In light of the cyber-activist simulated incidences dubbed Occupy Wall Street in New York City, New York, USA and the mirrored Occupy JSE movement in Johannesburg, South Africa, the internet and its social media networking sites have been instrumental in facilitating both the dissemination of information as well as facilitating a mediated environment for activists to coordinate online and offline protest action. This research examines the extent to which activists for social change have used social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube, web blogs and other online forums to garner support for their cause as well as generate social mobilization by creating awareness of the economic disparities in their respective societies. Established theories of social presence have been used to explain the relevance and role of social media tools in instigating social mobilization whether online or offline. This discussion focuses on the Occupation Movements staged in various countries globally and to what extent social media played in facilitating social change. It is important to note that the video footage and other social media data under analysis is specifically that which was uploaded onto YouTube and the subsequent URL links posted on Facebook. By scrutinizing these videos and calls for action as well as the comments posted by the international online community, this research elucidates the ‘trickling down effect’ of this type of cyber-activism on the behavioural patterns of contemporary South African society, and further argues that this process is indicative in the resultant Occupy JSE movement.

In light of the cyber-activist simulated incidences dubbed Occupy Wall Street in New York City, New York, USA and the mirrored Occupy JSE movement in Johannesburg, South Africa, the internet and its social media networking sites have been instrumental in facilitating both the dissemination of information as well as facilitating a mediated environment for activists to coordinate online and offline protest action. This research examines the extent to which activists for social change have used social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube, web blogs and other online forums to garner support for their cause as well as generate social mobilization by creating awareness of the economic disparities in their respective societies. Established theories of social presence have been used to explain the relevance and role of social media tools in instigating social mobilization whether online or offline. This discussion focuses on the Occupation Movements staged in various countries globally and to what extent social media played in facilitating social change. It is important to note that the video footage and other social media data under analysis is specifically that which was uploaded onto YouTube and the subsequent URL links posted on Facebook. By scrutinizing these videos and calls for action as well as the comments posted by the international online community, this research elucidates the ‘trickling down effect’ of this type of cyber-activism on the behavioural patterns of contemporary South African society, and further argues that this process is indicative in the resultant Occupy JSE movement

L’évolution des différents contextes définissant l’existence de l’individu obéit aux pratiques mises en place par les acteurs institutionnels en interaction. La stratégie de chaque acteur expliquant une configuration à l’institution dont il est représentant développe une source de connaissances et de réalités guidant les actions des individus en fonction des objectifs qu’ils cherchent à atteindre. Ces connaissances et ces réalités sont les représentations sociales qui guident l’action des acteurs institutionnels et des individus. Dans la société tous les individus ne sont pas mûs par des objectifs identiques, ils agissent selon le contexte que les pratiques des acteurs contribuent à faire évoluer. Le marché de l’emploi haïtien et l’enseignement supérieur interagissent de sorte qu’ils orientent l’individu cherchant à se développer professionnellement. Par ailleurs, les rapports entre univers de formation et univers de travail appellent à une transformation permanente des pratiques de certification et des pratiques de qualification suivant de près l’évolution des représentations de la qualification des salariés. La différence des objectifs individuels et institutionnels s’explique en grande partie par le fait que les noyaux des représentations sociales ne sont pas identiques en fonction du contexte et de l’idéal des acteurs individuels et collectifs. La validation des acquis de l’expérience est au coeur des représentations du diplôme et de la qualification. En tant que dispositif de l’institution scolaire, elle impacte d’une certaine manière l’interaction des acteurs éducatifs et les acteurs économiques en fonction de leurs représentations du diplôme et de la compétence. Le changement social qui découle de la transformation des pratiques par l’évolution des représentations du diplôme et de la compétence ne peut s’expliquer qu’en considérant les actions individuelles. En effet, individus et acteurs institutionnels ont des objectifs propres qui justifient un usage particulier de la VAE même obéissant à un cadre règlementaire unique. / The evolution of the main contexts within the individual social condition is based is related to institutional practices implemented by institutional actors who interact. The individual actor’s strategies which determine the institutions’ composition represent the main database of knowledge and realities guiding the actions of individuals based on the objectives they pursue. This knowledge and these realities are the database of social representations that guide institutional actors and individuals. In the social environment, all people are not moved by the same goals. They’re supposed to follow the rules implemented by the institutional practices from the institutional actors who always pursue their institutional objective. Employment and higher education system guide the individual seeking to evolve professionally. Furthermore, the relationship between employment and training justifies the educational and qualification practices transformation they’re closely following the evolution of representations of individual degree and qualification. The institutional and individual objectives difference and collective strategies can be explained largely by the fact that the social representations core is not identical in terms of the context and the goals of individual and collective actors.The validation of experience acquired is the main important point of degree and qualification studies. As an institutional device for the educational institution, it impacts in a certain way interaction between educational and employment actors according to their competence, performance, professional skills and degree representations. The social change that results from the transformation of practices by the representations evolution of degree and qualification can be explained by considering the individual actions. Indeed, individuals and institutional actors have specific objectives that justify a particular use of VAE’s process even if it’s based on a single regulatory framework.

Educational restructuring is an international phenomenon, which emphasizes flexibility, local decision-making, self-regulation and innovation in contrast to previous bureaucratic governing and standardised teaching. Current reforms aim at a school adapted to the emerging information- and knowledge intensive society. The aim of the dissertation is to examine current curriculum reforms concerning the governing and organisation of time in compulsory school. In what ways is the temporal order of schools changing in a late modern post-industrial society? What new conditions for teaching are these changes implicating? What kinds of dilemmas emerge for different school actors in conducting these reforms? By using critical discourse analysis, educational reforms are studied as a dynamic discursive practice with different concurring imperatives formatted in tension fields of cultural, social and political changes. Four case studies are used to explore how a current Swedish curriculum reform, Without a National Timetable in Compulsory School, was conducted in an experiment period over five years. The local appropriation of the policy intentions was found to depend on: (i) the preparedness of reform within the particular school, (ii) the dominant school culture, (iii) the local decision-making processes, and (iv) variations in reform mobilisation (identified in the case studies as micro-political struggle, resistance by evasiveness, preservation of consensus and stratification). The results demonstrate that curriculum reform, the ongoing movement of educational restructuring, is not a linear unambiguous process of application. On the contrary, it is a discursive arena, which has a great impact as it involves discourses of efficiency and quality development, increased professionalism, economical cost-reduction, choice and devolution. These discourses involve concurring imperatives for school actors to handle time in the organisation of teaching dependent upon how they are positioned as (i) effective ‘goals makers’ (ii) problem-solvers, who remove obstacles for individual learning projects, (iii) strategists in a more competitive educational landscape, (iv) and moral agents, who in deliberation with others work towards a fair and equal school. It is concluded that for school actors, who work under the crossfire of educational restructuring, these imperatives pose a number of complex dilemmas.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The present investigation aims to, from an archaeological perspective, observe and understand the processes of social change in the city of Salvador of eight hundred, through from the glass’s interpretative potential. Aims to understand behaviors and social practices related to modernity in the nineteenth century in the Salvador city through from the analysis of the vitreous material recovered at house 14, in the São Francisco Street - Centro Histórico de Salvador. The approach enabled understand features and peculiarities of consumption behavior in the 19th century in Salvador through the vitreous objects, as containers of information on everyday living space and of the changes in Brazilian cities, under socio-economic, political and cultural aspects, immersed in the construction of a project of modernity imported. / A presente investigação visa, a partir de uma perspectiva arqueológica, observar e entender os processos de mudança social na cidade de Salvador dos oitocentos, a partir do potencial interpretativo imiscuído no vidro. Tem como objetivo, portanto, compreender práticas e comportamentos sociais relacionados à modernidade na Salvador oitocentista a partir da análise do material vítreo recuperado na casa 14, da Rua São Francisco, no Centro Histórico de Salvador. A abordagem possibilitou perceber características e peculiaridades do comportamento de consumo no século XIX em Salvador através dos objetos vítreos, como contentores de informações sobre o espaço de vida cotidiano e das mudanças ocorridas nas cidades brasileiras, sob aspectos socioeconômicos, políticos e culturais, imersos na construção de um projeto de modernidade importado.

Although efforts have been made by the Afghan government and its international partners to promote the tents of gender equality in Afghan society, biases against women and other marginalized groups persist in the society and media sector, particularly. The current study is a timely research because feminist media studies are an under-researched field in the context of Afghanistan. My research aims to be a contribution to this field and open a path for Afghan feminist media studies. The current study explores the representations of gender relations in transnational television soap operas broadcast on Afghan television stations, audiences’ decoding of the representations, and the role of the media in promoting social change. The selected soap operas for the study are Paiman and Qesay Maa, Turkish television soap operas dubbed in the Dari language. The current study is based on feminist theory and feminist methodology, providing a balance of content and reception analysis. Drawing on feminist media studies and focusing on media representations, the content analysis of transnational soap operas echoed previous studies on representations of gender relations and indicated that gender relations are often portrayed in stereotypical and traditional manners. The content analysis further demonstrated that women are objectified in different ways and are often represented as domestic, passive, selfless beings in men’s service. Moreover, relationships between women are often based on rivalry, hatred, and shaming and often without any particular reason. The study also found that contrary to women, men are often represented at outdoor and professional settings. Additionally, grounded on encoding/decoding model through a feminist lens, the thematic analysis of focus group discussions demonstrated that audiences constantly interact with media text and actively make meaning. Interestingly, FGD findings further indicated that as active viewers, both female and male participants, derive multiple and often diverse meanings from the media text. Although both female and male participants problematize the content of transnational soap operas, their interpretations of representations of gender relations and gender equality are dissimilar. The study concludes that transnational soap operas, and the media in general, can play an important role in promoting social change in Afghanistan, particularly gender parity through the Entertainment-Education strategy. However, an intersectional framework is essential in designing EE programmes for promoting gender equality in a diverse society like Afghanistan.

Le but de cette thèse est de comprendre les conditions d’adoption de la « loi Neuwirth » en décembre 1967 qui dépénalise le libre recours à des moyens de contraception. La modification d’un dispositif légal qui remonte à la loi 1920 renvoie à l’existence d’une relation de pouvoir dotée d’une forme historiquement datée, et partant, socialement construite, qu’il convient d’aborder comme telle pour expliquer sa transformation. Sa formation n’est en effet pas concevable avant la fin du XIXème siècle dans le cadre du processus de nationalisation et d’étatisation de la société. Dès lors, comprendre l’adoption de la « loi Neuwirth » suppose de rendre compte à la fois de la constitution des conduites procréatrices en objet légitimed’intervention étatique, de décrire relationnellement l’invention de la cause contraceptive dans les années 1950, et de saisir les rapports qui peuvent s’établir entre, d’une part, les individus et groupes mobilisés en faveur de cette dernière et, d’autre part, les gouvernants. Bref, saisir pleinement une relation de pouvoir et sa transformation exige de produire une analyse à parts égales des éléments qui la composent en les traitant comme des espaces en interdépendance. Ce travail socio-historique à la croisée de la sociologie des mobilisations, de la sociologie de l’Etat et la sociologie de l’action publique, se base sur l’exploitation de nombreux fonds d’archives, la construction et l’analyse de deux bases données et la réalisation d’entretiens. / The purpose of this thesis is to understand the conditions for the adoption of the "loi Neuwirth" in December 1967, which decriminalizes the free use of contraceptive methods. The modification of a legal system dating back to the 1920s refers to the existence of a power relationship endowed with a historically dated, and therefore socially constructed, form, whichmust be addressed as such to explain its transformation. Its formation was not conceivable until the end of the 19th century as part of the process of nationalization and nationalization of society. Therefore, understanding the adoption of the " loi Neuwirth " implies accounting for both the constitution of procreative behaviour as a legitimate object of State intervention,describing in relation to the invention of the contraceptive cause in the 1950s, and grasping the relationships that can be established between, on the one hand, individuals and groups mobilized in favour of the latter and, on the other hand, governments. In short, fully grasping a power relationship and its transformation requires producing an equal analysis of the elements that compose it by treating them as interdependent spaces. This socio-historical work, at the crossroads of the sociology of mobilizations, the sociology of the State and the sociology of public action, is based on the exploitation of numerous archive collections, the construction and analysis of two databases and the conduct of interviews.

