowing the life-stories to resonate as holistic representations. Rather than deconstructing the women’s stories through naturalistic analysis (which continues to categorize and to objectify participants), the stories are viewed through a Health Narrative Topography whereby thematic genres such as Restitution, Chaos, and Quest are illuminated, while also being critically aware of some of the limitations to this framework. Three overarching themes are revealed through the women’s stories: 1) the empowerment and resiliency demonstrated by the participants; 2) the need for cultural competency in a society that continues to stigmatize Aboriginal and HIV-positive women; and, 3) the need for a more holistic approach within society when it comes to education, learning, and healing.

1-IntroducciónEl sufrimiento es inherente a la vida humana y se presenta especialmente por una enfermedad o por la muerte de un ser querido. Además de diagnosticar y tratar la enfermedad, el médico también debe aliviar el sufrimiento relacionado con ella. Pero en ocasiones este aspecto se deja de lado en la práctica profesional actual.2-Objeto y objetivo El objeto de estudio de este trabajo es la entrevista médico-paciente. Y el objetivo es analizar la conversación de sus participantes, buscando identificar en ella expresiones de sufrimiento, verbales o no verbales, manifestadas por el paciente de forma espontánea, o como resultado de alguna intervención del médico. Además conocer si éste reconoce esas expresiones, las identifica, y de alguna manera las responde. 3-Marco teórico y metodológico.Se definen y analizan conceptos de diversos autores sobre temas como la comunicación, el lenguaje, la conversación, y la entrevista, para finalizar con un capítulo sobre la presencia de la narrativa en la medicina, y comentarios sobre las emociones en general, y el sufrimiento en particular. Se mencionan algunos conceptos metodológicos iniciales, que más adelante- en el denominado Corpus de la investigación, se amplían. Se utiliza metodología cualitativa, en la cual la técnica de recolección de información es la entrevista y el método es el análisis del discurso. Hasta aquí la parte teórica.El trabajo de campo se realizó en un Centro de Atención Primaria-CAP de la Provincia de Barcelona, en donde se grabaron en vídeo 39 entrevistas realizadas por médicos(as) de su plantilla. Una vez pasadas a formato DVD, se revisaron buscando los criterios de inclusión previamente definidos, y se seleccionaron 8 entrevistas, las que fueron trascritas, y constituyeron el material de análisis.Este fue realizado inicialmente de forma manual pero luego se utilizó el programa informático ATLAS-Ti. Se incluyen muestras de este análisis y se mencionan los sucesivos pasos que se dieron durante el proceso, sustentando las diferentes decisiones que se tomaron. 4-Resumen y conclusionesSe utilizan varias tablas para recolectar los resultados, que permiten apreciar:1. La dificultad que hay para identificar un sentimiento tan complejo como es el sufrimiento. 2. La gran diversidad de las expresiones verbales y no verbales utilizadas por los pacientes para manifestar el sufrimiento. 3. En ocasiones el médico no percibe o no identifica esas señales, y por lo tanto no puede darles respuesta. 4. Al final se intenta tipificar las entrevistas de acuerdo a la forma como se desarrolla la interacción, se categorizan las conclusiones, y 5. Se presentan propuestas con la intención de mejorar la interacción en estos difíciles encuentros: a. mejorar las habilidades de los médicos en comunicaciónb. mejorar también sus habilidades en la identificación y manejo de emociones propias y ajenas c. aplicar estas habilidades en la práctica clínica diaria, especialmente en este complejo tema del sufrimiento.Key words : Communication [MeSH], Physician-Patient Relations [MeSH], Primary Health Care [MeSH], Suffering , Qualitative Research [MeSH] / The doctor-patient communication tends to be difficult, mainly due to the short time allocated to visits; the population to care has increased and diversified; medical attention is mostly technology-oriented; and, although medicine has the intention to cure, nowadays there are diseases of unknown origin, incurable, fatal-ending, and specially the frequent and awful chronic illness.These and other factors at times leave doctors to neglecting important emotional aspects, such as suffering. This is a pity, since the experience of dealing with ill health provides everyone with an important and useful knowledge which, added to the doctor's knowledge, may be used to reach decisions by consensus.The object of this qualitative research was to analyze doctor-patient conversation, in order to look for verbal or non verbal expressions of suffering, to see whether doctors recognized these expressions or not, how they interpreted them, and how they coped with and reacted to them or not. In a Primary Health Care Centre located in Barcelona, Spain, 39 medical visits were video-taped. Eight visits were selected according to pre-determined criteria. Then the sound tracks accompanying the DVD images were transcribed, and the data analysis of the eight interviews was carried out using the ATLAS/Ti computer assisted-program.Conclusions and recommendations: as well as attending to the organic aspects of their patients, using the relevant technology, doctors should pay attention to the emotional aspects involved in ill health. Suffering is not easy to detect, as it can take many forms; it is very often expressed non-verbally, and it is a subjective, intimate issue. Doctors must acquire, practice and perfect communication skills, learning to recognize and handle their own and their patients' emotions. When doctors and patients are able to really talk to communicate, health-related decisions might be shared. This cooperation involves patients, and at the same time allows them to maintain their own autonomy.

