This project is a study of the way that people use language actively to achieve certain ends in communication, the way that they organise their spoken discourse to construct, convincingly, the state of their lives, both ‘internal’ and ‘external’. It does this primarily through an analysis of the systematic properties of the descriptive, communicative and interpretative skills which members use in the accomplishment of the meanings central to everyday existence. More specifically, this project is a study of verbal accounts of, and doctor-patient interaction relating to, clinical depression. The project begins from the premise that most social studies of depression and its diagnosis have been subject to the same problematic treatment of language as a ‘transparent medium’ as the psychiatric frames upon which the modern clinical understanding of depression in the UK is itself based. I aim, in view of this, to demonstrate how hitherto neglected elements in the social analysis of the condition can be revealed with the application of an alternative methodology, a methodology which treats talk-in-interaction as a dynamic and constructive phenomenon rather than a neutral conduit for the passage of information. The empirical data takes the form of a set of General Practitioners from a single practice in the North West talking freely about depression and their experiences of diagnosing it, and actual consultations between these GPs and their patients. Drawing upon Wittgenstein, Ethnomethodology, Discursive Psychology and, particularly, Conversation Analysis this project examines the ways in which doctors and patients construct, negotiate and manage ‘depressive’ meanings in the course of medical interaction, always holding tightly to Wittgenstein’s maxim that practice gives words their significance.

Over centuries, Hmong people have moved from mountain to mountain, home to home, country to country, crossing rivers and valleys in search of an escape from oppression. The Txiv Xaiv (Plig) ritual and chant has survived serial exodus and diaspora that Hmong people have experienced. This ritual encodes Hmong historical and cosmological understandings as an oral text, passed down from master to student, and performed at funerals to apply that understanding in the management of souls--ultimately to send them home. The Txiv Xaiv (Plig) serves as a glue, connecting the past generations to the generation of today and the generations of tomorrow. A funeral without a Txiv Xaiv is like a tree without its roots. Its ability to preserve Hmong history, morals, and traditions is unparalleled, but the dispersion of Hmong communities across a now global diaspora threatens the vitality of this oral text. An ethnographic film constitutes a critical and central empirical element of this thesis. This film, entitled Returning Home, draws on the affordances of visual and sonic mediums to both depict this oral text and the practices associated with it, and to unpack the cosmology of personhood encoded in the text, which Hickman (2014) calls "ancestral personhood". The film centers on a particular form of the Txiv Xaiv Plig that was preserved by a paramount Master, Shong Ger Thao, who passed down a critical version of the ritual to the director of Returning Home (and author of this thesis) before he passed away. This version of the ritual has the unique capacity to manage the soul of a person who did not receive a complete funeral and proper burial when they passed away, such as the post-1975 exodus from Laos, when Hmong families had to flee for their lives and many people were killed in the jungle along the way. By fate or coincidence (most Hmong would err on the side of fate), the first time that the director of this film was called upon to perform this Txiv Xaiv Plig was for an ex-post-facto funeral for Master Shong Ger's wife, Kia Yang, who had passed away during the lock-down phase of the Covid-10 pandemic, when large gatherings (necessary for a proper Hmong funeral) were not permitted. This film draws on this poetic circle of the passing down of knowledge and putting it into practice, in order to demonstrate the value of the knowledge that Master Shong Ger had preserved, specifically through the use of that knowledge to manage his own late wife's soul, thus completing the circle from one generation to the next in Master Shong Ger's family. This project--the written thesis in conjunction with the film--advances a "Hmong Oral Knowledge" approach that is critical to both understanding and preserving Hmong cosmology. This approach puts Hmong cosmology and philosophy into dialogue with scholarship being produced about Hmong communities across the world which tends to treat Hmong ideas as mere data-to-be-analyzed. The thesis focuses on the substance of Master Shong Ger Thao's philosophy (derived from Hmong oral ritual), in order to "look" and not just "see" (MacDougall 2019) human experience from a Hmong theoretical perspective. Given the primacy of oral and physically performative ritual practice, this thesis employs the medium of film in order to engage with Hmong ritual knowledge and practice in its own terms. The film provides a 'thick depiction' of these practices, and seeks to explicate the cosmology of the 'three souls' model of personhood that underpins these practices, while also focusing on the legacy of Master Shong Ger Thao, who cultivated and preserved the details of this cosmology and the oral texts that encode it.

