Avec l’avènement de la micro-informatique dans les années 80, de l’internet dans les années 90 et de l’achèvement du séquençage du génome humain au tournant du 21e siècle, le nombre d’entreprises développant des technologies en santé a explosé. Par contre, la pratique en centre hospitalier et des interactions quotidiennes avec des professionnels de la santé œuvrant dans différents secteurs du système de santé québécois et d’autres provinces canadiennes rend compte d’une large différence entre le nombre de technologies qui apparaissent dans les conférences et blogs, et celles adoptées et utilisées sur le terrain. Mais tandis que l’évaluation des technologies et l’étude de la diffusion des innovations ont donné lieu à une littérature scientifique importante, peu d’études ont exploré jusqu’à présent l’émergence des entreprises de technologies innovantes en santé en prenant compte le point de vue de tous les acteurs impliqués. C’est donc ce manque de connaissances que notre étude désire combler, en se demandant comment une entreprise émergente et de technologie en santé peut se construire socialement en initiant certaines actions concurrentielles et pourquoi ces actions peuvent-elles différer selon le type d’entreprise, les demandes et les pressions des acteurs économiques et du système de santé. Les objectifs de recherche sont donc de définir comment les entreprises innovatrices en technologie de la santé s'établissent en utilisant l'effet de leurs actions concurrentielles tout en leur octroyant un sens, déterminer l'influence du type d'entreprise et des schèmes de construction sociale sur les actions concurrentielles, les activités de fabrication de sens et les réponses aux pressions des acteurs institutionnels, et enfin identifier quelles sont les stratégies utilisées par les entrepreneurs pour s'adresser à l'institution qu’est le système de santé. Afin de répondre aux interrogations soulevées par les observations sur le terrain, la présente recherche s’est organisée en trois volets successifs, explorant trois points de vue différents. Le premier est celui d’un observateur externe envers les startups en technologie de santé. Le deuxième volet est celui des acteurs gravitant autour de ces entreprises et le troisième est celui des entrepreneurs eux-mêmes. Le premier volet consiste en une étude de cas multiples utilisant la stratégie d’analyse de construction d’explication. L'étude s'est appuyée sur l'analyse des communiqués de presse (n = 664) et des articles des médias généraux (n = 627). L'échantillon comprend cinq entreprises canadiennes inscrites à la Bourse de Toronto sous la forme de quatre startups qui ont fait une offre d’achat initiale entre 2000 et 2003, et une entreprise bien établie. Parmi celles-ci, trois étaient dans le secteur de la santé, une dans le secteur du commerce électronique tandis que l‘entreprise bien établie était une entreprise de solutions d’infrastructures électroniques en santé. Globalement, au cours de l'émergence de l'entreprise, les actions marketing et symboliques, doublées du recours à des leaders d’opinion et des personnes de haute notoriété ont été nettement plus prononcées avec les startups de santé par rapport à l'entreprise qui n’était pas en santé. Au cours des premiers mois d’émergence, au fur et à mesure que les communications et signaux augmentaient, les startups en santé étaient les seules entreprises à utiliser la légitimité cognitive et pragmatique, s'appuyant ainsi sur la cognition plutôt que sur l'intérêt personnel ou les jugements moraux des acteurs. De plus, nous avons observé des différences dans l'utilisation des actions marketing et des actions symboliques et également dans le recours à des leaders d’opinion. Cela suggère une influence différentielle du modèle de construction sociale et du type d'entreprise sur le niveau et le mélange des actions du marché et des activités de sensibilisation entre les entreprises de santé et les entreprises de technologie non liées à la santé. Les deuxième et troisième volet consistent en deux séries d’entrevues semi-structurées, où une analyse thématique a été utilisée pour identifier et rapporter des thèmes tout en organisant et en décrivant minutieusement l'ensemble de données. Pour le deuxième volet, l'échantillon pour les entrevues semi-structurées comprend 10 médecins spécialistes, 4 professionnels de la santé impliqués dans l'acquisition des technologies de la santé, 3 membres des unités d'évaluation des technologies de la santé et 3 investisseurs en technologies de la santé. Nous avons déterminé que l'acquisition et la diffusion des technologies de santé sont de plus en plus réglementées et doivent répondre à des pressions croissantes d'un grand nombre d'acteurs qui voient inversement leur pouvoir d'agence se réduire. Nous avons également démontré que les pressions qui pousse vers l'institutionnalisation des pratiques, ainsi que le découplage des objectifs du système de santé et ceux des autres acteurs sont abordés par des stratégies "politiques"; le pouvoir des principaux influenceurs tels que les investisseurs et les spécialistes médicaux, ainsi que la méfiance à l'égard