This study identifies informal networks as the most accepted method of sharing information. Enhancing service delivery is shown as being a key trigger of coordination while rigid funding approaches are perceived to be a major inhibitor. Organisational type, position, practice approaches and location are shown to influence people's perception of coordination.

There appears to be a growing recognition among economists and other social commentators that people attempt to enhance their relative position (which is commonly described as status) through consumption choices and other behaviour. It has been less common to consider whether attempts to enhance relative position impact on saving behaviour. This thesis makes a number of contributions relating to the impact of relative position on saving behaviour. In this thesis I: - consider why concern for relative position may impact on saving behaviour. I demonstrate, with a simple intertemporal model the surprising result that when people are concerned with relative position, income risk can lead to most people saving less and the rich saving more. - conduct an empirical study to test the importance of relative position on saving behaviour. I find a statistically and economically significant relationship between peer income and saving behaviour consistent with theories that people actively forgo saving to seek to enhance their relative position. I use the data to demonstrate that relative position can help to explain why prior research has consistently found that the rich have higher saving rates. - consider the policy implications of relative position to saving behaviour. I examine the policies, primarily corrective taxation, that have been advocated to address externalities of relative position in a static setting. I find that there are significant issues when these policies are considered in an intertemporal setting. I examine the policy of mandatory saving in addressing distortions caused by relative position and the possibility that concern for relative position improves the effectiveness of mandatory saving policy.

Funded by the Primary Health Care Initiatives Program. Bibliography: p. 161-170. This thesis examines the public health of breastfeeding from a feminist perspective, based on a qualitative longitudinal study. From reviewing the history of infant feeding, a number of discourses of breastfeeding are identified and their continuing influence on contemporary thinking is discussed.

<p> </p><p>The purpose of this essay is to study the republican and socialist Northern Ireland political party Sinn Féin and to examine its legitimacy in the eyes of the citizens of Northern Ireland. Is it possible to have a political agenda that includes violence and still maintain legitimacy? The Irish Republican Army’s (IRA) military struggle was for a long time a part of the party’s political agenda. This strategy has been described as to have a ballot paper in one hand and an Armalite in the other, and successfully made Sinn Féin one of the province’s largest political parties. I have examined the time period from 1989 to present time. My concept of legitimacy is based on a theory by the political scientist Mikael Axberg, who describes legitimacy to be a concept that contains three different parts: a legal, a democratic and a sociological perspective. Methodically this essay is both a qualitative and quantitative study. </p><p>The main question of the essay is:”Can Sinn Féin be considered to be a political party of a legitimate foundation in the eyes of the citizens?”. In order to examine this question I have used three sub questions:</p><p>1) Is Sinn Féin, from a legal understanding of legitimacy, a legitimate party?</p><p>2) Is Sinn Féin, from a democratic understanding of legitimacy, a legitimate party?</p><p>3) Is Sinn Féin, from a sociological understanding of legitimacy, a legitimate party?</p><p>Of course this is not the only way to understand legitimacy and approach this problem, but it is the way I find most useful in order to answer the question. The sub questions have a wide range and include three different perspectives, which provides a good foundation for answering the main question of the essay.</p><p>The essay comes to the conclusion that Sinn Féin is a legitimate party in the eyes of the citizens, if the polarisation of the society is considered. Catholic and protestant citizens have very different views on the legitimacy of Sinn Féin. The essay concludes that if a society is as polarised as Northern Ireland, that has to be taken into account when questions of legitimacy are examined.</p><p> </p>

