There is a considerable body of literature on the transportation activities of rural households. Still, efforts to address rural women's specific travel and transport needs have met with limited or no success. Because rural women are vulnerable members of society, their productive roles are sometimes not fully reflected in sector strategies. Considering how transport policies and projects address rural women's needs is important for socially and economically sustainable rural transport policy. The main argument presented in this research is based on the expectations raised by the democratic elections of 1994 in South Africa. After the elections many people, particularly those in the rural areas, were expecting improvement in service delivery. However, ten years later, rural African women still face daunting challenges in terms of access to basic services. The main argument in this thesis is therefore that rural transport policy and plans in South Africa, as elsewhere, have failed to adequately address specific gender issues. Since studies of this nature are complex, and the issues involved cannot be clearly understood from the outside, it is essential to have an inside perspective. The research, therefore, was not viewed simply as an abstract process of knowledge-seeking but as a means through which to acquire a more complete understanding of rural women's transport needs. Hence, a qualitative feminist approach was adopted, and a gendered perspective was followed in addressing the transport needs of rural women. Using a non-gendered perspective for studying patterns and processes of rural conditions would not only have provided an incomplete understanding of rural transport, but also would have constituted a disservice to efforts to generate an informed basis for rural women's emancipation. Just as feminist research often draws on multiple disciplines, this study too draws on several: human geography, sociology and feminist methodology, in particular. Moreover, the use of multiple methods in this project, rather than a single method, was chosen not only because of its feminist concerns but also because of a commitment to thoroughness and the need to be responsive to the rural women studied. To this end, multiple research methods, such as participant observation, focus group discussions, document and photograph analysis, and photographs were used. These methods made it possible to provide some insights into the roles of rural women and to their related travel and transport needs in the three villages studied in Limpopo: Mamoleka, Tshitwi and Babanana. The question of whether transport empowers or is disempowering rural women was addressed. Three main themes emerged in this study. These themes suggest that rural women use the transport system in order to satisfy their multiple roles. Transport practitioners, however, provide transport facilities and services that are often characterised by constraints that create problems for these women and hence impact on their opportunities. Consequently, unresolved problems lead to opportunities denied. Therefore, policy makers should generate new strategies to address African rural women's transport needs. One thing immediately apparent in reviewing the findings of this research is that gender biases in rural transport stem from the multiple roles that rural women perform in society and at home. Because the total workload of a rural household is rarely shared equally among its members, the burden of transport falls on women. Inadequate and inappropriate transport increases the amount of time necessary to perform their multiple roles, leaving rural women perform with little or no spare time to develop themselves by participating in socio-economic and political activities. The burden of transport not only deprives rural women of participation in development activities, it also makes them lose out on opportunities to earn higher incomes and to improve their financial resources. Finally, because they already have limited financial resources and opportunities, they are unable to invest in personal means of transport, through which they might reduce their transport burden and improve their incomes. A close linking of gender perspective and rural transport policy is proposed in order to improve rural transport systems and initiatives and to make them more gender-responsive and sustainable. Making rural transport policy more responsive to the needs of rural women requires developing a structural approach to understand their needs, identifying instruments to address those needs, and establishing an appropriate policy framework. To this end, this thesis identifies some approaches that would help in developing a gender-responsive rural transport policy through paying attention to rural women's travel and transport needs. These approaches include recognition of the need for an integrated rural transport policy, in which both transport and non-transport interventions applicable to addressing rural transport problems for self-employed and unemployed rural women, as found in Limpopo, are promoted. Furthermore, the need for awareness of rural women's multiple roles is outlined. What remains is the need for development of a comprehensive, gender-sensitive strategy in all fields of rural transport research, policy and projects to help explore ways of correcting existing biases in rural travel and transport for rural women. / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology / Unrestricted

De nombreuses thèses de grande qualité ont été rédigées autour de la situation sociale de la personne sans domicile fixe. La présente thèse aborde ce même thème,mais sous un angle singulier. Le raisonnement adopté consiste à établir de quelle façon la personne SDF peut être « inventée » en une figure de l’être au rebut. En perdantson travail, son réseau social et son domicile, le SDF quitte les espaces normés de la société. Il fait toujours partie de la structure sociale, mais relégué au plus bas de celle-ci,comme remisé dans un fond du panier social. C’est dans cet espace (physique et mental) que la société assigne à résidence ce(ux) qu’elle ne veut pas voir. Cette configurationsociale où le SDF peut être traité comme la pièce défectueuse d’une production, l’objet de qualité médiocre qu’on met de côté ou quelque chose de négligeable qu’on jette telun déchet. Le SDF serait condamné au rebut social.J’ai découvert la référence à une figure de l’être au rebut dans un texte de l’écrivain Herman Melville. La nouvelle Bartleby, le scribe est le point de départ de maréflexion sociologique. Le concept d’exclusion sociale me semble insuffisant pour décrire une dynamique de mise au rebut, notamment en raison de son approche binaire(dedans/dehors). Par conséquent, j’ai fait le choix de démarches heuristiques plus en phase avec l’idée de processus d’expulsion d’un lieu de vie sociale, d’une perte progressived’appartenance sociale. Ainsi, les chercheurs initiateurs des concepts de disqualification sociale (Paugam) et de désaffiliation sociale (Castel) m’ont été d’une grande utilité.Le SDF est défini négativement, son acronyme signale la lacune et l’absence. Son identité sociale pâtit d’une altérité négative conférée par le regard stigmatisantdu groupe social dont il est issu. À côté de la figure-repoussoir du SDF, je propose une notion que je nomme figure-rebutoir. Par rebutoir, je veux faire entendre d’abord ladimension de rebut, mais également celle de butoir. Cette figure sociale de l’altérité négative est parfois considérée par le corps social comme une pierre d’achoppement. Ellenous effraie parce qu’elle représente cette humanité détériorée que nous craignons de devenir un jour. En effet, la personne SDF assure parfois la fonction d’épouvantailsocial. Une des particularités de cette thèse réside dans la double origine de ses sources épistémologiques. D’une part, les sociologues m’ont fourni une boîte à outils efficacepour saisir le sens de cette mise au rebut. D’autre part, des écrivains concernés par une question sociale m’ont donné accès à un corpus pratique et opérant. Lesdits romanciersont immergé leur fiction dans un univers social où le personnage-SDF tient une place importante. Ces deux savoirs, sociologique et littéraire, concourent à doter cette thèsed’une épaisseur épistémologique indéniable. En effet, force est de constater que, bien souvent, sociologues et écrivains expriment des points de vue connexes et que leursméthodes respectives sont complémentaires.Le SDF, figure sociale de l’être au rebut ? Mes recherches témoignent de sa mise à l’écart, d’un mépris social à l’encontre de cet homme « domicilié » dansl’espace public, d’un refus de la société de reconnaître que c’est son fonctionnement qui le disqualifie et le désaffilie. La personne SDF est environnée d’objets rebutés : ellerécupère les aliments périmés jetés par les commerces, elle se vêtit de vêtements que les autres ont déjà portés et ne veulent plus, elle se confectionne un abri de fortune avecdes matériaux de récupération, elle gagne quelques pièces de monnaie grâce à la collecte de cannettes de soda ou de métaux. La proximité avec le rebut porte atteinte à sadignité et peut l’assimiler à du rebut humain. En effet, la personne SDF peut devenir personne aux yeux des autres, et dès lors se vivre comme rebut