des actions de marketing sont abordés avec des stratégies “associatives”; les pressions découlant du besoin croissant de données fondées sur des données probantes sont traitées avec des stratégies “normatives”. Enfin, la faible fragmentation d'un système public de santé et l'hétérogénéité des processus d'acquisition locaux sont abordées avec des stratégies “d'identité”. Le troisième volet s’est concentré sur la manière dont les entrepreneurs saisissent les opportunités, créent leur organisation entrepreneuriale, et lui apportent de la légitimité, et a examiné les déclencheurs, contraintes et pressions impliquées dans ce processus. L'échantillon pour les entretiens a été constitué de 20 entrepreneurs et partenaires stratégiques impliqués dans le développement et la commercialisation des technologies de la santé. À chaque étape, nous avons identifié un processus institutionnel prédominant, qu'il s'agisse du découplage, de l'influence du champ organisationnel ou de la recherche de légitimation. Nous avons constaté que chaque étape de l'émergence de la start-up était déclenchée par des situations où l'entrepreneur faisait face à des barrières et contraintes sous la forme d'un désalignement des limites, de la mauvaise performance des technologies concurrentes, et de l'asymétrie des ressources. Nos résultats peuvent aider les professionnels de la santé, les décideurs et les évaluateurs à comprendre le processus d'adoption et de diffusion des technologies en santé et contribuer à l'élaboration de procédures d'acquisition grâce à des politiques ciblées et des processus révisés. Pour les investisseurs, notre étude leur permet d’identifier les obstacles qui rythment la vitesse à laquelle les nouvelles technologies font leur chemin dans la pratique clinique et le système de santé. Les résultats peuvent aussi fournir un cadre pour élaborer des données de référence pour évaluer les investissements actuels et futurs. Mieux connaître quelles sont les différences propres aux startups technologiques en santé en comparaison aux autres startups pourrait aider les entrepreneurs à prioriser les actions compétitives et à mieux cerner les intentions perçues et les besoins de santé réels lors de l’émergence sociale de l’entreprise. Pour le système de santé, les résultats peuvent servir à élaborer et enrichir des politiques et directives d’acquisition et d’évaluation qui vont améliorer l’accès à des technologies médicales qui sont sécuritaires, efficaces et de haute qualité. / With the advent of micro-computing in the 1980s, the Internet in the 1990s and the completion of the sequencing of the human genome at the turn of the 21st century, the number of companies developing health technologies has exploded. Nonetheless, hospital practice and day-to-day interactions with health professionals working in different sectors of the Quebec health system and other Canadian provinces reflect a large difference between the number of technologies appearing in conferences and blogs, and those adopted and used in the field. But while the evaluation of technologies and the study of the diffusion of innovations led to an important scientific literature, few studies have so far explored the emergence of innovative health technology companies taking into account the point of view of all the actors involved. It is this lack of knowledge that our study wishes to fill, by asking how an emerging health technology company can be socially constructed by initiating certain competitive actions and why these actions may differ according to the type of company, demands and pressures from economic and healthcare system actors. The research objectives are therefore to define how innovative health technology companies establish themselves by using the effect of their competitive actions while giving them meaning, determining the influence of the type of business and the patterns of social construction activities on competitive actions, sensemaking activities and responses to the pressures of institutional actors, and finally identify the strategies used by entrepreneurs to address the institution that is the health system. In order to answer the questions raised by field observations, this research was organized in three successive parts, exploring three different points of view. The first is that of an external observer to health technology start-ups. The second part is that of the actors around these companies and the third is that of the entrepreneurs themselves. The first part consists of a multiple case study using explanation-building analysis strategy. The study was based on the analysis of press releases (n = 664) and general media articles (n = 627). The sample includes five Canadian companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in the form of four startups that made an initial bid from 2000 to 2003 and a well-established firm. Of these, three were in the health sector, one in the e-commerce sector, while the well-established company was a health electronic infrastructure solutions company. Overall, during the emergence of the company, marketing and symbolic actions, coupled with the use of opinion