Roller derby is an emergent women’s sport; self-organized on a not-for-profit, do-it-yourself model it initially developed outside existing sports institutions and remains un-professionalized. Roller derby thus occupies an ambivalent position of gendered alterity in relation to a broader cultural field of sport, where women’s struggles for sporting legitimacy are well rehearsed in the literature. Existing research interprets roller derby as a unique context, particularly conducive to re-configurations of both gender and sport. Despite such uniqueness, research participants increasingly claim roller derby’s similarity to other sports practices, become concerned with its recognition as a ‘real, legitimate sport’ and orientate their practice towards getting taken seriously. I develop an ‘insider’ ethnographic account from analysis of five years of participant observation with one roller derby league of approximately 100 members, including 26 in-depth interviews and a collaborative film-making project. The thesis responds to a broad question, ‘how is getting taken seriously negotiated in practice?’ and analyses shifts in participants’ gendered self-representations, the bureaucratization of a 'by the skaters, for the skaters' organizational ethos, and the institution of competition. As participants work to diminish distinctions between roller derby and ‘sport’, they enact a set of related distinctions between; what the league used to be like and what it became; who roller derby is and is not by and for; and practices that are and are not condusive to serious recognition. As participants’ definitions of roller derby move away from ‘a sport for women who don’t like sport’ towards ‘a sport for people who really, really like sport’ a second over-arching question arises; in seeking serious recognition did the league eventually become what it once defined itself in opposition to? Concentrating on moments when participants’ claims for serious recognition refuse and rework the gendered terms of such intelligibility, I argue that a sociological analysis of seriousness is crucial to understanding such fateful dilemmas. Enactments of non-/seriousness enable skaters to create new organizational and representational praxis, identities, meanings and relations, as they negotiate the possibilities and limits of working together to make something relatively new. Non-/seriousness is how participants move between roller derby, sport and gender as inevitable, singular, certain and beyond their influence and yet malleable, contingent, multiple, ambivalent and created in their own actions. Four interludes, between chapters, reflect on non-/seriousness in ‘insider’ research. The interludes interrupt and expand upon the thesis’ central analytical contentions; that analyzing non-/seriousness both enhances and unsettles our understanding of familiar sociological preoccupations with gender, organization and mid-ranges of agency between dichotomies of voluntarism and determinism.

published_or_final_version / Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This research is focused on developing a generic intelligent architecture for an interactive tutoring system. A review of the literature in the areas of instructional theories, cognitive and social views of learning, intelligent tutoring systems development methodologies, and knowledge representation methods was conducted. As a result, a generic ITS development architecture (GeNisa) has been proposed, which combines the features of knowledge base systems (KBS) with object-oriented methodology. The GeNisa architecture consists of the following components: a tutorial events communication module, which encapsulates the interactive processes and other independent computations between different components; a software design toolkit; and an autonomous knowledge acquisition from a probabilistic knowledge base. A graphical application development environment includes tools to support application development, and learning environments and which use a case scenario as a basis for instruction. The generic architecture is designed to support client-side execution in a Web browser environment, and further testing will show that it can disseminate applications over the World Wide Web. Such an architecture can be adapted to different teaching styles and domains, and reusing instructional materials automatically can reduce the effort of the courseware developer (hence cost and time) in authoring new materials. GeNisa was implemented using Java scripts, and subsequently evaluated at various commercial and academic organisations. Parameters chosen for the evaluation include quality of courseware, relevancy of case scenarios, portability to other platforms, ease of use, content, user-friendliness, screen display, clarity, topic interest, and overall satisfaction with GeNisa. In general, the evaluation focused on the novel characteristics and performances of the GeNisa architecture in comparison with other ITS and the results obtained are discussed and analysed. On the basis of the experience gained during the literature research and GeNisa development and evaluation. a generic methodology for ITS development is proposed as well as the requirements for the further development of ITS tools. Finally, conclusions are drawn and areas for further research are identified.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-22T21:55:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 marcia.pdf: 1067190 bytes, checksum: 141329ea696bdc88a7c983f0469c59e7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-23 / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas / The research carried out under the title "Social representations of teaching of elementary school teachers in municipal schools and early years final years of municipal schools in Manaus: a comparative analysis between the teachers of the early years and later years . The objective was to analyze the meanings attributed by subjects to what is involved in being a teacher trying to understand the meaning of teaching for these professionals. We discuss these representations in the light of "social representations theory" of Serge Moscovici. We developed the following methodological approaches: test free evocations from inducing term TEACHING JOB, the words evoked later underwent the software EVOC. The results show the representations of teachers around the commitment and dedication. / A pesquisa realizada sob o título de As representações sociais do trabalho docente dos professores do ensino fundamental da rede municipal de ensino anos iniciais e anos finais da rede municipal de ensino em Manaus: uma análise comparativa entre os professores dos anos iniciais e anos finais . O objetivo foi analisar significados atribuídos pelos sujeitos envolvidos ao que é ser professor na tentativa de entender o significado do trabalho docente para esses profissionais. Discute essas representações à luz da Teoria das Representações Sociais de Serge Moscovici. Foram desenvolvidas a seguintes abordagens metodológicas: teste de livre evocações a partir do termo indutor TRABALHO DOCENTE, posteriormente as palavras evocadas foram submetidas ao software EVOC. Os resultados evidenciam as representações dos professores em torno do compromisso e dedicação.

