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.

A growing body of research has revealed that the financial cost and physical harmfulness of elite deviance overshadow the impact of street crime on society (Knowlton et al., 2011; Landrigan et al., 2002; Leigh, 2011; Lynch & Michalowski, 2006; Herbert & Landrigan, 2000; Rebovich & Jiandani, 2000; Reiman & Leighton, 2010). However, despite such discrepancies, crimes of the poor continue to outshine white-collar offenses in the news media (Barak, 1994; Barlow & Barlow, 2010; Ericson et al., 1991; Lynch & Michalowski, 2006; Lynch, Nalla & Miller, 1989; Lynch, Stretesky & Hammond, 2000), the criminal justice system (Calavita, Tillman, & Pontell, 1997; Maddan et al., 2011; Payne, Dabney, & Ekhomu, 2011; Tillman & Pontell, 1992) and even academia (Lynch, McGurrin & Fenwick, 2004; McGurrin, Jarrell, Jahn & Cochrane, 2013). Surprisingly, scholarly efforts that have investigated societal response to crimes of the powerful have limited their field of inquiry to public opinions about white-collar crime (e.g., Huff, Desilets, & Kane, 2010; Kane & Wall, 2006; Rebovich et al., 2000; Schoepfer, Carmichael & Piquero, 2007, etc.). While these studies have provided valuable empirical evidence of a growing concern among Americans regarding the danger posed by elite offenses, their failure to include a valid measure of lay knowledge about white-collar crime significantly limits our ability to infer the extent to which the public is familiar with the scope and magnitude of this social issue. The present study seeks to address such limitation by providing the first measure of public knowledge about elite deviance. Four hundred and eight participants completed an online questionnaire that comprised measures of respondents' knowledge and sentiments (i.e., perceived seriousness and punitiveness) about white-collar crime. Results of statistical analyses revealed that participants were not sufficiently informed about elite deviance and suggest the existence of popular "myths" about white-collar crime; more specifically, a substantial number of subjects were not inclined to acknowledge hard-earned empirical evidence such as the greater physical harmfulness of elite deviance over street crime and to recognize that some elite offenses - which they admit are common in underdeveloped nations (e.g., human trafficking) - can be committed in the United States with little to no legal repercussion for the perpetrators. Further, less knowledgeable subjects and "myth" adherers (including men, those with higher income levels, more politically conservative subjects, Republicans, conservative Protestants, and those who believed that white-collar offenders see no wrong in their actions) were often more lenient in their attitudes towards elite deviance, both in terms of perceived seriousness and punitiveness, compared with street crime. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are thoroughly discussed.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between differing stated causes of deviant behavior which is commonly labelled mental illness, and the perceived seriousness of these behaviors in determining judgments of the degree of responsibility attributed to described deviant individuals. This was accomplished by having subjects rate four different vignettes as to degree of perceived seriousness and degree of responsibility for behavior. The subjects were 76 undergraduate students enrolled in either introductory psychology and/or introductory anthropology. The subjects were divided into four groups. Each group of 19 subjects received the same four vignettes. Each vignette gave a behavioral description which was characteristic of one of four categories of mental illness: paranoid schizophrenic, simple schizophrenic, depressed neurotic, and phobic compulsive. Each group received a different stated cause for the described behavior. These causes were biological, social learning, unknown, and both biological and social learning. The subjects were asked to rate the individual described in each vignette as to how serious they perceived the individual's behavior to be on a scale of 1-4. Subjects were also asked to rate how responsible the described individual was, in their judgment, for his behavior on a scale of 1-5. The specific questions addressed by this study were: (1) Does the degree of responsibility for deviant behavior attributed by normal individuals to various types of described deviant behavior vary as a function of the stated cause of behavior? (2) Does the degree of responsibility for deviant behavior attributed by normal individuals to various types of described deviant behavior vary as a function of the perceived seriousness of the behavior? and (3) Do stated cause and perceived seriousness of behavior interact in determining the degree of responsibility normal individuals attribute to deviant individuals. The results of this study indicated that there is a significant relationship between the perceived seriousness and degree of responsibility attributed to deviant individuals. More specifically, the paranoid schizophrenic individual, rated as the most serious, was seen as significantly less responsible than the less serious depressed neurotic or phobic compulsive individual. No significant main effect was found for the stated cause of behavior and no significant interaction, cause by perceived seriousness, was found. These results provide support for the notion that perceived seriousness contributes more to the determination of attribution of responsibility than does the stated cause of behavior. The implications of these findings as they relate to psychiatric rehabilitation were discussed as were the limitations of this study which included concerns regarding instrumentation and statistical analysis.

No description available.