leaders and high-profile people, were significantly more pronounced with the health-based startups when compared to the firm who was not in the health sector. In the early months of emergence, as communications and signals increased, health-based startups were the only firms to use cognitive and pragmatic legitimacy, relying on cognition rather than personal interest or moral judgment of the actors. In addition, we observed differences in the use of marketing and symbolic actions and also in the use of opinion leaders. This suggests a differential influence of the social construction model and firm type on the level and mix of market actions and sensegiving activities between health and non-health technology companies. The second and third components consist of two sets of semi-structured interviews, where a thematic analysis was used to identify and report themes while organizing and describing the data set thoroughly. For the second part, the sample for semi-structured interviews includes 10 medical specialists, 4 health professionals involved in health technology acquisition, 3 health technology assessment units’ members, and 3 investors in health technologies. We have determined that the acquisition and diffusion of health technologies are increasingly regulated and must respond to increasing pressures from a large number of actors who, conversely, see their agency power diminish. We also found that the pressures to institutionalize practices, as well as the decoupling of the objectives of the health system from those of other actors, are addressed by “political” strategies; the power of key influencers such as investors and medical specialists, as well as mistrust of marketing actions are addressed with “associative” strategies; the pressures arising from the growing need for evidence-based evidence are addressed through “normative” strategies. Finally, the fragmentation of a public health system and the heterogeneity of local procurement processes are approached with “identity” strategies. The third part focuses on how entrepreneurs seize opportunities, create their entrepreneurial organization, and give it legitimacy, and examined the triggers, constraints and pressures involved in this process. The sample for the interviews consisted of 20 entrepreneurs and strategic partners involved in the development and commercialization of health technologies. At each stage, we identified a predominant institutional process, whether it be the decoupling, the influence of the organizational field or the search for legitimation. We found that each stage of the start-up was triggered by situations where the entrepreneur faced barriers and constraints in the form of a misalignment of boundaries, poor performance of competing technologies, and of resource asymmetry. Our findings can help healthcare professionals, decision-makers and evaluators understand the process of adoption and diffusion of health technologies and contribute to the development of procurement procedures through targeted policies and revised processes. For investors, our study allows them to identify the barriers that pace the speed at which new technologies are making their way into clinical practice and the health care system. The results can also provide a framework for developing baseline data to evaluate current and future investments. A better understanding of the differences in health technology startups compared to other startups could help entrepreneurs prioritize competitive actions and better understand perceived intentions and real health needs during the social emergence of the company. For the healthcare system, the results can be used to develop and enrich procurement and evaluation policies and guidelines that will improve access to safe, effective and high quality medical technologies.

ENGLISH SUMMARY The main objective of this thesis was to provide a complex perspective on the mutual relationship of gender and media in the age of post-modernity with a special attention to the stereotypical gender portrayal presented to us by the contemporary Czech advertising discourse. We chose to demonstrate this problematics through the methods of semiotic analysis on the analytical sample of 5 advertisements (consisting of selected TV commercials) representing various aspects of stereotypical gender images appearing in the today's Czech advertising contents. We then subjected these selected advertisements to the analytical methods in pursuit of finding the answers to the questions related to the media image of men, women and our society that the stereotypical gender depictions contained in these advertisements help to construct. Although many of these advertisements appear to be openly sexist or even misogynic on the first sight, using the mechanisms of semiotic analysis we came to a rather opposite conclusion proposing the analyzed contents are rather pro-feminine tending toward an extensive masculine critique. This result, however, is based mainly on the mechanisms of oppositional reading of the subjected texts. On the other hand, it is presumable that the "average media consumer" not having access...