It is now widely recognized that society’s over-reliance on the automobile contributes to environmental problems, especially in urban areas. Nevertheless, efforts to bring about modal shifts through transportation demand management strategies typically have had limited success. As a result, transportation research is increasingly focused on understanding the decision-making process of travel behaviour changes including mode choice and automobile ownership. The purpose of this study is to explore how individuals arrive at a decision to live either car-free or car-lite. Using a grounded-theory approach, this thesis explores the factors involved in a car-free/car-lite decision and the manner in which those factors work together to create the decision making process(es). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 driving members of a car-sharing organization, each of whom made a decision to go car-lite (car-sharing is their additional vehicle) or car-free (car-sharing is their primary vehicle). Five main interconnected themes emerged from the analysis: finances, personal values and attitudes, personal history, perceived accessibility and situational life events. In particular, the participants’ experiences reinforce the importance of situation life events in the decision-making process, a factor not commonly identified in behaviour change theory. Additionally, the participants’ narratives illustrate that intention is created from an individual’s inclination and ability to make a travel behaviour change. However, translation from intention into action appears to be conditionally dependent on contextual and/or situational changes, most often in the form of situational life events, that provide a push into or out of the decision-making process. Findings underscore the importance of life events as catalysts for bringing travel behaviour in line with an individual’s sense of what is important and what is possible. This research illustrates the relevance of qualitative work in advancing transportation research – particularly in understanding human travel decisions. While the current transportation-planning paradigm is appropriate for making short-term forecasts, we must recognize that non-linear, non-utilitarian, long-term, often qualitative factors, such as those identified in this research, are not exogenous to travel decision making. Results also provide a basis for reflecting on the appropriateness of various metrics for evaluating the effectiveness of transportation demand management initiatives.

Research continues to substantiate the influence of social, economic and family characteristics on students’ scholastic achievements. For example, children who are born in economically disadvantaged circumstances are more likely to score lower on tests that measure academic abilities than their same age economically advantaged peers (Brooks-Gunn and Markman, 2005; Rothstein, 2004). This dissertation examines the relationship between parenting interactions and young children's school readiness and initial academic success for a low-income, at-risk population in Georgia. The inter-disciplinary concept resiliency, defined as a process that encompasses positive adaptation within the context of significant adversity, frames the research (Arnold and Doctoroff, 2003; Henry et al 2005; Luthar, Cicchetti, and Becker (2000), p. 543). This dissertation utilized a subsample from a larger evaluation project, The Georgia Early Childhood Study, which looked at the effects of a state-funded universal Pre-K program. Participants in this study were at-risk children who attended either state lottery funded Georgia Pre-K or federally funded Head Start. Both qualitative and quantitative data were used. Quantitative data included norm-referenced test scores, teacher ratings, and parental surveys. Results show that at-risk children categorized as non-resilient scored lower on standardized assessments over a three-year period and were more likely to attend preschools of lower quality than their similarly economically advantaged counterparts. Qualitative data were used to gain an understanding of parental involvement that is not generally captured with traditional survey methods. The qualitative study encompassed in-depth interviews with parents of children classified as at-risk. The results show that parents report involvement in their child’s schooling, but that involvement among the non-resilient populations was more peripheral. Parents of children from the resilient group were more likely to use language that indicated involvement as a partner in their child’s education than parents from children in the non-resilient group. Parents from both groups, however, reported the difficulties they face in raising their children and were cognizant of the ways that being from a lower socio-economic group translates into parenting difficulties.

Autoimmune diseases (ADs) are a classification of chronic of illnesses in which the immune system mistakes healthy cells for foreign invaders and attacks the body’s own tissues or organs. They are unique in that the diagnosis of one AD makes the individual more susceptible to developing other ADs, and the symptoms of one AD, influence the disease activity of the others. Disease activity may also be influenced by a mind-body connection due to the relationship between stress and the immune system. The purpose of this study was to provide empirical evidence to generate new knowledge and expand our understanding of how individuals diagnosed with multiple ADs are living well. The methodology of interpretive description guided analysis. Five women with their ages ranging from early twenties to late seventies who were diagnosed with two or more ADs participated. The participants’ experiences were illuminated through semi-structured interviews. Four major interconnected themes and 13 sub-themes emerged. They discussed their challenges and successes, their attitudes towards their illnesses, and how they managed living with multiple ADs. The knowledge of the importance of a holistic lens through which to view healthcare provides important insights for those working in physical or mental health settings.

