As an innovation Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) is designed as a tool for clinical problem solving. According to its theory of use EBP will bring a difference for policy makers, for professionals, for researchers and for service users. One question to be asked is whether EBP actually leads to the radical social change it is designed to accomplish. The aim of the study is to describe and analyse the outcome of the effort to establish EBP, with a focus on the case of social work in Sweden. The research questions are: What is EBP? Why are efforts made to establish EBP? What is the outcome of the EBP project? How can the outcome of the EBP project be explained? The case study was conducted on a critical realistic meta-theoretical ground with a focus on explanation of social change with an explicit actor-structure perspective. Methodologically, a narrative synthesis of studies was made. As a complement primary data were collected to fill empirical gaps. The state of things was described before and after the EBP-initiatives. Several helping theories – Kuhn’s theory of paradigm, program theory, neo-institutional theory and theory of diffusion – were used to analyse the empirically mapped outcome of the EBP project. The results show that the import of the original model of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) to social work is a part of a wider social movement in the helping and educational professions. The new model has influenced social work as a discipline, as a field of practice and as a field of policy. There are examples of full-scale implementations of EBP, although EBP has not reached a general status as daily practice. Some obstacles remain. The gradual adaption of EBP corresponds to criteria hold by Kuhn for a paradigm shift. Acceptance of the model has contributed to change the structure and function of social systems. At an organizational level, this change means on-going institutionalization. The innovation is influencing the way institutional actors conduct their work. Although the structural conditions have been optimal, the EBP-model has been debated with heat. The EBP-debate and policy-driven infrastructural efforts have brought a more in-depth examination of the model. So-called coercive, normative, and regulative isomorphisms were used to change organizations. The degree of institutionalization depended on the individuals and the organizations willingness and preparedness to change, to understand, and to put the model into practice. When actors used a less strict version of the original EBP model, the pace of cultural and institutional change slowed down.