The problem with which this study is concerned is the investigation of certain selected elements of technological change upon certain selected elements of psychosocial change and the relationship of such changes upon modern man's ability to adjust to these changes. The necessity for psychosocial change and, consequently, adjustment, has risen dramatically in the past few decades as a result of rapid technological and scientific advances for which modern man has been ill-prepared.

Cette thèse s’inscrit dans une analyse des dynamiques contemporaines du vieillissement dans les sociétés africaines, particulièrement au Sénégal. Elle propose d’explorer les expériences des « parents » âgés en cours de fragilisation à travers le prisme de la solidarité face au changement social, de saisir les ambivalences relatives, d’une part à leur place au sein de la sphère familiale et sociale, et d’autre part dans les représentations de la vieillesse. Cette recherche déconstruit tout d’abord les représentations de la vieillesse en montrant que les « parents » âgés ne sont pas de « simples assistés », mais des acteurs au sein du réseau familial de solidarité et que « leurs vieillissements » sont pluriels, dynamiques et riches d’inventivité. Ensuite, à partir des enquêtes qualitatives réalisées au Sénégal et de façon complémentaire auprès de migrants sénégalais en France (le Havre), la recherche met en lumière les limites des solidarités familiales dans l’accompagnement social des « parents » âgés et appelle à l’imagination de solutions variées envers les personnes vieillissantes. Enfin, les transformations dans les modalités d’exercice des solidarités familiales envers les personnes âgées invitent à un retournement de regard, sinon de paradigme dominant, dans la façon de penser la vieillesse. Cette thèse est une contribution à la connaissance des expériences multiples du vieillissement. / This thesis is part of an analysis of the contemporary dynamics of aging in African societies, particularly in Senegal. It proposes to explore the experiences of elderly "parents" in the process of becoming fragile through the prism of solidarity in a context of social change, to grasp the relative ambivalences, on the one hand in their place within the family and social sphere, and on the other hand in the representations of aging. This research deconstructs first of all the representation of aging by showing that the elderly parents are not the "simple assisted", but actors within the family solidarity and that "their ageing" are plural, dynamic and rich of inventiveness. Then, from the qualitative surveys carried out in Senegal and in a complementary way with Senegalese migrants living in France (Le Havre), the research highlights the limits of family solidarities in the social accompaniment of elderly "parents" and calls for imagining of varied solutions to ageing people. Finally, the transformations in the family modalities of exercising of solidarities towards the elderly invite to a reversal of glance, if not dominant paradigm, in the way of thinking old age. This thesis is a contribution to the knowledge of the multiple experiences of aging.

In this paper, I invoke a sociolinguistic approach to complement the historical record in order to examine the use of the word utumwa itself as it has changed to reveal distinct class and gender connotations especially in northem Swahili communities. To explore utumwa is difficult. There is no consensus with regard to what the word and its derivatives mean that applies consistently, yet it is clear that there has been a meaning shift since the nineteenth century. This paper examines the construction and transformation of a non-Westem-molded form of service in Africa. Oral traditions and terminological variation will be brought to bear on an analysis of utumwa `slavery, service` as an important concept of social change in East Africa and, in particular, on the northern Kenya coast What this term, its derivatives, and other terms associated with it have come to mean to Swahili speakers and culture bearers will be seen to mirror aspects of the history of Swahili-speaking people fi-om the 1Oth-11th century to the present.