Since the closing of total institutions in Sweden people with severe mental problems have access to places in the society in a completely different way. Prior international studies indicate that so called therapeutic landscapes can contribute to the recovery of people with severe mental problems. The aim of this study is to examine if this can be applied in a Swedish context. What places can be included in a therapeutic landscape and what about these places can influence recovery? Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven adults with severe mental problems, followed by a thematic analysis. The result indicates that places offered by the Swedish social services, in public places and in nature can be included in a therapeutic landscape. The places can evoke a feeling of affinity, offer a change of scenery and enable activities and relationships that can contribute to recovery. Social work plays an important part in offering access to different places, as well as creating them, and can therefore contribute to a recovery process. However, people with severe mental problems are also social agents that actively can influence their own recovery and thereby strengthen their sense of self.

This thesis examines the use of various osseous raw materials in craft activities in the Mälaren region during the Middle Ages. Places studied are: Birka, Sigtuna, Nyköping, Strängnäs and Uppsala. The aim is to capture both chronological and spatial changes in the use of osseous raw materials. Species and materials used reflect regional as well as international networks and how they change during time. The spatial distribution of waste from craft activities, its materiality and temporality mirror activities in different social contexts.  Quantitative and qualitative changes in the handling and exploitation of raw materials reflect varying and changing views of its value and how craft and exchange is affected by both a social and economic agency. In Birka, osseous waste material associated with craft was collected by Hjalmar Stolpe in the 1870s. An examination of the assemblage shows that imported material comprises a significant part of the collection. About a third of the waste consists of imported antler of red deer and reindeer. Red deer is particularly abundant (21%), signifying the importance of southern trading networks. The presence of whalebone can also be linked to south-western trading routes. The waste material collected during excavations in Sigtuna and representing the period c. 980-1300 has a different composition, reflecting different networks and perhaps different means of trade and production. As in Birka, elk antler constitutes the main bulk of the raw material used. Red deer antler is extremely limited, forming less than 1% of the material, appearing continuously though in small amounts from c. 1020-1300.  Reindeer antler is distinctly present in the oldest phase, c. 980-1000. This occurrence might represent a relic of the northern network manifested at Birka. An isotopic study indicates an origin in a forested biotope. After this initial phase the use of reindeer antler becomes as rare as that of red deer until the second half of the 12th century, indicating that the antler craft operated on a minor scale without any demand for long-distance trade in raw materials. A change occurs in the last quarter of the 12th century when large quantities of reindeer antler appear once more. Isotope signatures indicate an origin in more mountainous regions. This coincides with the introduction of another traded raw material of an arctic origin: walrus tusk. The craft had become more marked oriented. This is manifested in larger deposits of debris, a wider range of materials used, including bones from various domestic animals, but also the handling and exploitation of the material changes indicating a different view of production, trade and the value of raw materials than previous. This shift coincides with the introduction of minted silver. Western influences are evident both in the material culture and in the faunal assemblage. It is likely that a majority of the reindeer antler as well as the walrus tusk present in these later phases have a Norwegian origin. In the late 1100s and early 1200s craft in osseous material occur in other towns that emerge in the region but it seems to appear in new social contexts. Small assemblages of antler debris have been found in Uppsala, but the activities they represent lack the spatial continuity that exist in contemporary environments in Sigtuna and Strängnäs, indicating short lived occasional activities in a loosely regulated urban environment. Craft activities dependent purely on bone from domestic animals appear in the 1200s in Nyköping, Uppsala and Strängnäs. They represent craft activities in a new social context outside the private sphere of the local elite and instead subordinated other craft activities where domestic animals have been exploited on a large scale beyond the domestic household. Antler craft represents a social practise in the realms of the local elite with a continuity stretching back to the Iron Age. Monetization and an increasingly feudal society redefine social relations and practise. This can be seen in the occurrence of craft in new contexts in the late 1100s and 1200s, reflecting heterogeneity in social and economic functions in and between the towns in the region.