Palestine has during the last two decades suffered from increasing water scarcity. This is particularlyvisible in the agricultural sector and in farming communities. These are heavily dependent on water as primaryirrigation source. Lack of water and investments has resulted in the destruction of the agricultural sector inPalestine. This thesis is focused as a case study in al-Auja, Jordan Valley that was once well-known for itsagricultural productivity and abundance of water resources. The aim of the thesis is to assess the socioeconomicand environmental impact of the water scarcity in Auja’s agriculture and livelihoods. The methods used arequalitative and the data was collected through field work in Auja in March – April, 2013. Results of the studyindicate that agricultural sector in Auja weakened due to lack of investments and technological innovation in achanging climate. The weakened agricultural sector was subjected to various shocks and stresses from late1980’s that ultimately led to an agricultural collapse, in 2003/4. Mass unemployment and food insecurityaffected the social sector; poorer nutritional intake, decreased school enrollment and the family composition.With little water, the environment changed from semi-arid to arid which eradicated various plant species andanimal habitat. Final results of the study indicate that the situation has gradually improved during the recentyears, much due to new investments in the area and higher education amongst Auja’s youth.

It is now widely recognized that society’s over-reliance on the automobile contributes to environmental problems, especially in urban areas. Nevertheless, efforts to bring about modal shifts through transportation demand management strategies typically have had limited success. As a result, transportation research is increasingly focused on understanding the decision-making process of travel behaviour changes including mode choice and automobile ownership. The purpose of this study is to explore how individuals arrive at a decision to live either car-free or car-lite. Using a grounded-theory approach, this thesis explores the factors involved in a car-free/car-lite decision and the manner in which those factors work together to create the decision making process(es). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 driving members of a car-sharing organization, each of whom made a decision to go car-lite (car-sharing is their additional vehicle) or car-free (car-sharing is their primary vehicle). Five main interconnected themes emerged from the analysis: finances, personal values and attitudes, personal history, perceived accessibility and situational life events. In particular, the participants’ experiences reinforce the importance of situation life events in the decision-making process, a factor not commonly identified in behaviour change theory. Additionally, the participants’ narratives illustrate that intention is created from an individual’s inclination and ability to make a travel behaviour change. However, translation from intention into action appears to be conditionally dependent on contextual and/or situational changes, most often in the form of situational life events, that provide a push into or out of the decision-making process. Findings underscore the importance of life events as catalysts for bringing travel behaviour in line with an individual’s sense of what is important and what is possible. This research illustrates the relevance of qualitative work in advancing transportation research – particularly in understanding human travel decisions. While the current transportation-planning paradigm is appropriate for making short-term forecasts, we must recognize that non-linear, non-utilitarian, long-term, often qualitative factors, such as those identified in this research, are not exogenous to travel decision making. Results also provide a basis for reflecting on the appropriateness of various metrics for evaluating the effectiveness of transportation demand management initiatives.

Existing research suggests that illness can have profound implications for the family. The purpose of this thesis is to explore mothers and daughters experiences of the mothers breast cancer in order to determine how their lives were affected by the illness. In particular, I focus on shifts that occurred in their family roles, responsibilities, and relationships. Twelve qualitative interviews were performed with four mother-daughter dyads. Each mother and daughter participated in an initial interview together, as well as a separate follow-up interview. Interview data was analyzed thematically using a blended feminist-interpretive approach. The major themes emerging from the analysis pertained to: shifts in family roles and responsibilities, coping with breast cancer, and growth in family relationships. These themes identify specific aspects of mothers and daughters lives that were affected by breast cancer. Specifically, the findings contribute to the overarching theme that mothers and daughters experienced biographical disruption as a result of the mothers breast cancer, in that the illness required the women to re-assess their everyday lives and expectations for the future. However, the range of experiences described by the mothers and daughters suggest that the degree to which biographical disruption occurred varied depending on the extent to which their lives were altered by breast cancer. Therefore, I conclude that mothers and daughters experienced varying degrees of biographical disruption as a result of the mothers breast cancer. This conclusion indicates that the breast cancer diagnosis has an array of significant implications for mothers and daughters, some of which continue well beyond the completion of acute care. Recognizing that mothers and daughters family roles, responsibilities, and relationships were affected to some extent by the breast cancer experience will help to improve the types of support offered to women in the future.

Childhood exposure to family violence is a risk factor for dysfunctional intimate relationships in adulthood (e.g., Fagan & Browne, 1994). Family violence research has commonly utilized Social Learning Theory to explain cross-generational patterns of family violence. However, not all individuals who experience a violent home environment become abusers or victims in their parental or marital roles (e.g., Duffy & Momirov, 1997), which illustrates resiliency - positive adaptation or development in spite of serious threats or significant adversity (Masten, 2001). Considering strengths and resources, rather than risks and vulnerabilities, is relatively new in the field of family violence. Consequently, a basic interpretive qualitative research design (Merriam, 2002) was utilized to investigate the experiences of three heterosexual women who self-identified as (a) having observed a pattern of interparental violence in childhood and (b) currently being in non-violent intimate adult relationships. The studys purpose was to describe and understand this phenomenon, with special attention given to identifying possible resiliency and protective factors. Interviews were conducted on multiple occasions and transcripts were analyzed in terms of Kearneys (2001) shared meaning and descriptive categories. The shared meaning involved the role of emotional work required, and the descriptive categories included five themes (i.e., Diverse Experiences of Family Violence, Family Violence is Always with You, Complex Daughter-Mother Relationships, Understanding and Making Sense of Healthy Relationships, and Sources of Strength and Positive Influences). Findings are described alongside implications for counselling practice and future research.