This project offers a unique contribution to the scholarship on Jean-Paul Sartre's concept of bad faith by providing a sustained exploration of bad faith in the context of contemporary tourism. More specifically, I explore the bad faith of what I call "checklist tourism," which defines the tourist trip as a rapid succession of visits from one "must-see" site to the next, snapping photos and collecting souvenirs along the way. I argue that checklist tourism offers a safe and comfortable structure for travel that protects tourists against Sartrean anguish--that is, the experience of alienation, fear, freedom, and responsibility--that travel can sometimes evoke. This analysis contributes to the literature on bad faith in three main ways. First, I provide an extended analysis of the Sartrean spirit of seriousness, highlighting part of this concept that has thus far been underdeveloped in the scholarship. I argue that checklist tourism manifests the spirit of seriousness, which accepts the obligation of "must-see" sites and belief in the transcendent value of the material objects seen on the tour. Second, I explore the embodied bad faith of the possession and appropriation of the material world (rather than studying the possession of people, as most scholars have done), arguing that the tourist attempts to appropriate tourist sites through bodily engagement with them. Third, I develop a theory of play as authenticity, and I offer a systematic investigation of it as a rejection of the ontological bad faith project to be self-identical (i.e. to be God), and a reflective conversion to self-recovery. I then explore the character of the "post-tourist," which has been developing in the tourism literature and which represents a way of touring that rejects the seriousness of the "must-see" sites in favor of an attitude of levity, spontaneity, and playfulness. / Philosophy

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento CientÃfico e TecnolÃgico / nÃo hà / Considerando que a filosofia levanta problemas e trabalha, por vezes, ancorada no cam-po das possibilidades, torna-se necessÃrio o uso coerente de qualquer metodologia ou dialÃtica que vise a efetivaÃÃo das hipÃteses postuladas. Para SÃren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) nÃo à diferente. Desse modo, este trabalho tem como princÃpio fundamental mostrar que seu empreendimento fora capaz de estabelecer um diÃlogo franco com a tradiÃÃo filosÃfica e levantar categorias que possam pensar tanto as questÃes mais Ãntimas do indivÃduo, bem como as da realidade que o circunda. Para tanto, com base, predominantemente, no perÃodo de 1841 a 1846 (obras de Kierkegaard essencialmente estÃticas), lanÃaremos mÃo de conceitos fundamentais como Ironia, tempo (instante) e autenticidade/seriedade, entendendo estes como eixo do que aqui chamaremos de tornar-se indivÃduo. Diante deste desafio, como ponto de partida, encontramos nas obras O Conceito de Ironia (1841), Ou-Ou - Um fragmento de vida (1843), O Conceito de AngÃstia (1844) uma proximidade conceitual que permite adentrarmos na relaÃÃo do indivÃduo com tempo, cuja seriedade Ã, por conseguinte, a consequÃncia existencial, o resultado estimado e, portanto, a condiÃÃo de seu engajamento diante do mundo e de si mesmo. O uso pontual dos Discursos edificantes para ocasiÃes supostas (1845) nos permitirà entender a obra de Kierkegaard de maneira mais global, principalmente se intercaladas com Migalhas FilosÃficas (1844) e PÃs-escrito Ãs Migalhas FilosÃficas (1846), obras sem as quais este Ãltimo empreendimento nÃo seria possÃvel.

L2 WRITING TEACHERS&rsquo / PERCEPTIONS OF MISTAKES IN STUDENT WRITING AND THEIR PREFERENCES REGARDING FEEDBACK: THE CASE OF A TURKISH PRIVATE UNIVERSITY Dokuzoglu, Selcen M.A. Program of English Language Teaching Supervisor: Prof. Dr. H&uuml / sn&uuml / Enginarlar September 2010, 161 pages This study aimed to investigate L2 writing instructors&rsquo / perceptions of seriousness of different mistake types in upper-intermediate level students&rsquo / essays. It also set out to examine the teachers&rsquo / preferences related with feedback provision. Furthermore, whether there were discrepancies between the teachers&rsquo / claims about the issues mentioned above and their actual performance while marking the essays was looked into. The study was conducted at the Preparatory School of a private university in Turkey. Ten essays written by upper intermediate level students were marked by ten writing teachers who showed the most disturbing mistakes in these essays. They also gave feedback for these papers and half of the teachers were requested to think aloud while evaluating the essays. In addition, a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview were used by the v questionnaire were analyzed through SPSS 15.0. This data gathering instrument was implemented on ten writing teachers working at the institution. In analyzing the data, descriptive statistics were used. The averages showing the seriousness of different mistake types and the frequency at which the teachers use different feedback techniques were revealed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five teachers. The results of the interviews were analyzed through content analysis. The results of the study revealed that 80 % of the teachers viewed content related and organizational problems more disturbing than those related with accuracy. However, for 20 % of the teachers mistakes concerning the accuracy of the sentences were more serious. As for the feedback preferences of the teachers, 90 % of them used error codes while marking the essays and all the teachers preferred to write comments. While 60 % of the teachers were in favour of marking students&rsquo / mistakes comprehensively, the rest (40 %) believed selective marking was preferable. Moreover, it was found out that the teachers&rsquo / claims were compatible with their actual performances although some contradictions were observed in their performance.

La mesure traditionnelle de la criminalité (taux pour 100 000 habitants) pose problème dans l'analyse des variations de la criminalité dans le temps ou l'espace. Le problème est dû au fait que le taux de criminalité est essentiellement déterminé par des infractions moins graves et très fréquentes. La présente étude a permis de tester l’utilité du nouvel outil développé par Statistique Canada qui procure un index de « gravité de la criminalité » dans lequel chaque crime est pondéré par son score de gravité (basé sur les décisions sentencielles moyennes au Canada de 2002 à 2007 pour chaque forme de crime). Appliquées aux statistiques officielles du Québec de 1977 à 2008, nos analyses montrent que l’indice de gravité s’avère une mesure utile pour dresser un portrait plus juste des tendances des crimes violents d’une année à l’autre. Plus exactement, l’indice de gravité montre que le taux de crimes violents est demeuré stable de 1977 à 1992 contrairement à l'image fournie par le taux traditionnel qui montre plutôt une montée fulgurante durant cette période. L’indice de gravité peut également être utile à l’égard des crimes violents pour comparer plus adéquatement les territoires entre eux afin d’établir ceux qui présentent une criminalité plus grave. Cependant, à l’égard de la criminalité globale et des crimes sans violence, l’indice de gravité n’est d’aucune utilité et présente la même lecture de la criminalité que la mesure traditionnelle. Cela s’explique par le fait que ce sont toujours les mêmes infractions (les vols, les méfaits et les introductions par effraction) qui contribuent majoritairement à chacune des deux mesures de la criminalité. / The traditional measure of the criminality (rate for 100 000 inhabitants) raises problem in the analysis of the variations of the criminality in time or space. The problem is due to the fact that the rate of criminality is essentially determined by less serious and very frequent crimes. The present study allowed testing the utility of a new tool developed by Statistics Canada which gets an index of "severity of criminality" in which every crime is weighted by its score of severity (based on the sentencielles decisions average in Canada from 2002 till 2007 for every kind of crime. Applied to the official statistics of Quebec from 1977 till 2008, our analyses show that the indication of gravity turns out to be a useful measure to draw up a more realistic portrait of the trends of violent crimes from one year to the next. More precisely, the crime seriousness index shows that the rate of violent crimes remained stable from 1977 till 1992, on contradiction to what is shown by traditional rate which rather demonstrates a huge rise during this period. Crime seriousness index can also be used towards violent crimes, in order to compare more adequately territories, to establish those who show more serious crimes. However, among global criminality and crimes without violence, the indication of gravity is of no utility and presents the same reading of the criminality as traditional measures. It explains that it is always the same crimes (thefts, mischief and breaking and entering) that contribute mainly to each of both measures of the criminality.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

La mesure traditionnelle de la criminalité (taux pour 100 000 habitants) pose problème dans l'analyse des variations de la criminalité dans le temps ou l'espace. Le problème est dû au fait que le taux de criminalité est essentiellement déterminé par des infractions moins graves et très fréquentes. La présente étude a permis de tester l’utilité du nouvel outil développé par Statistique Canada qui procure un index de « gravité de la criminalité » dans lequel chaque crime est pondéré par son score de gravité (basé sur les décisions sentencielles moyennes au Canada de 2002 à 2007 pour chaque forme de crime). Appliquées aux statistiques officielles du Québec de 1977 à 2008, nos analyses montrent que l’indice de gravité s’avère une mesure utile pour dresser un portrait plus juste des tendances des crimes violents d’une année à l’autre. Plus exactement, l’indice de gravité montre que le taux de crimes violents est demeuré stable de 1977 à 1992 contrairement à l'image fournie par le taux traditionnel qui montre plutôt une montée fulgurante durant cette période. L’indice de gravité peut également être utile à l’égard des crimes violents pour comparer plus adéquatement les territoires entre eux afin d’établir ceux qui présentent une criminalité plus grave. Cependant, à l’égard de la criminalité globale et des crimes sans violence, l’indice de gravité n’est d’aucune utilité et présente la même lecture de la criminalité que la mesure traditionnelle. Cela s’explique par le fait que ce sont toujours les mêmes infractions (les vols, les méfaits et les introductions par effraction) qui contribuent majoritairement à chacune des deux mesures de la criminalité. / The traditional measure of the criminality (rate for 100 000 inhabitants) raises problem in the analysis of the variations of the criminality in time or space. The problem is due to the fact that the rate of criminality is essentially determined by less serious and very frequent crimes. The present study allowed testing the utility of a new tool developed by Statistics Canada which gets an index of "severity of criminality" in which every crime is weighted by its score of severity (based on the sentencielles decisions average in Canada from 2002 till 2007 for every kind of crime. Applied to the official statistics of Quebec from 1977 till 2008, our analyses show that the indication of gravity turns out to be a useful measure to draw up a more realistic portrait of the trends of violent crimes from one year to the next. More precisely, the crime seriousness index shows that the rate of violent crimes remained stable from 1977 till 1992, on contradiction to what is shown by traditional rate which rather demonstrates a huge rise during this period. Crime seriousness index can also be used towards violent crimes, in order to compare more adequately territories, to establish those who show more serious crimes. However, among global criminality and crimes without violence, the indication of gravity is of no utility and presents the same reading of the criminality as traditional measures. It explains that it is always the same crimes (thefts, mischief and breaking and entering) that contribute mainly to each of both measures of the criminality.