Dr. Lenore Walker developed battered woman syndrome to address the issue of domestic violence and to give battered women a defense in situations in which they kill their abusive partners when they are not overtly threatening them. Self-defense law is based on male on male combat. Women are less able to protect themselves in an attack by a man, and so they may preemptively attack their sleeping partners to avoid a situation in which they cannot adequately protect themselves. Battered woman syndrome explains why these battered women act in a way that is irrational to a non-battered person. Walker's theory of learned helplessness explains why the woman does not leave the abusive relationship, and the cycle of violence theory explains why she perceives an imminent threat. Battered woman syndrome is problematic in its legal application because of problems with its scientific validity and reliability. It also furthers gender stereotypes and blurs the line between a justification and an excuse defense. While, Dr. Walker's intentions were good, battered woman syndrome is inadequate. Women's difference from men still have to be acknowledged in cases in which battered women kill their husband's, but social agency framework is a more effective way to acknowledge gender differences. This framework takes into account social circumstances that would explain a woman's actions rather than including pathology. This would explain why the woman did not leave an abusive relationship. To avoid the pathology of BWS while explaining why the woman felt an imminent threat, the defense can turn to a pattern of abuse that helps her reasonably recognize when violence is likely.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:00:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 4817.pdf: 24113425 bytes, checksum: cb5440835d66013e42c61199f0938306 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-12-12 / Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais / This paper conducted a study of graffiti from public toilets in the city of São Paulo. The focus of analysis is the ability agentive these demonstrations, and to access these intentions and meanings, we sought a dialogue between anthropology and artistic methodologies, experimenting and meanings through interactions of bathrooms installations and interventions, exploring and evoking sensory looks like, smells and communications. To underscore the graffiti, highlight the typical sense of the bathroom and bring to this environment other artistic textures, in addition to their senses of anonymity, transgressor in that uses an area of conservation and public use, subjective and individualized, brings a problematization and theoretical tract of these productions and locations beyond possible interpretations of content and classificatory generalizations. We seek to understand how intentions abandoned in places highly significant gain autonomy for interaction and enable the understanding of a theory of action grounded in production and not in human producers. / Este trabalho realizou um estudo de grafitos de banheiros públicos da cidade de São Paulo. O foco de análise é a capacidade agentiva destas manifestações, e para acessar estas intencionalidades e significados, buscou-se um diálogo entre antropologia e metodologias artísticas, experimentando significados e interações dos banheiros através de instalações e intervenções, explorando sensorialmente e evocando assim olhares, odores e comunicações. Ressaltar os grafitos, evidenciar os sentidos típicos do banheiro e trazer para este ambiente outras texturas artísticas, para além das suas acepções de caráter anônimo, transgressor na medida em que se utiliza de um espaço de uso e conservação pública , subjetivas e particularizadas, traz uma problematização e trato teórico destas produções e localidades para além de possíveis interpretações de conteúdos e generalizações classificatórias. Buscamos entender como intencionalidades abandonadas em locais altamente significativos ganham autonomia de interação e possibilitam a compreensão de uma teoria de ação calcada em produções e não em produtores humanos.

This is qualitative study about Kenyan street children. The aim of this study is to get a better understanding of the pull and push factors towards the street and towards rehabilitation centres. The question formulation is; How can rehabilitation centres assist street children in leaving the street life? 25 former street children have been interviewed in a combination of focus group and individual interviews. The theoretical framework that is used for the analysis is elucidation the perspective of childhood, the street child and the street, theories about socialisation and stigma. The result shows: Pull factors exist in both directions. The pull factors towards the street are freedom, friends in the streets and drug addictions. The pull factors towards the centre are access to education, a chance to be treated like full human beings and to be able to get a better future. The street children are active social agents who have to have a desire to leave the street, it is not possible to force them off the streets. What is offered in the centre has to be viewed as better than what they have in the streets. One way for the centres to help the street children to get the desire to leave the streets is by helping them to focus on their future. The centre can also help the street child to make the transformation to the centre easier. The most important aspects is to offer drug rehabilitation programs and make the re-socialization process easier by acknowledge the positive things the street children have learned in the street and to treat them as active social agents.

The main purpose of this study is to explore and gain insight into the nature, extent and characteristics of educational supervision as implemented in the Department of Health and Welfare in the Vhembe District of the Limpopo Province. Objectives of the study were to conceptualise social work supervision with a specific focus on the educational function; to investigate the nature, extent, and characteristics of the educational function of supervision in the Vhembe District of the Limpopo Province and finally to make recommendations regarding educational supervision in the Department of Health and Welfare in the Vhembe District of the Limpopo Province. The study was guided by a research question which was formulated as follows: What is the nature, extent and characteristics of the educational function of supervision in the Department of Health and Welfare in the Vhembe District of the Limpopo Province? Therefore, this study was conducted to provide answers to this research question. Quantitative research approach was used in this study, since the researcher explored and described the nature, extent and characteristics of the educational function of supervision statistically. This research is applied in nature because it focuses on a practical problem (educational supervision) in the social work practice (Department of Health and Welfare in Vhembe District of the Limpopo Province) and the findings will be utilized to solve social work supervision problems in the particular District. A randomised cross-sectional quantitative research design was used, because the researcher investigated social work educational supervision in the Department of Health and Welfare in the Vhembe district of the Limpopo Province using a group administered questionnaire as data collection method. The population for this study was composed of social workers from the Department of Health and Welfare in the Vhembe District of the Limpopo Province. Forty- two social workers (senior and junior social workers) completed a questionnaire during a Vhembe District social workers staff meeting. Those completed questionnaires were collected immediately. Data were analysed statistically through Microsoft excel programme. Tables and Figures were used to illustrate some of the answers. From a literature study it was concluded that the educational function of supervision is the most important function of social work supervision. It plays a vital role in providing social workers with social work knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for delivering qualitative, effective and efficient social work services. Educational supervision gives social workers autonomy to function independently. The study revealed that there are problems regarding the implementation of the educational function of social work supervision in the Department of Health and Welfare in the Vhembe District of the Limpopo Province. The findings proved that some of the social workers do not receive educational supervision and there is no uniformity in implementing this function of supervision. The findings also revealed a obvious knowledge gap regarding social work supervision among social workers in the District. / Dissertation (MSD (Social Work Management))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted