This thesis uses focus group interviews and survey questionnaires to examine perceptions of Ghanaian and Somali youth, residing in Toronto, about barriers to their labour market access. The emphasis is on perceptions that deal with labour market discrimination based on race, ethnicity and recency of immigration. The results show that perceptions of discrimination based on these factors are widespread among all of the participants interviewed or surveyed. This suggests a very strong belief that employment discrimination is pervasive and persistent in the Toronto labour market. The findings also show that the perceptions of discrimination are largely driven by ‘lived discriminatory’ experiences faced by the participants as well as revealing their desire for fairness and equality in society. The perceptions of discrimination negatively affected the level of trust the research participants have in people and institutions as well as impacting their sense of belonging to their communities and the wider society. The relationship between perceptions of discrimination and low levels of trust and sense of belonging is established in the findings of the Ethnic Diversity Survey. The consequences of this impact on the research participants and their communities are high levels of unemployment, high poverty rates and participant dissatisfaction with their own communities and society at large. It is my belief that this thesis contributes to the debate about the significance of discrimination due to race, ethnicity and immigrant status in the Canadian labour market.

Camps provide an avenue for examining positive youth development. Camps represent environments where children can develop their social capital and emotional intelligence insofar as camp activities teach children how to build positive relationships and to relate to others emotionally that lead to positive outcomes. Little research has examined children’s social capital and emotional intelligence and the relationship between them. Using a longitudinal dataset, this study examined the change of social capital and emotional intelligence experienced by campers. Findings revealed that increases in social capital caused increases in emotional intelligence. Differences were found based on gender. Furthermore, residential camps were found to have a stronger effect on the relationship between social capital and emotional intelligence than day camps. This study lends itself to furthering the understanding of the development of emotional intelligence and the importance of camp in children’s development.

This study examined how to best transfer social capital during professional service firm acquisitions. Using a qualitative, multiple case-based approach the study makes two important contributions. First, all four cases were successful in client retention and professional staff retention, yet only two cases were successful in retaining partners. This finding contradicts previous studies that found when partners leave the firm after acquisition clients follow. This research study found that clients stayed with an acquiring firm as long as their on-site project team remained more or less intact. This finding implies that social capital can be transferred between individuals and organizations. Second, a framework of organizational factors that contribute to the successful retention of social and human capital was developed. Successful retention of clients was primarily dependent on the retention of the project team (professional staff), but the robustness of the contract, the nature of the project work and sufficient communication were factors as well. Successful retention of professional staff relied upon the integration process, of which sufficient communication; goodness of organizational fit and goodness of strategic fit were factors. Successful retention of partners was based on timely communication and the importance of leadership roles for some of the acquired partners. / Organizational Analysis

This project is concerned with developing an understanding of systems of regional renewal (defined as where a restructuring of regional industries or technologies takes place or where new firms or industries emerge). The framework used for the study was an adapted version of the Holmen-McKelvey analytical tool designed for the systematic study of regional renewal. This included analysing social capital, organisations, and path dependency. As the study was concerned with understanding the operation of regions which by nature are complex systems, the study made use of a qualitative case study method. Four case studies were analysed in depth, two each from Germany and Australia: Dresden, Freiberg, Adelaide, and the Barossa. The conclusions from the research are twofold. The thesis argues that the Holmen and McKelvey framework varies across regions and that that the variation can be explained by the ‘varieties of capitalism’ literature. That is, regional renewal systems work differently in different regions because regions are part of a national political-institutional context (or variety of capitalism). First, the paths to regional renewal vary across regions. There are many and varied contributing factors to regional renewal and a holistic approach is needed in analysing the sources of regional renewal as well as in formulating regional policy. Social capital and path dependency in particular were important across all four cases, suggesting that social capital can enable the mobilisation of regional attributes and that historical and context specific aspects of a region need to be considered in regional direction setting. While some contribution by these factors was consistent across all four cases, their apparent strength and the nature of their contributions varied. The roles of universities, government bodies, multinational corporations, small-and-medium-sized enterprises, technology parks, non-university research bodies, and industry associations displayed even more variation amongst the cases suggesting that there can be no ‘cut and paste’ or one-size-fits-all approach to regional renewal. Before policy is formulated and implemented, there needs to be a systemic analysis of regional assets and deficiencies. Second, the thesis suggests that renewal systems work differently in different regions because regions are part of a national political-institutional context. Different paths to regional renewal can be explained in terms of different institutional capacities for state-led coordination and governance of the regional institutional environment. The thesis puts forward the proposition that we might expect national structures to impact on the functioning of systems of regional renewal. The case analysis suggests that we might expect coordinated attempts at regional renewal involving several actors to be more successful in coordinated market economies than in uncoordinated market economies. The four cases in this research indicate the national business system impacts on the local level. Five key differences between the German and Australian cases were: the approach of the state at a regional level, social capital, the education and training system, policy continuity, and multinational embeddedness. National policies provide a critical role of strategic planning at the local level. How can an uncoordinated market environment at the national level which includes a focus on competition and anti-trust facilitate cooperation between firms and other actors at the local level which is seen as critical for coordinated attempts at regional renewal? Thus a key lesson from this research is that to achieve regional renewal, different regions require locally appropriate policies supported by national directions.