Friends benefit both our psychological and our emotional well-being by increasing overall happiness, life satisfaction, and a positive sense of self among women. Often, however, friendships decrease in the later years. The purpose of this study is to learn more about divorced or widowed, retired women and their friendships, specifically, whether friendships changed from work to retirement. Friendships have been clearly identified by women as a significant component of retirement life. The importance of friendship increases with age, and friends have been found to buffer single women in particular from becoming isolated in retirement. The sample recruited for this study consisted of 20 single, career women who had been retired between five and ten years and who were not coresiding with another person. This study utilized in-depth, qualitative interviewing to enable participants to define themselves and their experiences. Overall, it appeared as though these women were very satisfied with retirement and considered it to be a positive experience. Even though workplace friendships had gradually been lost since retirement, this loss was considered normal and former coworkers were considered to be on different paths from the retirees. Workplace friends were often not whom the women felt closest to or socialized with preretirement; consequently this gradual drifting and loss of workplace friendships was not considered problematic. The women overall were making new friends. Various types of discord among friends were also reported. Discord had negative affects but did not necessarily cause dissolution of the friendship. Betrayal was often an incentive to immediately end a friendship; however, betrayal was uncommon. Friends played a major role in these women's lives. The emotional aspects of the women's friendships were reported to be most important. Friends helped these women feel valued and provided a substantial amount of support to one another. The findings of this study should assure those divorced or widowed women who may be nearing retirement that the adjustment to retirement need not be difficult, especially if one has supportive friends. / Graduation date: 2003

Long-haul truck drivers are absent from their families for prolonged periods of time. This paper examines the methods trucking families use to remain connected given such absences. Interviews with ten women married to long-haul truck drivers underwent qualitative analysis. Initially, personal profiles were developed to illustrate life experiences of the women. While the trucking industry set the context, the families decided how to cope with the lifestyle. Patterns of coping strategies developed by the families were described by the women. Coping strategies did not result from the efforts of one individual. All family members contributed to it in a dynamic process. One instrumental source of support was the driver's trucking company. Support systems instrumental in helping families utilize coping mechanisms were identified. Women used ambivalent thought to resolve negative emotions. In addition, an environmental analysis that compared the homes of the women and the homes of non-truckers was conducted to determine whether trucking women's homes reflected their lifestyle and attitudes toward their husband's absence. The trucking family engages in an atypical lifestyle, yet their issues are similar to those experienced by families whose husbands and fathers are home every night. Trucking families continually seek to find methods that allow them to think of themselves as normative. / Graduation date: 1999

This ethnographic study describes the patterns of decorating in the study rooms of university sorority women. The primary method of data were collection was by means of interviews with sorority members. Observations and photographs of the study rooms of these members supplemented the interviews and provided validation for categorization purposes. A large body of research exists related to the effects and implications of sorority membership. Because much of this research is quantitative, it does not allow for the descriptive type data collected in the context of the culture which may be utilized in a qualitative study. The purpose of the present study was to document the decorating patterns of the informants and to identify cultural values and expressions of individual identity in the decoration of their living spaces. This study contributes to existing research on college student decorating patterns by relating the items used for decorations to cultural and individual values. In addition, it provides a detailed description of how the space in the study rooms is utilized. The data are also evaluated based on demographic information gathered. The results of this study indicated that the members of Alpha Beta sorority expressed certain cultural values by using similar items to decorate their rooms and by exhibiting common ways of using their living space. One of the values expressed by the members in their decorating was that of comfort, both physical and mental. Comfort was demonstrated in conditions such as the degree of tidiness of the room, the color scheme, the photos on display or the level of self expression available to the individual. Examples of identity expression were also evident in these study rooms. Items indicating personal accomplishments, items from personal collections and objects used for hobbies were found in many rooms. Conclusions drawn from this study were first, that the desire to decorate was nearly universal among the members of Alpha Beta sorority. Second, the desire for self expression seemed to be a significant motivation for decorating, although there was evidence of some peer pressure as well. Third, decorating generally, and decorating using a theme, appeared to be a behavior members embraced more readily over time. Interactions over time allowed for the cultural values related to decorating the study room to be acquired. This process is facilitated by the significance of the social network within the sorority culture. This study contributes to an understanding of how cultural and personal values are expressed in the study rooms of sorority women, and by extension, the values that could be expected in other interior environments. / Graduation date: 1999