d’elle-même. / The social situation of the homeless person has been the subject of many excellent theses. This thesis deals with the same issue, taken from a different viewpoint.It attempts to show how a homeless person can be “invented” as a scrapheap figure. Without a job, a social network or a home, the homeless person exits the standarddimensions of society. He or she remains a part of the social structure but is relegated to its lowest level, a kind of social bottom of the basket. It is within this physical andmental dimension that society confines those it does not wish to see, in which they can be treated as defective parts of a production system, poor quality items that can be castaside or things of such little value that they can be thrown away like rubbish. In this configuration, the homeless person is condemned to be a social reject.I first discovered a literary reference to a scrapheap figure in a short story by Herman Melville, entitled Bartleby the Scrivener, which became the starting pointfor my sociology study. I do not find the concept of social exclusion sufficient for describing the dynamics of rejection, primarily because it is based on a binary notion ofinside and outside. As a result, I have chosen a heuristic approach that is more in keeping with the idea of a process of expulsion from a social living place, a gradual loss ofsocial affiliation. Thus Paugam and Castel, the researchers who initiated the concepts of social disqualification and social disaffiliation respectively, were very helpful to me.The homeless person is defined in negative terms; the adjective is based on the notion of lack or absence. The person’s social identity suffers from a negativealterity conferred by his/her stigmatisation by the social group from which he/she originates. Together with the idea of the homeless person as a figure of repulsion, I haveput forward the notion of what I call “figure-rebutoir”. “Rebutoir” combines the French words « rebut », meaning reject, scrap, waste, and « butoir » meaning a cut-off point,a strict limit. This is important because the social representation of negative alterity is problematic for society, in that the image of damaged humanity generates fear of whatany one of us could become. Indeed, the homeless person sometimes takes on the role of social scarecrow.One of the original features of this thesis lies in the fact that its epistemological sources are twofold. On one hand, sociologists have provided me with efficienttools for understanding the rejection process and on the other, writers with concern for this social issue have given me access to a practical and effective body of documents.The writers in question are novelists who have set their fiction in a social environment in which the homeless character has an important place. Sociological and literaryknowledge combine to give distinctive epistemological depth to the thesis. We are obliged to recognize the frequent connections between the points of view expressed bysociologists and those put forward by writers and to acknowledge the complementarity of their methods.The homeless person – social figure of the being on the scrapheap? My research shows the alienation and social contempt to which people whose « home » is inpublic space are subjected. It shows that society refuses to recognize that it is its own way of functioning that disqualifies and disaffiliates homeless people. The homelessperson is surrounded by rejected items: expired food products thrown out by shops, clothes worn and no longer wanted by other people, makeshift shelters built with whatevermaterials can be found, a few coins earned from collecting soda cans or metal. Living in such proximity to what has been rejected is damaging for a person’s sense of dignityand can lead to his/her status being assimilated to that