Lo scopo generale della presente tesi è quello di arricchire la letteratura sul benessere finanziario dei giovani adulti adottando metodologie di ricerca e tecniche statistiche mai applicate in questo filone di ricerca. Nello specifico, nel primo capitolo è stata utilizzata la scoping methodology, ovvero una metodologia di sintesi della letteratura, con l’obiettivo di identificare la definizione, le componenti, i predittori e gli outcome del benessere finanziario dei giovani. Nel secondo capitolo è stata applicata la Latent Transition Analysis, con l’obiettivo di identificare sottogruppi omogenei di giovani rispetto ai marcatori dell’adultità che essi hanno già raggiunto e di verificare la relazione di tali sottogruppi con il benessere finanziario dei giovani che ad essi appartengono. Il terzo capitolo propone una metodologia per sviluppare e validare nuovi strumenti di misurazione, sulla base della visione contemporanea della validità. Tale metodologia, composta da tre diversi step, è stata utilizzata per la creazione di uno strumento adatto a misurare, su un campione di giovani italiani, il benessere finanziario soggettivo. Infine, il quarto capitolo riguarda la multiple informant methodology, che è stata utilizzata per raccogliere informazioni da madre, padre e figlio sul processo di socializzazione finanziaria familiare ed il suo impatto sul benessere finanziario del figlio. / The general aim of this research work is to enrich the literature on emerging adults’ financial well-being with research methodologies and statistical techniques never previously applied in this research field. Specifically, the first chapter of this thesis concerns the scoping methodology, a knowledge synthesis methodology that I adopted to identify the emerging adults’ financial well-being definition, components, predictors and outcomes. The second chapter consists in the application of a new statistical technique, Latent Transition Analysis, that I used to identify subgroups of emerging adults homogeneous in their configuration of adult social markers already reached and to investigate the relation between these emerging adults’ subgroups and their financial well-being. The third chapter describes a three-step methodology to develop and validate new measurement instruments, based on the contemporary view of validity proposed in the last fifty years. This three-step procedure was here applied to develop and validate a new instrument measuring subjective financial well-being for an emerging adult target population. Finally, the fourth chapter concerns the multiple informant methodology that I applied to collect information about family financial socialization and its impact on the child’s financial well-being from mother, father and the emerging adult child.

The study sought to uncover the constitution of migrant women's agency as they rebuild their lives in Australia, and to explore how contact with any publicly funded services might influence the capacity to be self determining subjects. The thesis used a framework of lifeworld theories (Bourdieu, Schutz, Giddens), materialist, trans-national feminist and post colonial writings, and a methodological approach based on critical hermeneutics (Ricoeur), feminist standpoint and decolonising theories. Thirty in depth interviews were carried out with 6 women migrating from each of 5 regions: Vietnam, Lebanon, the Horn of Africa, the former Soviet Union and the Philippines. Australian based immigration literature constituted the third corner of triangulation. The interviews were carried out through an exploration of themes format, eliciting data about the different ontological and epistemological assumptions of the cultures of origin. The findings revealed not only the women's remarkable tenacity and resilience as creative agents, but also the indispensability of Australia's publicly funded infrastructure or welfare state. The women were mostly privileged in terms of class, education and affirming relationships with males. Nevertheless, their self determination depended on contact with universal public policies, programs and with local community services. The welfare state seems to be modernity's means for re-establishing human connectedness that is the crux of the human condition. Connecting with fellow Australians in friendships and neighbourliness was also important in resettlement. Conclusions include a policy discussion in agreement with Australian and international scholars proposing that there is no alternative but for governments to invest in a welfare state for the civil societies and knowledge based economies of the 21st Century.