Despite all the legislative efforts regarding child protection and campaigns to prevent and combat early marriage and maternity, Mozambique was ranked 9th globally in terms of the prevalence of early marriage, with 48% of girls aged 20-24 marrying before the age of 18 years. The aim of this study was to develop a strategic alignment framework for the prevention and combat of early marriage and maternity in Zambézia Province, Mozambique. This study used a two-stage equal-status concurrent sequential mixed-method design. Data were collected through a cross-sectional survey, administered to 383 early married, maternity and pregnant girls; life story interviews with early married, maternity and pregnant girls (25) aged 10-19 years; semi-structured interviews with professionals from the education and health sectors, local authorities, families of the early married, maternity and pregnant girls (37), and group discussions with members of a child committee (16). The results indicated that the majority of early married, maternity and pregnant girls only completed primary education (55.9%), followed by secondary education (39.9%), and higher education (2.9%). About 65% of adolescent girls became pregnant at the age of 15-17. Among adolescent girls, 18.8% had their first baby before the age of 15 years and 99.2% had their first baby before they were 18 years old. Among the early maternity girls (362), 24.3% responded “yes” to the questions about health complications during their first baby’s birth and 75.7% of the respondents said “no”. Socio-cultural meanings, such as socialisation into roles, legitimising having children, the value and benefits of the bridewealth, the role of initiation, the social meaning of the first menstruation, geographical and transport issues were the main drivers for school dropout, forcing adolescent girls to marry. Engaging in sexual practices was found to provide the girls a sense of meaning and purpose, or as a result of poverty. Physical aspects, interpersonal relations, education, work, and emotional distress were some of the negative consequences of early marriage and maternity. There were some relevant interventions and efforts to prevent and combat early marriage and maternity in Maganja da Costa and Morrumbala districts in Zambézia Province, Mozambique. However, the alignment of the activities implemented by different NGOs and CBOs to MNSPCM (2016-2019) was still a challenge. Only World Vision was implementing programmes aligned to the National Strategy. Based on the results, I developed a strategic alignment framework for the prevention and combat of early marriage and maternity in Zambézia Province, Mozambique. / Health Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies)

In this dissertation, the researcher presents the findings of a discourse analytic enquiry on the construction of femininity within a contemporary South African magazine. It is argued that gender is a social construction and that women’s magazines provide a channel through which discourse of femininity reaches women. These discourses in women’s magazines are often narrow and stereotypical in nature which may limit the development of women’s feminine gender identities. A discourse analytic approach was utilised to reveal the different discourses of femininity within a contemporary women’s magazines, Cosmopolitan, as well as to indicate how they may contribute to the construction of femininity. From the magazine, relationship-focused articles were selected, from which three predominant discourses of femininity were identified which includes femininity as heterosexual, nurturing, and managerial. An important finding is that competing discourses of empowerment and traditional femininity were evident. This points to the highly complex ways in which gender, specifically femininity, is constructed in the magazine under study. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

This thesis is divided into a theoretical and a practical part. The theoretical part deals with two separate realms which are then interconnected in the practical part. The first realm is narrative therapy, its description, function and implementation. One of the tools of narrative therapy is a therapeutic narration, which is discussed therein and is set into the field of social work. Next comes the second realm which is the topic of a divorce and children. There we discuss the influence of a divorce on children, the participants, and we are presented with the potentiality of how to diminish the negative influence. In the following practical part, we fist find a draft of a narration with therapeutic features from narrative therapy for children from divorced and divorcing families; the draft is supposed to alleviate the complications during and after a divorce. The other section of the practical part describes the research which verified whether the composed narration really helped alleviate the negative impact of a divorce on children. Evaluation of the state of the problematic areas performed both before and after the cooperation showed that narrative therapy helped to significanly decrease the number of serious problems in monitored areas. KEYWORDS Narrative therapy, narrative metaphor, social...