Thesis concerns the analysis of poverty in the Czech Republic and a comparison with the situation in Germany and the Slovak Republic. The target is to find factors that are risk given the level of poverty and the level of risk of poverty or social exclusion in the Czech Republic, Germany and the Slovak Republic and get answers to research questions. Methods of scientific research is the analysis of secondary data drawn from Eurostat, the OECD and the statistical offices in selected countries.

The thesis is focused on social housing - public policy, that is applied in many countries of the EU. Czech Republic is currently trying its implementation. Due to rising household's costs of housing, rising expenses on demand-oriented housing policy in form of housing benefits and difficult to solve social exclusion, social housing appears to be one of the more accessible ways of solution. The goal of the thesis is at first to analyze and evaluate known forms of social housing and its application from the economic perspective, then to form reccomendations for the Conception of Social Housing for the Czech Republic in the period 2015-2025 using comparison to already-existing Austrian model. This text answers the main research question how does functioning model of social housing look like and what are the economic impacts of it on households.

In my thesis I will focus on issue of changes in current Czech family roles and status. Main objective of my thesis is to cover essential roots of these changes. This topic was covered by me on basis of statistical and demogarfical data published in professional press as well as on individual study of independent sources. Changes in the family values are also caused by interchanging roles of men and women, their individual participation in operation, education and economic welfare of a family. These topics are also covered in the paper.These issues will be analyzed in regard of social mobility and unequality of particular family members, which influences theis social nad cultural capital, as well as consecuent ability to assert themselves in labour market. Changes in economic and social conditions have influenced family life very substantially, thus, partial task of my diploma thesis will be research focused on whether or not, in economicaly and socialy deprived regiones with relatively high unemployment, there are changes in family life influenced by disadvantegous social and economic conditons of a particular family dwelling area. My conception of this diploma thesis should contribute to understanding of development of a Czech family in contemporary social-economic and geopolitical development of Czech Republic in new millenium.

Ensamstående mödrar kan utifrån samhällets normer betraktas som ett socialt problem, eller en social framgång. Forskning har funnit att ensamstående mödrar ofta har sämre livsvillkor än andra samhällsgrupper, även i jämförelse med ensamstående fäder. Följande studie undersökte hur de ensamstående mödrarna själva såg på sin situation, utifrån stigma och social exklusion i det svenska samhället. Studien baserades på en kvalitativ metod i form av semistrukturerade intervjuer, med sju ensamstående mödrar. Resultaten visade att majoriteten av informanterna har upplevt stigmatiserande och socialt exkluderande behandling från såväl samhällsinstanser som övriga samhällsgrupper. Resultaten visade också på att samtliga informanter upplever att den generella förståelsen och det tillgängliga stödet för deras livssituation är bristfällig.

The aim of this thesis is to find out if there is cooperation between civil sector and public sector in chosen locality - Železný Brod. It is target on poverty and social exclusion. This cooperation will be assessed from the perspective of chosen respondents. The theoretical part describes some models of cooperation, situation in Czech Republic, importance of nonprofit organizations focused on social services and health care. Empirical part deals with methods and techniques of data collections, data analysis techniques. Next there is justification of location and target group. In the part Results, there are presented the results of analysis examined localities and respondents' statements. There is also answer the research questions. Key words: nonprofit organizations, public section, cooperation, partnership, poverty, social exclusion

Social dumpning innebär att kommuner får personer som är i behov av ekonomiskt bistånd att flytta till andra kommuner. Syftet med studien var att undersöka olika professioners upplevelse av vilka konsekvenser social dumpning kan ha för individer som utsätts för detta. Forskningsansatsen var kvalitativ och intervjuer genomfördes med sju personer med olika professioner. Intervjupersonerna upplevde att social dumpning medför många negativa konsekvenser för de utsatta, däribland boendesegregation med boende i undermåliga bostäder, förlust av sociala nätverk och dåliga utsikter att ta sig in på arbetsmarknaden. Empirin analyserades utifrån teorier om stigma samt makt och resultatet visade att de som utsätts för social dumpning ofta blir stigmatiserade och socialt exkluderade. Det framkom även att kommunerna, genom att utsätta personer för social dumpning, i många fall går emot socialtjänstlagen. Dessutom fråntas de drabbade personerna rätten till tillfredsställande levnadsförhållanden och andra mänskliga rättigheter som anges i FN:s konventioner. / Social dumping refers to the actions of local authorities that cause people in need of financial assistance to move to other local authorities. This study investigates how different professions experience the consequences of social dumping on affected individuals. The research approach was qualitative and seven people with different professions were interviewed. The interviewees observed that social dumping had a range of negative consequences for vulnerable individuals, including housing segregation caused by housing individuals in substandard accommodation, loss of social networks and poor employment prospects. The empirical data was analysed according to stigma and power theories and the results showed that social dumping often causesstigmatisationand social exclusion. It was also observed that social dumping often occurs in conjunction with local authorities disregarding the Social Services Act. Victims are often deprived of their right to a satisfactory standard of living and other human rights in UN conventions.