[pt] O homem propõe e exposto a mudanças tecnológicas desde os primeiros dias da humanidade. No entanto, o XX e início do século XXI, apresentou uma aceleração no desenvolvimento de tecnologias que transformam a vida quotidiana. Os mesmos avanços tecnológicos, juntamente com a melhoria da qualidade de vida, têm gerado um acelerado processo de envelhecimento da população e propor um campo de ação que se torna indispensável a considerar para o Design. Este trabalho teve como ponto de partida as questões sobre como idosos interagem com novas tecnologias, qual é a relação que têm com os objetos e serviços que incluem tecnologias que são estranhas ou novas para eles, bem como o impacto e a importância elas têm em suas vidas diárias. Também é importante saber, quais são os fatores que lhes permitem se aproximar ou afastar destas novas tecnologias? Para responder a estas perguntas, foram utilizadas técnicas metodológicas voltadas para o ser humano, e de inspiração etnográfica, design empático e design emocional, como forma de reconhecer o usuário idoso e propor soluções que facilitam a interação entre as pessoas idosas e as novas tecnologias. Esta tese apresenta uma abordagem metodológica de aproximação e compreensão das características e necessidades do usuário idoso. Foi realizado em duas experiências imersivas em casas de convivência para idosos; uma no Rio de Janeiro e outra na Cidade do México. Em ambos os casos foi proposta uma experiência de aprendizagem do uso básico de tablets e computadores para pessoas acima de 70 anos. A experiência serviu como uma técnica de pesquisa e reconhecimento de as motivações, frustrações e desejos que este grupo da população tem com respeito de um tipo particular de tecnologia que era estranha para eles. A partir deste trabalho são apresentados conclusões e considerações que podem ser retomadas pelos designers quando eles enfrentem o desenvolvimento de propostas de design que envolvam novas tecnologias e cujo usuário final são aqueles que excedam os 70 anos. / [en] The human being, generates and exposes himself to technological changes from the earliest days of humanity; however, the 20th and 21st centuries have showed an acceleration in the development of technologies tha t transforms daily life. The same technological advances, added to an improvement in the quality of life, have generated an accelerated aging of the population. Both factors (technology and ageing combined) presents fundamental fields of action to consider for the Design. This work had as its starting points, questions about the way older adults interact and relate with objects and services that include technologies that are new to them, as well as the impact and importance that these artifacts have in their daily lives, or the factors that bring them closer or far away of these new technologies. To answer these questions, human-centered design, empathic and emotional design and ethnographic-inspired methods, were used. This thesis presents a proposal for an approximation and understanding of the characteristics and needs of the elderly adult user related to technologies that are strange to them. It was made in two immersion experiences in recreation centers for seniors; one in Rio de Janeiro and the other in Mexico City. / [es] El ser humano propone y se expone a los cambios tecnológicos desde los primeros días de la humanidad, sin embargo, los siglos XX y XXI, han presentado una aceleración en el desarrollo de tecnologías que transforman la vida diaria. Los mismos avances tecnológicos, sumados a una mejora en la calidad de vida, han generado un acelerado proceso de envejecimiento de la población y proponen un campo de acción que se vuelve indispensable de considerar para el Diseño. Este trabajo tuvo como punto de partida los cuestionamientos acerca de cómo es que los adultos mayores interactúan con los nuevos medios, cuál es la relac ión que tienen con los objetos y servicios que incluyen tecnologías que les son ajenas o nuevas así como el impacto e importancia que tienen en su vida diaria. También es importante reconocer ¿Cuáles son los factores que los acercan o alejan de estas nuevas tecnologías?. Para responder a estos cuestionamientos, fueron utilizadas técnicas metodológicas centradas en el ser humano, y de inspiración etnográfica, el diseño empático y el diseño emocional, como la forma de reconocer al usuario adulto mayor, así como para proyectar propuestas de solución que faciliten la interacción entre los adultos mayores y las nuevas tecnologías. Esta tesis presenta una propuesta de metodología de aproximación y de entendimiento de las características y necesidades del usuario adulto mayor realizada en dos experiencias de inmersión en casas de esparcimiento para adultos mayores; una en Río de Janeiro y otra en la Ciudad de México. En ambos casos, se realizó una experiencia de aprendizaje básico de uso de tabletas y computadoras de escritorio para mayores de 70 años que sirvió como técnica de investigación y reconocimiento de las motivaciones, frustraciones y deseos que este grupo de la población tiene con respecto a un tipo de tecnología en particular que les resultaba ajena. A partir de este trabajo, se presentan conclusiones y consideraciones que pueden ser retomadas por los diseñadores cuando se enfrenten al desarrollo de propuestas de Diseño que involucran nuevas tecnologías y cuyo usuario final sean aquellos que sobrepasan los 70 años.