台灣民主轉型的成功除執政菁英的主動變革外，公民參與政治和支持改革亦有其重要性。有鑑於逐年下滑的投票率和工具性社團參與率，本研究主要從制度變遷與社會資本論點來進行探討，以縣市層次制度變項為自變項，三類型社會資本為中介變項，投票與競選活動參與為依變項，目的在了解於民主鞏固時期前後，社會資本的分佈狀況和影響社會資本、政治參與的因素，以提升民眾的社會和政治參與。中介變項與依變項資料來自1993年與2005年台灣社會變遷調查資料(TSCS)，自變項資料整合自臺灣地區社會意向調查、各縣市社福資訊與政大選研中心資料庫，主要採用多層次迴歸與邏輯迴歸分析模型來分析資料。 在社會資本分布變化上，結合式社會資本與工具性社參未有顯著改變，情感性社參則顯著增加。相較於情感性社團參與，工具性社團參與的比例較高，在兩個年代中，民眾參與工具性社團比例約在22%左右。在社團內異質性資源分佈上，不同社團的年齡異質性與性別異質性隨不同時期而有所變化。相對地，各類社團在成員的教育、收入與族群組成上反而較為穩定。由於在2005年，民眾教育與收入顯著較1993年為高，意謂著在民主鞏固時期，團體參與者可接觸的社團內異質性資源較多。 並非所有社會資本皆受外在制度所影響，研究結果顯示出國家制度較難影響立基於儒家文化的結合式社會資本。在民主鞏固時期前，縣市執政評價氛圍與生活扶助資源如理論所預期，可影響民眾的情感性社會參與，但其影響力似乎亦有減弱情形。一致性社福資源雖對工具性社團參與有跨期影響力，但卻產生資源排擠效果，而非是資源溢注效果。 政治態度論與社會資本論皆能部份說明為何民眾要參與兩類傳統政治活動，但相較於投票，參與競選活動屬於較耗費成本的參與行為，因此個體資源論較能解釋競選活動的參與。以多層次中介分析步驟檢視縣市制度變項對政治參與的作用後，證實了制度論的作用。在制度變項可能透過社會資本影響政治參與的三條中介路徑，僅一條路徑得到實證上支持。在2005年，縣市急難救助資源可透過工具性社團參與進而影響競選活動參與。 制度變遷的觀點能說明不同時期情感性社團參與和投票的變化。傳統文化價值觀的現代化改變了縣市執政評價氛圍對情感性社團參與的作用。隨著非正式制度環境的改變，情感性社團參與對競選活動參與的作用亦可能隨之改變。而隨著社會福利政策綱領的施行，人均生活扶助資源量的提升，則促進個人的投票行為。總言之，中央政府應注意自身的施政效能，並透過社福資源的適度分配，來促進民眾的社會參與與政治參與行為。 / The success of the transition to democracy in Taiwan should attribute not only to the active reform of the ruling party' cadre, but also to citizens’ participation and political support for the political reformer. In view of the gradual declining turnout rate and instrumental group participation rate, the study tends to describe the distribution of social capital, and explore the potential factors influencing social capital and political participation before and after democratic consolidation period. The paper’s framework from the perspective of institutional change and social capital treats institutional change as the independent variable, three kinds of social capital as the mediated variable, and voting and electoral campaign participation as dependent variables. The study mainly applies the multilevel linear regression and logistic regression model to analyze the mediated and dependent variables from the Taiwan Social Change Survey in 1993 and 2005, separately. As for independent variables, the data is integrated from the Social Image Survey, the social welfare report across counties, and online database of election study center in national Chengchi University. As far as the distribution of social capital is concerned, the results show that the distribution of bonding social capital and instrumental group participation do not have significant change between 1993 and 2005. Compared with participation in 1993, in 2005, the increase of this emotional group participation is apparent. In both year, the instrumental group participation rate is about 22% and is higher than the emotional group participation. In the distribution of diverse resources within groups, age diversity and sex diversity change a lot as the time went by. In contrast, education diversity, income diversity and ethnicity diversity stay stable between groups. In comparison with 1993, people in 2005 have higher education and income level, resulting in the increase of group members’ education and income level. It means that in the democratic consolidation period, it is probable for group participators to approach more diverse resources existing within groups . The effect of institutional variables on the three kinds of social capital is not as same as previous literatures report. Bonding social capital based on confucianism is difficult to be enhanced by the national institutions. Before the democratic consolidation, the effect of living assistance resources, and the atmosphere where people are satisfied with the central government performance which is consistent with theoretical prediction affects people’s participation in the emotional group. However, the effect seems to weaken gradually at the later period. Universal social welfare resources influence the instrumental group participation across different periods, but the negative effect belongs to the crowing out effect rather than the crawling back effect. Political attitudes theory and social capital theory both can partly account for why people participate in these two kinds of traditional political activities. Individual resources theory is suitable for explaining the participation of electoral campaign in that it takes people much more time and cost to engage in the electoral campaign participation than in voting. After examing the effect of institutional variables at the county-level on the political participation through the procedure of multilevel mediation analysis, the findings proven the argument of institution theory. Among the three potential mediation paths in which the institutional variables impact on the political participation through social capital, just one path is supported by the data. In 2005, emergent assistant resources can affect the electoral campaign through the instrumental group participation. The perspective of institutional change can explain the change of the emotional group participation and voting between 1993 and 2005. With the modernization of individual’s traditional attitudes, the county-level effect of evaluation of the central government on the participation in the emotional group is abated. It is probable that the effect of the emotional group participation on the electoral campaign participation differs according to the different environment of the informal institution The increase of living assistant resources per capita, because of the execution of the guiding principle of the social welfare policy, promote people’s voting significantly. In sum up, the attention should be paid by the central authority to strengthen the efficiency of the administration and distribute the social welfare resources appropriately based on the contemporary social condition, in order to improve people’s social participation and political participation.