Contemporary debates about collective action in civil society have given prominent place to the connections between voluntary associations and social capital. Social capital research, however, commonly over-emphasises the role of associations in generating societal-level outcomes, to the neglect of the specific contexts in which associations reside and the different opportunities individuals and groups have to access resources for and through collective action. Also largely ignored are considerations of gender. This thesis addresses these issues, presenting evidence from a case study of a large women???s service organisation ??? the VIEW Clubs of Australia ??? to examine how social capital and women???s agency intersect. The thesis adopts a social-structural approach to social capital, highlighting its role as a resource brokered through networks that both enable and constrain action. This approach attends to the inter-relations of particular types of social capital, such as bonding and bridging; specific elements of social capital, such as reciprocity, trust, and shared values, identities and purposes; and addresses the broader socio-historical context in which social capital networks are located. The thesis employs a model of agency that encompasses three core fields of agency ??? individual, social and political. These fields of agency encapsulate the capacity for women to ???act??? and exercise choice and change in their own lives, in the community, and in the polity, and to do this through collective action. The thesis applies these ideas using an embedded case study model combining documentary analysis, participant observation and in-depth interviews. The findings reveal agency and social capital to be in tension. Activities that feed the agential capacity of the organisation and its members are more successfully realised in areas closest to women???s past experiences than in those addressing the public sphere. The research nevertheless shows that a voluntary association such as VIEW can foster women???s agency. Indeed, building women???s capacities in society as a whole may well rely on organisational contexts where women are empowered to self-develop and connect their activities to broader society. This is impacted by the nature, purpose, and social location of the social capital networks of women and others, and has implications for how we understand the ongoing role of voluntary associations in civil society. By revealing how different dimensions of social capital operate and intersect with women???s agency, the thesis shows the dynamic role of voluntary associations in civil society.

The nature of debates about managerialism and social justice tend to be adversarial. The purpose of this study is to explore the nature of the relationship between managerialism and social justice. The thesis examines the nature of this relationship in the development of a community-networking project, a pilot website for young people in a high need community. The community-networking project was established through a novel contractual arrangement between government and a local community organisation. In this study social values comprise the analytical lens used to map out this relationship. Kekes??? (1993) approach to ethical pluralism is used to explore the nature of relations between ideas about managerialism and social justice in the process of implementing policy. The study is contextualised in a minor policy proposal of the former federal Liberal Coalition government and associated with a 1998-99 Budget proposal concerned with improving access to and the coordination of family-related information and services including information relating to mental health, child care, youth and aged care (see Black et al. 2002: 10). The policy initiative was established to test a range of assumptions about strong communities. There are two facets to the field study. The first facet explores the process of the implementation of the policy initiative through the different perspectives of three key informants, and the second facet explores the views of end-users of the service to determine whether or not young people were empowered, in the sense of being able to access knowledge about their own lives in terms that have meaning for them. The tone of the study is influenced by my own direct involvement as ???an insider???. Despite the explicit intentions that were supported by research and policy, pragmatic constraints limited the extent to which community organisations were empowered to act outside the demands of government organisations and in this instance, managerialism did act against social justice. However, this did not appear to prevent the end-users of the service that was established from achieving a sense of empowerment.

Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) / Alongside informal networks of friends and family, formal social groupings such as voluntary associations are valued by older people as opportunities for engagement. In Australia, one such grouping is the licensed social (or ‘registered’) club. Approximately 20 per cent of all older Australians, and 80 per cent of older residents of the state of New South Wales, actively participate in such clubs. Despite this, older people’s registered club participation has received little scholarly attention. This ethnographic study of one particular registered club aimed to discover the nature, meaning and role of club participation for its older members. Social capital existing in club-based networks emerged as a further investigative focus, and its mechanisms and outcomes were examined. Participant observation and in-depth interviewing were the main data collection methods used. Data analysis procedures included thematic analysis (based loosely on grounded theory methodology), as well as the more contextsensitive narrative analysis and key-words-in-context analysis. The study found that club participation enabled older members to maintain valued social networks, self-reliance and a sense of autonomy. Social networks were characterised by social capital of the bonding type, being largely homogeneous with respect to age, gender, (working) class and cultural background. Strong cohesive bonds were characterised by intimacy and reciprocity, and possessed norms including equality and the norm of tolerance and inclusiveness. These helped to minimise conflict and build cohesiveness, while protecting older club-goers from increasing marginalisation within the club. Peer grouping within this mainstream setting may have shielded the older club-goers from stigma associated with participation in old-age specific groups. The nature and scale of registered club participation amongst older Australians points to their unique and important role. The findings of this research indicate that – for at least this group of older men and women - club use is a major contributor to maintaining social connectedness and a sense of self as self-reliant, autonomous and capable. In the context of an ageing population, Australia’s registered clubs feature in the mosaic of resources available to older people, and their communities, for the creation of social capital.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, May 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Dissertation (Ph. D.)--University of Akron, Dept. of Psychology-Industrial/Organizational, 2007. / "December, 2007." Title from electronic dissertation title page (viewed 01/31/2008) Advisor, Rosalie J. Hall; Committee members, Paul E. Levy, Young Lin, Robert G. Lord, Linda M. Subich; Department Chair, Paul E. Levy; Dean of the College, Ronald F. Levant; Dean of the Graduate School, George R. Newkome. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Auburn University, 2007. / Abstract. Includes bibliographic references (ℓ. 86-96)