Planning is necessarily suspect in a country which prides itself on a tradition of liberalism and rugged individualism, and the charge of impracticabality lies ready to hand for the eager detractor. It is the more regrettable that this should be so since many of the exponents of planning have been particularly careful to emphasize that pious sentiments, even when allied with superb aesthetic sense, will not provide a satiafactory plan. [...]

This paper navigates the gendered landscape of international migration by estimating and examining age-standardized gender ratios of foreign-born stocks in 56 countries for years ranging from 1960 to 2008 in order to gauge the extent of feminization of international migration. I focus on major destination countries in North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, and Africa, and examine the gender composition of the three largest immigrant groups in these destinations to map the gendered circuits of migration. Findings reveal that although there is considerable variation in the gender composition of immigrant populations across space and time, there is an upward trend, albeit modest, in womens representation in foreign-born populations. In addition, each region has complex and unique migration circuits, with some countries attracting more women while others attract more men.

Sport has become so deeply in engrained in Western culture that society’s understanding of it has become permeated with common sense. Deromanticizing the idea of sport, researchers have recently come to study sport as a cultural formation, asking that it be understood as an institution with a complex historical background. At its core, sport can be understood as an institution that is problematic. This idea opens the door for researchers to critically analyze the structure of sport and the power relations at play in sport and consumer culture. The central focus of the project examines the political economic structures and processes that have led to the complex conditions of the commodification of the professional athlete in twenty-first century Western society. As such, this project will address how athletes, such as soccer stars Mia Hamm and David Beckham, have been utilized as commodities to reach niche markets, represent multiple identities, and to maintain normative ideas of sport and society. In its entirety, this project will address how social, cultural, and historical processes converge to shape twenty-first century Western sport. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2010-04-14 13:32:30.071

The people who live in the City of Montreal are exceedingly various. There are officially two languages and unofficially dozens. Many areas of the city provide examples of "culture islands" - those fast-disappearing settlements of "alien" peoples who preserve their alien ways of life in a new country, and so impart to the latter "atmosphere" and "flavour". To serve and satisfy the various demands of these people there are many and different institutions making it possible for individuals, if they wish, to live their entire lives in their native atmospheres.

This thesis describes an occupational group, the riders of hunters and jumpers. These riders are employed to manage, train and show a stable of horses. Their activities focus on horse shows where they assemble to compete "for ribbons" in a variety of events. The shows furnish the chief opportunity for horsemen, whose stables are usually in remote rural areas, to meet and associate. News and views are exchanged and the shared understandings and solidarity of the professional horsemen are fermented amid the drama and excitement of the show.

This thesis is an exploratory study of the responses of families to the contingencies presented by the mental illness and mental hospitalization of one of their members. More specifically, the thesis seeks to analyze the interaction which takes place between the families and the medical functionaries and institutions which have evolved as societal devices for helping those afflicted with a crisis of illness. Primarily the thesis seeks to illuminate the conditions under which medical help is or is not acceptable to these families who voluntarily seek it in their attempts to cope with the crises created by illness.

The author spent three months during the summer of 1952 at a training camp with an infantry company of the Canadian Army. He spent most his time with the recruits in the company, watching them while they were training, drinking in the canteen, hanging around the hut, and resting between training periods. He went on a three-day leave with them, and carried his pack and tramped with the, on three different schemes.

In recent years, the science of sociology has been increasingly directed towards the work that men do. Sociologists have studied many facets of this area of social behaviour and their insights and explanations add much to our knowledge of society. Through observing occupations, it is possible to learn about the world of work as a part of the social structure, and at the same time to gain understanding of the human beings who spend much of their lives in occupational milieux. [...]

This study examines the relationship between specific childhood experiences and the use of guns in crime in a sample of incarcerated males in American prisons. Two specific childhood experiences are examined: exposure to violence in the home and exposure to guns in the home. Utilizing social learning theory, I argue that adult male felons who used guns in the commission of crimes will have had greater levels of exposure to violence and exposure to guns in their childhood home. Using a data set collected by sociologists James Wright and Peter Rossi, I conducted a binary logistic regression to determine the existence and strength of relationships between the variables. Results show that exposure to violence, as defined in this study, did not predict adult criminal gun usage, but that exposure to guns, and the control variable of race do predict adult criminal gun usage. I then address the limitations of the study and the implications of these findings for the furtherance of social learning theory as well as suggest directions for future research on gun violence.

The pressures of human society on available water resources lead to the grave and everworsening scarcity of this resource, which locally and internationally, strains policy and institutional capacity to deal with the issue cooperatively. While conflict over fresh water, to the extent even of war, is not generally characteristic of relations over water, tension is nevertheless felt between countries over various issues surrounding access to water. It is thus imperative to determine the nature and extent of issues that may give rise to future tension and conflict over freshwater resources. Given the above situation, this study aimed to meet the following objectives: ï· To gain in-depth understanding of the social, economic and political dynamics that underlie current relations over water, globally and more specifically in the Southern African region. ï· To assess current ways in which water issues are being addressed at the international and the regional level, by focusing on the existing global and regional policy frameworks for dealing with water scarcity. ï· To assess the institutional frameworks within which water issues are currently being dealt with at the international and the regional levels. ï· To develop a set of policy guidelines that can be used to facilitate cooperation over water issues in Southern Africa. The research design of this study was qualitative and interpretative, and four sources of information were utilised in data collection, namely primary and secondary literature sources; secondary demographic and environmental data; policy and legislative documents; and, information obtained from personal key-informant interviews. The following conclusions were drawn from the study ï· The dominant social paradigm underlying decision making with regard to natural resources does not support closer cooperation over fresh water. ï· The emphasis on political sovereignty in policy is inconsistent with the international commitment to cooperation over freshwater resources. ï· The policy obligation of equitable distribution of water between sectors and states is hampered by unresolved tensions in policy and institutional frameworks. ï· As a result of the vagueness with which contentious issues are addressed in international policy, current policy options may neither be adequately able to intervene in nor to prevent conflicts over fresh water. ï· A lack of both ratification and enforcement of the existing international policy framework renders these instruments powerless to prevent or intervene in future conflicts over fresh water. ï· Effective cooperation between water-resource institutions is hampered by significant shortcomings in vertical and horizontal communication linkages between such institutions. Recommendations made based on the study are: ï· A transition needs to be made from a technocentric approach focused on managing the issues arising from water scarcity, to an ecocentric approach focused on radical changes in policy formulation. ï· Current vague statements and terms in the international policy framework need to be conceptualised more clearly. ï· Policy makers at the regional and national levels should specifically work toward diffusing subtle tensions in current policy and institutional arrangements through closer integration of sectoral policies. ï· A regional perspective on the issues of water scarcity, conflict and cooperation over fresh water needs to be strengthened. ï· In line with the IWRM strategyâs emphasis on decentralisation, appropriate mechanisms need to be found to link institutions horizontally. ï· The capacity and functioning of multistakeholder platforms in the water sector need to be strengthened.