Le but de cette recherche est d’évaluer l’importance du paysage culturel dans la résilience des communautés urbaines post-catastrophes. Ce travail se concentre sur le quartier du Lower Ninth Ward dans la ville de La Nouvelle-Orléans (États-Unis) après le passage de l’ouragan Katrina en 2005. Les catastrophes naturelles prennent une envergure et causent des dommages considérables lorsqu’elles touchent des villes. La reconstruction post -désastre est donc très dispendieuse pour les villes et les gouvernements, d’autant que certaines régions sont dévastées au point qu’elles doivent être reconstruites au complet. Cependant, le coût le plus lourd à assumer reste celui en vies humaines et si rebâtir les éléments concrets d’une ville est une tâche difficile à entreprendre, reconstruire une communauté est considérablement plus complexe. Dans le but de comprendre une telle démarche, cette recherche se concentre sur les éléments intangibles, comme l’attachement au lieu et les réseaux sociaux, dont une communauté a besoin pour se reconstituer de façon durable et résiliente. Le concept de résilience est très contesté dans la littérature et plusieurs chercheurs se sont essayés à le mesurer. Cette recherche adopte une perspective critique sur le concept et le revisite d’un point de vue holistique pour mettre en lumière sa complexité. Cette démarche permet de remettre en question l’importance de mesurer un concept finalement en perpétuelle redéfinition dans le temps et selon les échelles géographiques. De plus, en établissant une relation entre résilience et paysage culturel, il a été possible de mieux comprendre la complexité de la résilience. Touchant à plusieurs disciplines (architecture de paysage, urbanisme et sociologie), cette recherche utilise une méthodologie qui reflète son aspect multidisciplinaire : les méthodes mixtes. Ces dernières permettent la collecte de données quantitatives et qualitatives qui produisent une vue globale de la situation post-Katrina à travers le regroupement de recensions statistiques, d’observations de terrain et d’articles de journaux. Parallèlement, des entretiens ont été réalisés avec des résidents du quartier ainsi qu’avec des professionnels pour mieux comprendre les différents points de vue. Cette méthodologie a permis de produire des résultats au niveau du cas d’étude autant qu’au niveau théorique. La recherche valide l’importance de prendre en compte le paysage culturel dans les situations post-catastrophes, (en particulier) dans la mesure où il s’agit d’un élément souvent négligé par les urbanistes et les acteurs locaux. En effet, les éléments constitutifs du paysage culturel tels que l’attachement au lieu et les réseaux sociaux, participent d’un sentiment d'appartenance (« home ») et d’une volonté, pour les résidents, de reconstruire leurs habitations, leur communauté ainsi que leur quartier. Toutefois, il faut reconnaître que ces éléments ne suffisent pas à retrouver ce qu’ils ont perdu. Ainsi, l’étude du paysage culturel permet non seulement de mieux comprendre la complexité de la résilience, mais démontre également que cette dernière est une construction sociale. / The purpose of this research is to determine the importance of using the cultural landscape in evaluating the resilience of an urban community after the occurrence of a natural disaster. The focus is on the neighborhood of the Lower Ninth Ward after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 in the city of New Orleans. Natural disasters are gaining significance and magnitude when they hit cities, which are becoming more and more populated over the years. The damage these disasters cause is colossal. It is very costly for cities to undergo major disasters and sometimes, large sections of cities need to be entirely rebuilt. The costliest price is the human life, and as history marks it, too many lives have perished due to disasters. While rebuilding is a challenging task, yet feasible, rebuilding a community is not as tangible as rebuilding the infrastructure. This research focuses on the many intangible aspects, like place attachment and social networks, a community needs to rebuild itself in a sound and resilient way. The concept of resilience is very contested in the literature and many have attempted to measure it. This research takes a step back and scrutinizes the concept of resilience from a holistic perspective, which highlights its complexity. This leads to questioning the importance of measuring the concept, especially that it changes with time and with the different scales of geography. In addition, a relationship between the cultural landscape and resilience is established, which allows for a better understanding of this complexity. Taking a little from multiple disciplines (Landscape Architecture, Urban Planning, and Sociology), this research resorts to a methodology that reflects its multidisciplinary aspect. The methodology is the mixed methods research design, which allows the collection of quantitative and qualitative data. The focus is to gather census data, newspaper articles, and observations to give a general perspective on the post-Katrina situation. Interviews are collected from residents and from professionals so as to tackle the research from different angles. This allows reaching results at the case study level as well as the theoretical level. This research validates the importance of using the cultural landscape in post-disaster situations as planners and government officials overlook it. Some of the elements that constitute it like place attachment and social networks motivate people to return to their original neighbourhoods and rebuild their homes and community. These elements, however, cannot by themselves give people back what they lost in the disaster. By relating the cultural landscape to the concept of resilience, it implies that resilience is a social construction.