The aim of this thesis is to provide insights into how previous negative social experiences and/or societal norms concerning body size influence social information processing. The first two studies included in this thesis were conducted in Germany, a society with high level of prejudice towards individuals with obesity. The third study was conducted in American Samoa, a society with low prejudice towards individuals with obesity. Study one (chapter 5.1) investigated potential alterations in social information processing and behavior in individuals with obesity compared to lean individuals by measuring heart rate and reaction times. To identify potential reasons for alterations in the individual’s personal history, the influence of weight-related teasing on social information processing was analyzed. In the second study (chapter 5.2), I examined how individuals with and without obesity respond to social inclusion and social exclusion by measuring affect and heart rate. Of special interest were subjective factors of body dissatisfaction and teasing experiences as potential influencing factors. Following this approach, the second study became a “travelling experiment” and was repeated in a Polynesian group on American Samoa (chapter 5.3), a country with a high obesity rate, but less negative social outcomes for individuals with obesity. It aimed at studying the influence of cultural norms and values related to body size as well as varying weight-related stigmatization on psychophysiological processing in social situations.:1 Introduction 2 Theoretical Background 2.1 Social exclusion and behavior 2.1.1 Evolutionary origins of social exclusion and stigmatization 2.1.2 Adaptive behavioral responses to recurrent negative social feedback 2.2 Social exclusion and affect 2.2.1 General biological aspects of emotions 2.2.2 Cultural aspects of emotions 2.2.3 Affect after social exclusion 2.3 Social exclusion and parasympathetic cardio-regulation 2.3.1 Parasympathetic cardio-regulation in psychological research 2.3.2 Parasympathetic cardio-regulation during negative social feedback 2.3.3 Methodological issues 2.4 Obesity in Western societies 2.4.1 Prevalence and health consequences 2.4.2 Obesity and parasympathetic cardio-regulation 2.4.3 The stigma of obesity 2.4.4 Obesity and social information processing 2.5 Obesity and the Samoan Islands 2.5.1 Geography and population 2.5.2 Traditional diets, modernization, and obesity prevalence 2.5.3 Cultural differences in the perception of body sizes 2.5.4 Body size perception in the Samoan Islands 2.5.5 Affect in Samoa 3 Rationale of the Experimental Work 4 Methods 4.1 Autonomic control of the heart 4.2 Heart rate variability analyses 5 Experimental Work 5.1 Study 1 – Differential heart rate responses to social and monetary reinforcement in women with obesity 5.2 Study 2 – Parasympathetic cardio-regulation during social interactions in individuals with obesity – The influence of negative body image 5.3 Study 3 – Body size-related socio-cultural norms in Westerners and Polynesians and their association with heart rate variability and affect during social interaction 5.3.1 Introduction 5.3.2 Methods 5.3.3 Results 5.3.4 Discussion 6 General Discussion and Implications 7 Summary 7.1 English summary 7.2 German summary 8 References 9 Appendix 9.1 Supplemental material 9.1.1 Participants: recruitment, inclusion and exclusion criteria 9.1.2 Overview procedures in Germany and American Samoa 9.1.3 Study 1 9.1.4 Study 2 9.1.5 Study 3 9.2 Declaration of authenticity 9.3 Authors' contributions 9.3.1 Study 1 9.3.2 Study 2 9.3.3 Study 3

Pavel Prudký Digital divide problematics between different age groups and it's solution The thesis is focused on digital divide problematics between different age groups and it's solution. The initial theoretical part is being followed by a practical part, including it's own research, dealing with digital divide problematics between different age groups in the specified region. In the theoretical part of the thesis, I discribed the phenomenon of the information society, information society and social exclusion, Czech information society, digital divide, gray digital divide and I also examined the specifics of different age groups. In the practical part of the work I dealt with the analysis of the digital divide problematics between different age groups in the specified region. After determining the objectives and description of survey methods for obtaining and processing data collected in the questionnaire survey, I dealt with analyzing the survey data, especially data relative to hypotheses set, describing the creation of digital divide between members of different age groups. In the conclusion, there were described existing conceptions in the European Union, in Czech Republic, and then were determined suggestions for specific procedures to eliminate the digital divide between different age groups.