Avhandlingen behandlar byggprocesser i södra Sverige som hade ambitionen att åstadkomma lågenergihus liknande den tyska passivhusstandarden. Syftet med avhandlingen är att öka förståelsen för processer i införandet av ett energikoncept. Energikonceptet betraktas som en innovation för användning i en sektor som av många beskrivs som konservativ och inte särskilt mottaglig för innovationer. Byggprocesserna studeras genom att händelser rekonstrueras med hjälp av berät-tande källor såsom intervjuer och protokoll från olika möten. Även observationer har använts där tillfälle funnits. Fokus riktas mot hur arbetet organiserades och beslutsprocessen bakom valet av teknik till konceptet. Även massmedias rapporte-ring om byggprocesserna har studerats och hur deltagarna i byggprocesserna marknadsförde energikonceptet. Införandet av energikonceptet kan förstås som transformationer eller om-formningar. Omformningarna bestod av fem grundläggande aktiviteter som med Hägerstrands tidsgeografiska begrepp kallas: lösgörning, formning, hopsättning, transportering och lagring. Energikonceptet lösgjordes från ett specifikt lokalt sammanhang och transporterades till ett annat där det formades för att passa nya förutsättningar och sattes ihop till ett nytt energikoncept. Det nya energikonceptet lagrades i ett nytt hus. Genom att följa människors och teknikers trajektorier kunde slutsatser angående energikonceptets svagt och starkt kopplade delar dras. De starkt kopplade delarna är byggherrens organisering av arbetet som skulle underlätta en starkare styrning. Sinnliga upplevelser av lagrade energikoncept hade betydelse för användandet. Solfångare visade sig vara en svagt kopplad teknik och behövde teknikbärare för att användas. / This thesis explores building processes in the south of Sweden with the aim to accomplish low energy housing in accordance with the German standard for passive houses. In this thesis, the passive house is regarded as an innovative en-ergy concept which has been introduced to Sweden and to a conservative sector. The purpose of the study is to provide an understanding of processes in the im-plementation of an innovation for energy-saving dwellings. The process is recon-structed with data from interviews, minutes, articles, reports, etc, and presented as stories of different sequences including how the housing projects were organised, how the energy concept was established among the participants, how decisions were made and what messages were presented about the energy concept in mass media. The energy concept is followed in a process of transformation where it was subject to five fundamental acitivites: decomposition, moulding, composition, transportation and storage. The concepts originate from a time-geography per-spective, founded and developed by the Swedish geographer Torsten Hägerstrand. The energy concept was decomposed at a specific local context and transported to another, where it was moulded and composed into a new energy concept. The new energy concept was stored in a new setting. By following the trajectories of peo-ple and technologies, conclusions about the energy concept can be drawn. The building proprietors chose less conventional ways of managing the building proc-ess in order to have more control. The projects were started by people who them-selves had their own experience of passive houses. Solar collectors were loosely coupled to the energy concept and needed technology carriers.

Social economy community development organizations (SECDOs) are social service organizations that provide poverty relief but do not necessarily inspire a counter-hegemonic antipoverty strategy against a neoliberal welfare state. Tension between providing human social services and engaging in advocacy is at the core of how SECDOs may be both complicit to as well as working against the neoliberalization of the welfare state. This study explores how SECDOs can nurture a new paradigm for community economic development organizations. Through a case study of a Canadian settlement house, the research demonstrates how transforming work may encourage a culture of organic intellectualism or, a culture of emancipatory consciousness-raising. By re-organizing workplace practices, such as working collaboratively, providing a hub for services and engaging in popular education, transformative SECDOs help provide the conditions for citizens to affect governance. The research theorizes how SECDOs may foster a culture of organic intellectualism to promote the transformative social economy.

Social economy community development organizations (SECDOs) are social service organizations that provide poverty relief but do not necessarily inspire a counter-hegemonic antipoverty strategy against a neoliberal welfare state. Tension between providing human social services and engaging in advocacy is at the core of how SECDOs may be both complicit to as well as working against the neoliberalization of the welfare state. This study explores how SECDOs can nurture a new paradigm for community economic development organizations. Through a case study of a Canadian settlement house, the research demonstrates how transforming work may encourage a culture of organic intellectualism or, a culture of emancipatory consciousness-raising. By re-organizing workplace practices, such as working collaboratively, providing a hub for services and engaging in popular education, transformative SECDOs help provide the conditions for citizens to affect governance. The research theorizes how SECDOs may foster a culture of organic intellectualism to promote the transformative social economy.

This dissertation focuses on the living arrangements of multi-generational households among ten biggest immigrant groups in the United States. Specifically, it examines whether the husband's or the wife's older parents were more likely to be present. Co-residence patterns were taken as a proxy that reflected relative decision-making power in the family. A number of factors hypothesized to be associated with the outcome were examined to explore the effect of immigration on gender role ideology and gender relations in the post-1965 immigrant family. More than 102,000 multi-generational households from the 2000 U.S. Census were included in the analyses. Results suggested that while there were positive signs for women's increasing status and relative decision-making power, the influence of original sending culture where immigrants have come from proved to be strong and persistent. Those from more patriarchal sending cultures, represented by India, Korea, and China, were more likely to have the husband's parents co-residing; while those from less patriarchal sending cultures, represented by Jamaica, Cuba, and El Salvador, were more likely to have the wife's parents present in the household. These findings illustrate the complex nature of gender relations in the immigrant family whereby the effect of assimilation is found in some domains, while the influence of sending culture is enduring or even reinforced in other domains. Results of this research contribute to the better understanding of the diversity of changes in gender relations that accompany immigration.