No description available.

Studiens syfte var att undersöka pedagogers uppfattningar av och kunskaper kring att arbeta med genus och drama samt att belysa vilka eventuella utmaningar de möter i arbetet. Studien präglas av kvalitativ metod och utgår ur ett socialkonstruktionistisk perspektiv. Vår ambition var att samla in pedagogernas erfarenheter och uppfattningar i relation till hur normkritisk pedagogik och genusfrågor synliggörs i barns dramalek därför har vi använt intervjuer som datainsamlingsmetod. Resultatet visade att samtliga intervjuade pedagoger uppfattar och använder drama som en pedagogisk kontext för att undersöka jämställdhet tillsammans med barn på ett lekfullt sätt. Detta, i sin tur, belyser dramas kraft som ett normbrytande pedagogiskt verktyg. Resultatet visade även hur pedagogernas förhållningssätt i relation till normer och stereotyper påverkar och utformar sättet barn upplever normer och stereotyper samt hur dramapedagogik bidrar till barns normkritiskt tänkande. Till sist, tydliggjordes hur viktigt pedagogernas medvetandegörande och närvaro är för att styra lärandet utifrån barns behov, medan olika utmaningar som uppstår bör lösas genom en god kollegial och föräldrasamverkan. / The purpose of the study was to investigate educators' perceptions of and knowledge about working with gender and drama and to shed light on the possible challenges they face in their work. The study is characterized by a qualitative method and is based on a social constructionist perspective. Our ambition was to collect the educators' experiences and perceptions in relation to how norm-critical pedagogy and gender issues are made visible in children's drama play, which is why we have used interviews as a data collection method. The results showed that all interviewed educators perceive and use drama as a pedagogical context to investigate gender equality with children in a playful way. This, in turn, highlights the power of drama as a norm-breaking pedagogical tool. The results also showed how the educators' attitudes in relation to norms and stereotypes affect and shape the way children experience norms and stereotypes and how drama pedagogy contributes to children's norm-critical thinking. Finally, it was clarified how important the educators' awareness and presence is to guide learning based on children's needs, while various challenges that arise should be solved through good collegial and parent collaboration.

Based on society's established norms, girls and boys are expected to behave differently. Certain behaviours are also differently accepted due to gender. This makes it possible to question if the principle of the best interests of the child in cases regarding The Compulsory Care of Young Persons Act (1990:52) (LVU), applies in the gender-neutral way that it's intended to do. To answer this, we have collected data through “collection of materials''. More specifically, we have used cases from a sample of administrative courts and courts of appeals which all deal with 3§ LVU. The data has been analysed through the method “qualitative content analysis” in which different patterns could be read out. The main conclusion of our study is that girls tend to be judged more harshly than boys. The courts assessments in girl cases/judgments includes factors that in boys cases/judgments goes unnoticed, like factors related to mental illness and self-harm. Another conclusion is that the principle creates space for many different interpretations which includes gender norms upon application of the 3§ LVU. When the principle is gender neutral, like it's intended to do, a discrimination because of sex can be hidden.

No description available.