This study seeks to focus on the extent to which the newly formed Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality (MMM) in the Free State Province of South Africa has been able to close the socio-economic gap between the former homelands’ socio economic status and the current MMM such that the local development in former homeland areas post 1994 is scruitinised with the MMM serving as a unit of study for the scrutiny. A brief history of the three towns that form the Mangaung Metro Police such as Bloemfontein, Botshabelo and Thaba Nchu, the population statistics and economic sectors contributing to its economic environment will be provided. The study will also look into the historical background of Local Economic Development and practices in South Africa.

No description available.

The impact of social influence from others on choices made by subjects and how this influence accumulates was studied by secondary analysis of reported experimental data. To explain this impact a link is proposed between social influence network theory (SINT) and status characteristics theory (SCT). The link formula transforms stay probabilities for different status relationships of subject with one disagreeing other agent into horizontal axis coordinate values while stay probabilities of subject given two disagreeing others are transformed into vertical-axis coordinate values corresponding to the horizontal axis values for further analyses. The results support the utility of the proposed link between the two theories.

No description available.

I denna studie undersöker vi vilka faktorer som påverkar varför barn inte får leken att fungera samt hur pedagoger i förskolan stöttar barn i leken. Syftet med studien är att synliggöra olika orsaker som leder till att barn inte får leken att fungera samt hur pedagoger går tillväga för att stötta dessa barn i leken. Forskningsfrågorna som vi utgår från är vilka faktorer som påverkar att barn inte får leken att fungera samt vilken roll förskollärare behöver inta för att stödja barn i lek. I bakgrunden presenteras en historisk tillbakablick där vi vill belysa vilket utrymme lek över tid tillskrivits i förskolan. Den tidigare forskningen berör betydande faktorer som kan komma att ha påverkan på barns lek. För att erhålla svar på våra forskningsfrågor genomfördes en kvalitativ metod i form intervjuer med 6 legitimerade förskollärare samt 2 specialpedagoger. Resultatet av studien visar anknytningens betydelse för att barn ska kunna leka, resultatet visar också att barns sociala kompetens måste tränas för att utvecklas och vikten av pedagogers kompetens och lyhördhet framträder som viktiga hörnstenar för barns lek. Slutligen i arbetet presenteras med hjälp av den tidigare forskningen samt resultatet av studien våra egna slutsatser samt tankar kring vidare forskning av ämnet.

Mobbning är ett socialt fenomen där det ofta finns flera olika deltagarroller närvarande. Deltagarrollerna är offer, mobbare, assistenter, understödjare, passiva åskådare och försvarare. De flesta barn och ungdomar tycker att mobbning är fel men ändå ökar mobbningen i svenska skolor. Mobbning kan fungera som ett medel för att klättra i den sociala hierarkin och erhålla social status. För att kunna utföra elaka handlingar utan att känna skuld kan individer också använda sig av moraliskt disengagemang. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka vilka möjliga förklaringsmodeller gymnasieelever själva identifierar att elever använder för att rättfärdiga pro-aggressiva deltagarroller (dvs. mobbare, assistent och understödjare) i mobbning. Fjorton fokusgruppsintervjuer genomfördes med totalt 51 gymnasieelever. Deltagarna presenterades två snarlika vinjetter som gestaltade en mobbningssituation i en killgrupp och en tjejgrupp. Utifrån premissen att personerna i vinjetten tycker att mobbning generellt sett är fel, fick deltagarna resonera kring varför de tror att eleverna intar de olika deltagarrollerna. Analys av data genomfördes med hjälp av konstruktivistisk grundad teori. Resultatet visade på att utifrån gymnasieelevers perspektiv så hamnar elever i de tre pro-aggressiva rollerna för att de är upptagna av sociala processer som relaterar till kärnkategorin: att tillhöra maktsfären. Studiens resultat bekräftar flera tidigare forskningsfynd och ger en djupare förståelse för varför elever intar pro-aggressiva deltagarroller vid mobbning. Studiens styrkor och begränsningar samt förslag på vidare forskning lyfts fram.

The thesis focuses on the patterns of nonmarital childbearing and its influence on the health of newborns in the Czech Republic between 1990 and 2010. Numerous and profound social changes took part in these two decades after the fall of state socialism. Socioeconomic inequalities grew, a competitive job market was introduced and social policy was reformed. Family behaviour changed, as well. A more than four-fold rise of the proportion of children born outside marriage was among the most remarkable changes in this regard. Two research questions were addressed: 1. how did unmarried motherhood and its socioeconomic background change; 2. how did these changes influence disparities in the health of newborns by family arrangement. Data from the birth register are used for answering these questions and analysed with multilevel regression models. The method was aimed at explaining variability between contexts defined by time and space. Health of newborns is measured by birth weight. Family arrangement of mothers is measured with their marital status. Unmarried mothers are further split by the presence of a partner measured with the mother's willingness to declare child's father. The results show that birth outcomes on nonmarital children improved and marital status gap in birth weight closed substantially in the...

This paper deals with the role of American courts, specifically their decisions, regarding the rights and social status of LGBT people, which is an acronym standing for lesbians, gay, bisexual and transgender persons. The main finding is that court decisions in favor of LGBTs make lives of such people even more difficult, because authorities in states where such decisions are taken often try to circumvent these decisions using legislative powers. However, in the long term, it seems that courts manage to initiate debates about LGBT-related topics with various arguments that the American society is forced to consider. It appears that in such debates common sense prevails over prejudices and myths. One such myth that was widely accepted by society was that when a child lives with a homosexual in a common household, such child was going to become homosexual him- or herself. This paper also explores an analogy between current efforts of LGBT people to reach full equality and secure anti- discrimination measures for themselves and the struggle for civil rights of African-Americans. Both these groups have faced treatment which suggested that they are second-class citizens. One of the ways society expresses this second-class citizenry is by denying LGBTs access to the institution of marriage arguing it...

This diploma thesis "Social status of Czech women-Muslim" is divided into practical and theoretical part. The theoretical part contains two sub-chapters and 11 sections, which all the essentials of the issue are contained in. The theoretical part includes the history of Islam with regard to the historical character of the Prophet Muhammad. Also it deals with the holy book for muslimy- Quran, sunnah and other important documents of Islam. It characterizes the five main pillars of Islam. Subsequently it deals with the special position of women in Islam. The theoretical part includes a description of conversion to Islam. The work represents the Islamic community in the Czech Republic and Czech anti-Islamic group. Thesis deals with Islamic fundamentalism as well. At the end of the theoretical part, the important sociological concepts such as social stratification, social role and social status are defined. The practical part presents the results of interviews. These interviews were semi-structured and Were Carried out 15 interviews with 15 responders. The aim of the the empirical part was to answer the research question, That is: "What is the social status of Czech women who converted to Islam and live in the Czech Republic?" At the end the thesis includes a discussion.

The thesis presents a view on a group of amateur chefs - the culinary experts- for whom the cooking has become an essential part of their identity. On the basis of the analysis of semistructured interviews and the participating observation the author studies the tricks of creating of identity of the culinary experts and their life-style. Present day liquid modernity and hyper-consumerist society in a way offers the space for paying attention to oneself and for building an own life project. The culinary art has become for some individuals very important hobby, not only because of the fact that through it they can give pleasure to their bodies, but it can also improve their social status. The text shows that the culinary art brings to amateur chefs the possibility to dedicate their life to cooking, regardless the social stratification or economical class they come from. On the other hand, there is a distinctive dimension which shows that merely the consumption of fine food does not make a fine food eater or a fine diner. The group of the culinary experts is building an exceptional social status though distinctive tricks of consumption of so called "good food". This group is not homogenous and it is relatively open to new members who must subsequently prove and demonstrate the expert knowledge of a...