This thesis is concerned with the cultural shifts that have occurred in Lihir, Papua New Guinea, as Lihirians were drawn into greater engagement with the capitalist system, initially through the colonial labour trade and more recently through large-scale resource extraction. This research draws upon 15 months of fieldwork in the Lihir Islands from 2003 to 2004. This thesis is intended as a critical dialogue with world system theorists.World systems arguments are constructive for understanding how Lihirians have remained economically marginal.However, I reject the assertion commonly propounded in these approaches that the world capitalist system inevitably destroys ‘traditional’ cultures and remakes them to its own specifications. Working from Sahlins’ (1985, 1992) premise that there is always continuity in change, I have sought to illustrate those enduring structures and received cultural values that have shaped Lihirian engagement with the capitalist system. My concern iswith articulation rather than penetration; to capture the dialectic of global structural inequalities and Lihirian selective appropriation. This approach allows me to emphasise the heterogeneity of Lihirian culture, notonly prior to sustained European contact, or even mining activities, but specifically at the height of their engagement with the capitalist system. (For complete abstract open document)

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A study entitled `Phenomenological study of ageing amongst the older persons in Zambia' was undertaken with the purpose of gaining an understanding of the ageing phenomenon within the Zambian context and provide frameworks that could be used by policy-makers and health professionals to formulate guidelines or interventions relevant to the lived experiences of older persons and the meaning attached to ageing or being old, and consequently maintain or improve the quality of life of older persons of Zambia. The objectives of the study were to describe (1) the lived experiences of the older persons of Zambia, and (2) the meaning they attached to ageing or being old within the Zambian context. A transcendental phenomenological design within the qualitative naturalistic approach was used to guide the research process and to assist the researcher to reach the purpose and objectives of the study. Focus group and in-depth individual interviews were conducted to generate data from twenty-seven (27) informants. Fifteen (15) informants participated in the focus group interviews and twelve (12) in in-depth individual interviews. In total, 24 in-depth individual interviews were conducted in term of two interviews per informants, and two focus group interviews. Data collection covered a period of three months. Coliazzi (1978) and Giorgi (1985) techniques for qualitative data analysis were used and verbatim excerpts form the transcribed interviews were used to support the themes that emerged from data and to provide a richer picture of the situation. Three frameworks derived from the findings of this study: (1) framework of the lived experiences of older persons of Zambia, (2) framework of the meaning of ageing or being old and (3) framework for understanding ageing within the Zambian context. The researcher believed that these frameworks would make a meaningful contribution toward the understanding and the development of policies and interventions that would assist in enhancing or maintaining the quality of life of older people of Zambia. The main findings of the results of this study indicated three most significant dimensions of the lived experiences of the older persons (health, socio-economic and psychosocial) that need to be taken into account when planning for any programs or interventions aimed at maintaining or improving the quality of life of older persons of Zambia. These interventions and programs should also address the negative feelings or meanings attached to the above experiences. The main findings of the results of this study also showed that the meaning of being old or ageing in Zambia does not depend on the health, socio-economic and psychosocial living experiences of the older person but it depends largely on the inner values of the older persons, such as spiritual, emotional and cultural beliefs. This means that maintaining or improving the quality of life of older persons in Zambia would require comprehensive programs or interventions that should take into account the health, socio-economic, psychosocial, spiritual, emotional and cultural needs of the older people. / Health Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies)

This thesis provides a framework for viewing socio-political contexts and how these relate to interventionist projects. The framework draws on and combines strands from international relations and sociological perspectives of social interaction. The central question becomes how intervention and existing social contexts interact to produce unintended outcomes. It applies the analysis to two separate wider contexts: Afghanistan and Somalia, with a particular focus on the self-declared independent Somaliland as an internally generated and controlled transformational process. Unlike abstract directions of theoretical development the framework seeks to provide a platform that sets aside ideological assumptions and from which interventionist projects can be observed and evaluated based on literature, field observations and interviews. Drawing on such diverse influences as fourth generation peace and conflict studies, Morphogenetics, and social forces theory, the framework explores conditions and interest formations to capture instances of local agency that are part of a continuity of local realities. It views social interaction without imposing Universalist value assumptions, but also without resorting to relativism or raising so many caveats that it becomes impractical. It exposes the agency of local interest formations hidden beneath the discourses of ideologically framed conflicts. These social agents are often dismissed as passive victims to be brought under the influence of for example the state, but are in reality able to subvert, co-opt, constrain or facilitate the forces that are dependent on them for social influence. In the end, it is the modes of mobilisation that emerge as the most crucial factor for understanding the relevant social dynamics.