The thesis is focused on the role of fathers represented in different lifestyle magazines for women. There were selected two kinds of magazine brands for women from different social-economic groups. The representative magazines from higher social-economic groups were chosen Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Cosmopolitan and Marianne. The representative magazines for women from lower social-economic groups were chosen Vlasta, Chvilka pro tebe, Žena a život and Překvapení. There were found only articles which show man as father, including description, in all selected magazines. The terms were generated according to the method of open coding from each article. Then they were merged into superior categories. The final categories served as a tool for describing representation of father, as he had been described in the individual magazines. From individual magazines we moved to the whole groups of magazines, which were designed for the same social-economic groups of women. Differences and similarities in the representations of fathers were found not only between the groups but also inside of the groups themselves. Nevertheless, our work has successfully shown that there were significant differences in the descriptions of the father in the magazines for different social-economic groups of women.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse the conceptualisation of the social relations of class and gender within the Social Democratic Women’s Association during the period 1972 – 1993, on the basis of their programmes for action. The analysis of the concepts is based on an ideology critical study focusing on the manifest ideology. The study is based upon the theoretical concepts of class and gender,  The class analysis is based upon the broadened concepts of class by Erik Olin Wright and Ira Katznelson. The gender analysis is mainly based upon a Marxist understanding and a critical point of view of Marxism and feminism in the context of patriarchy and capitalism. The period of the study is where the social democracy is challenged, both by radical socialism and feminist ideology and the economic crisis during the 1980’s, as well as the possible threat of an organised women’s party in Sweden. It is also a period with major changes in the Swedish class structure, especially in the change when married women become a part of the female labour force rather than being housewives. The results indicate that the use of the concepts of class and gender is mainly sparsely used. The concepts are often paraphrased in varied terms of social equality. Class is clearly more used, and more often implied, than gender. Gender policies are formed from a latent ideology to a more practically oriented policy, without any real progress concerning power and equality, when Sweden at the same time forms policies for gender equality, from which the women’s association could benefit, even though they may not have been the actors of this change. The analysis also indicates that some of the ideological changes within the women’s association are a result of both outside influences from more radical groups as well as ideological crises within the social democracy. In this struggle between class and gender the Social Democratic Women's Association positions itself in between.

The thesis deals with the preschool children{\crq}s representations of emotions and violence and compares education in standard kindergartens with Montessori kindergartens. The conditions of the origin of Montessori pedagogy clarified and the basic principles are compared with current knowledge of biology, psychology, pedagogy and sociology. The thesis introduces also the notion of social representations and two studies of preschool children{\crq}s social representations of emotions and violence. It gathers the knowledge if and how it is possible to modify these preschool children{\crq}s social representations. It focuses on the Montessori pedagogy as one of the possibilities of increasing the presence and quality of these social representations.

A thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy - Flinders University of South Australia, Faculty of Education Humanities, Law and Theology, June 2003. / Title from electronic thesis (viewed 27/7/10)

Cette thèse étudie dans une perspective comparée les modalités du travail de représentation en matière d’impôt sur la fortune, au Bundestag et à l’Assemblée nationale. S’appuyant sur des approches empiriques complémentaires (entretiens semi-directs, observation non-participante, bases de données prosopographiques, travail d’archive codé), cette enquête entend expliquer la variété des pratiques constatées. La recherche montre que les débats en matière d’impôt sur la fortune se caractérisent par la place centrale prise par les mondes de l’entreprise, faisant émerger le constat d’une forme d’inégalité d’accès à la parole parlementaire pour les groupes sociaux cités au sein des deux Assemblées. L’enquête souligne également que les députés développent des pratiques différenciées entre groupes en utilisant plusieurs registres de représentation visant à justifier et légitimer les différents modes d’investissement observables dans les deux pays. Face à ce constat, cette étude entend proposer un examen des causes des phénomènes observés. Plus d’une trentaine de facteurs explicatifs sont ainsi pris en compte, à des niveaux micro, méso et macrosociologiques (histoire politique, dispositions individuelles, processus de socialisation politique, économique et professionnelle, influence des entourages, effets de positions et de contextes, etc.). La thèse montre alors que les pratiques de représentation sont le résultat de l’articulation d’un système de facteurs qui interdisent de penser ces pratiques de façon réifiée. En cherchant à comprendre la complexité et l’intrication de nombreux éléments intervenant dans les prises de position des élus, la thèse cherche à démêler les fils explicatifs de l’écheveau des pratiques de représentation. / This thesis aims at analysing the methods of representing during wealth tax debates in the French Assemblée nationale and in the German Bundestag. Based on empirical researches (semi-direct interviews, non-participating observations, prosopographic data, coded archival work), this research aspires to explain the variety of identified practices. The research shows on one hand that debates around wealth tax are characterized by the central position of concerns and businesses, highlighting the following acknowledgment: the inequity in accessing speaking time for social groups mentioned in both Parliaments. The thesis also underlines that members of parliament develop differentiated practices between groups by using multiple register of representation, which aim at justifying and legitimating all the different ways of commitment observed in both countries.Facing this observation, the thesis strive to provide a review of the causes of the observed phenomena. More than thirty explanatory factors are taken into consideration on micro, meso and macro sociological levels (political history, individual provisions, political/economical/professional socialisation processes, influence of close circle, effects of positions and environment). The thesis therefore demonstrates that the practices of representation are the result of a very high number of diversifying factors, which prevent from thinking those practices on a reified way. While trying to understand the complexity of new elements intervening in elected representatives’ position statements, the thesis aspires to untangle the explanatory threads of political representation. / Diese Doktorarbeit vergleicht die Modalitäten der politischen Repräsentation in Bezug auf die Vermögensteuer im Bundestag und in der Assemblée nationale. Die Recherche will Erklärungen geben für die Vielfalt der hierbei beobachteten Praktiken. Dafür stützt sie sich auf komplementäre empirische Materialien (Gespräche, Beobachtungen, prosoprographische Daten, codierte Archivarbeit). Die vorliegende Arbeit zeigt, dass die Debatten um die Vermögensteuer durch die zentrale Stellung der Unternehmen geprägt sind. Es existiert eine Form von ungleichem Zugang zur parlamentarischen Rede für die sozialen Gruppen innerhalb der beiden Versammlungen. Oft werden bestimmte soziale Gruppen einfach ignoriert. Die Studie verweist auch darauf, dass die Abgeordneten Praktiken von differenzierter Repräsentation zwischen Gruppen entwickeln, indem sie mehrere Register der Repräsentation benutzen, die darauf aus sind, verschiedene Modi der Investitionen zu rechtfertigen und zu legitimieren- in beiden Ländern. Vor diesem Hintergrund bietet diese Arbeit eine Analyse der Gründe der beobachteten Phänomene an. Dazu werden mehr als dreißig explikative Faktoren unter micro-, meso- und makrosoziologischen Gesichtspunkten untersucht (politische Geschichte, individuelle Dispositionen, Prozesse politischer, ökonomischer und professioneller Sozialisierung, Einflüsse des Umfelds, Einflüsse von institutionellen Positionen und Kontexten usw.). Diese Doktorarbeit will nachweisen, dass die Praktiken der Repräsentation das Ergebnis eines sehr hohen Anteils verschiedener Faktoren sind, die es untersagen diese Praktiken gedanklich zu verfestigen. Indem wir versuchen, die Komplexität und die Verstrickung der zahlreichen Elemente zu verstehen, die in den Stellungnahmen der Abgeordneten zum Ausdruck kommen, will diese Doktorarbeit die erklärenden Fäden des Knäuels der Repräsentationspraktiken entwirren.