Ideals of freedom, independence, and land ownership helped form and perpetuate the mythology of ranching in the United States. However, stereotypes emerged as a result of distortion from the media and the move away from the land. Social philosophies changed regarding the environment, land use, and the health and safety of the food supply in the late 20th century. In relation to the mythology, stereotype, and social theory regarding the ranching culture, this research seeks to clarify the fundamental principles, business philosophy, lifestyle, and values of men and women raising beef as a food product on both public and private lands in the 1990's. The mythology surrounding ranchers and cowboys are the result of three historical periods in the United States; however, the last 100 years have had the most profound effect in developing stereotypes. In this survey, 42 ranchers in Lake County, Oregon and Modoc County, California describe the challenges, satisfactions, and the partnership with Nature that is part of their livelihood in the harsh, high desert environment of eastern Oregon and northeastern California. The low ratio of private ground in these counties creates a dependency on use of public lands for grazing. This use if often stereotyped as "welfare ranching," without computation for other variables that make it comparable with private leasing. Historically, the Taylor Grazing Act authorizes fee grazing between ranchers and the U.S. government, but current philosophy has shifted its view of free enterprise on public lands, terming it "resource extraction." Although ranching is high in risk and low in economic return, ranchers stay in the business because they value freedom, hard work, family cohesiveness, and the interaction with Nature and the land. The future of ranching is challenged by environmental policy, government agency relations, public opinion, the high cost of land and production, and a lack of unity in the beef industry. To survive, ranchers need to unify, sharpen communication skills, provide education about ranching practices to the public, and become service-oriented as an organization to change stereotype and meet the social criteria of the next century. / Graduation date: 1998

Families of remarriage constitute a growing number of American families. The spiraling divorce rate of the 1970s was accompanied by a concomitant increase in the number of remarriages. Forty percent of American families today contain at least one spouse that has been previously married, thus studying relationships within families of remarriage is crucial to understanding the experiences of both children and adults in American families. This study uses a life-span perspective to examine the qualitative accounts of 62 women 43 of whom divorced, spent some time as a single parent of at least one child, and remarried and 19 of whom had divorced and did not remarry. Some of those women also had a remarriage end in divorce. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis techniques were used to both explore relationships within families of remarriage, and differences between those women that remarried and those who remained single parents. Quantitative analyses revealed that women who did not remarry were better educated and had more conflict with their former spouse over time. Women who were younger when they became a single parent for the first time, had more children, had jobs rather than careers, and had less education reported more marriages overall. Qualitative analyses showed that particular problem areas in families of remarriage centered around the adjustment period between the children and the new partner, finances, and communication. Remarriages that failed were characterized by problematic relationships between children and their mother's partner. As this was predominantly a white, middle-class sample, generalizations to other populations should be made with caution. Directions for future research are discussed. / Graduation date: 1994

<p>The overall aim of the study was to determine the opportunities and challenges NGOs encounter when using sport as a vehicle for development within the education system, in post-apartheid South Africa. A case study design has been chosen since it will offer real insight, showing how specific sports programmes work in specific contexts. Two NGOs, Grassroot Soccer (GRS) and the Extra-Mural Education Project (EMEP) constitute the cases, with an in-depth exploration of their work and the challenges they face. The study population includes employees of GRS, EMEP, target groups of the organisations and officials in the Department of Education. Key informants, including the head of research, managing directors, coaching/training staff at each organisation, officials in the Department of Education and community leaders were purposively selected to participate in the study. Data was collected by means of in-depth interviews, document reviews and observations. In-depth interviews were conducted with the head of research, managing directors, coaching and training staff at each organisation, principals and teachers of selected schools and community leaders. The analysis of the interviews started with the transcription of information from audio-tape recordings. Both pre-determined and emerging themes were noted. The results illustrated that although certain challenges were common to both organisations, others are unique.</p>