<p> In recent years the video game community has undergone a drastic transformation. What began as a communal pastime for programmers in federally-funded research laboratories during the late 1950s and 1960s has erupted into a multi-billion dollar industry enjoyed by millions of Americans. Reflecting this transformation, social scientists from a wide variety of fields have begun to explore video games' social significance. Sadly, so far very little work has examined video games from a sociological viewpoint. In this work I attempt to remedy this serious omission by adopting a cultural sociology framework to study video games' social meanings in three different mediated spaces, including <i>The New York Times,</i> the popular video game media outlet <i>Kotaku,</i> and the internet discussion forum NeoGAF. Consistent with recent work on entertainment commentary's capacity to function as an aesthetic public sphere, my analysis demonstrates that discussions occurring in all three spaces address broader sociopolitical concerns. However, the frequency in which these spaces engage in sociopolitical discussions, the type of topics they address, and the manner in which they do so vary. Consequently, my work adds new insight to the literature by highlighting how aesthetic public spheres are not isomorphic, but instead assume a variety of forms. Moreover, my work demonstrates how the particular type of aesthetic public sphere that an entertainment public facilitates is influenced by that entertainment public's position in civil society, the specific meaning the space attaches to the entertainment form under discussion, and civil society's overarching cultural structure. In this sense, my work strengthens the literature's understanding of entertainment's role in civil society by revealing the multiple forms entertainment commentary can assume and the sociological factors that influence the shape of these discourses.</p>

Ce travail en sciences sociales presente la theorie generale du sujet proposee par le Professeur Goux. Il s'agit de la theorie de l'equivalent general des echanges, c'est-a-dire de la fonction symbolique universelle et alienante---theorie que Goux a recemment completee grace a une interpretation nouvelle du mythe d'OEdipe. Selon cette theorie, il y aurait toujours dans l'histoire une forme de conscience dominante a un moment donne du proces logico-historique de la meditation universelle. L'histoire de la symbolisation presenterait ainsi trois grands types de sujet: (1) le sujet symboliste "aspectiviste" archaique; (2) le sujet realiste "perspectiviste" moderne; (3) le sujet operatif "transpectiviste" contemporain (ou "signe").

In this paper I focus on the arguments made by some feminist writers against the disclosure of biographical information concerning the donor to children conceived through the use of donor insemination. In particular I concentrate on the effects of disclosure in terms of its personal effects on women of certain groups in less conventional family relationships, and on its implications with respect to ideas of the importance of social environment to personal development. An important aspect of this discussion is an examination of different notions of identity. I try to articulate a notion of identity which may be reconciled with ideas of social construction, important to feminists.

<p> In contemporary American society, the nonprofit board is accountable for ensuring that an organization has sufficient resources to carry out its mission. Filling the gap between demands for services and the resources to meet them is often a struggle for small, local nonprofit organizations. This hermeneutic phenomenological study examined how board members of small, local nonprofits in the focal community perceive organizational effectiveness. Understanding the nature of nonprofit organization effectiveness according to board members contributes to understanding how those accountable meet their organizational objectives. A review of the literature revealed that nonprofit effectiveness involves the action of contributing and the motivation behind the action, both of which are associated with trust and reciprocity. Guided by social constructivism, this study employed a qualitative analysis of repeated iterations of semiotic data from board members (<i>n</i> = 30) and text analysis of organizational mission statements (<i>n</i> = 21), generating thick descriptions of the board members' understanding of effectiveness. Findings were derived from successive coding iterations starting with the raw data, through locating text related to specific codes, to verifying relationships among codes, and incorporating researcher reflection. The analysis revealed that strategies focused on developing reciprocity and mitigating mistrust among board members contribute to board members' perceiving their organizations as effectively achieving their objectives. The study's findings support positive social change by informing social scientists and members of local nonprofit boards of the perceived gap between services demands and the resources to meet them among board members.</p>

<p> This study examines the legal barriers of those engaged in identity loan face when filing for workers' compensation. Farm workers are among the most marginalized groups of unauthorized migrants laborers. Those workers engaged in identity loan are further exploited because of their precarious employment status. Identity loan is a when a worker borrows another persons Social Security Number in order to be employed. When that individual is injured on the job they do not file a workers' compensation claim because fear of employer retaliation, exposure to the government and misinformation. Everyone in California has a right to workers' compensation no matter his or her legal or employment status. Workers' compensation attorneys were interviewed to understand the obstructions farm workers' using identity loan are up against when filing for workers' compensation. Proof of identity and misinformation are among the most substantial barriers to successfully filing a workers' compensation claim.</p>

<p> Post-abortion support groups are a new sub-movement or strategy of the broader anti-abortion movement that provide support to women who understand their prior abortions as problematic. These groups construct abortion as a form of trauma that causes post-abortion syndrome (PAS), a broad array of negative mental health and behavioral problems similar to post-traumatic stress disorder. Although these claims are not substantiated by empirical evidence, claims that abortion causes PAS are increasingly featured in the public domain to bolster national anti-abortion claims that abortion represents a public health issue. </p><p> A majority of PAS support groups are offered by crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) affiliated with one of two national pregnancy resource centers whose approach to healing from abortion reflects the increased presence and influence of evangelical women in the CPC movement. The increased presence of evangelical women in the CPC movement is reflected in the growing influence of conservative Christian beliefs in the support services offered by CPCs in general and PAS groups specifically. This research examined a PAS group in Mississippi sponsored by an evangelical CPC affiliated with Care Net, a national pregnancy resource center, to understand the motivations of women who participate in a PAS group, how PAS group participation shapes participants' understandings of abortion to conform to broader anti-abortion claims that abortion is a public health issue, and how PAS claims are diffused into the public domain. </p><p> To discern the relationship between PAS groups and broader anti-abortion claims, I analyze state and national media coverage of the 2011 Mississippi political campaign in which voters overwhelmingly defeated a constitutional amendment to pass a personhood amendment to confer legal status to the fetus. Together these analyses show how evangelical groups are working through legislative and individual-level processes to shape the abortion debate and climate in contemporary American society.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of History and Philosophy of Science, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Nov. 11, 2008). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-07, Section: A, page: 2974. Adviser: Elisabeth A. Lloyd.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, School of Education, 2005. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-08, Section: A, page: 3120. Adviser: Ginette Delandshere. Title from dissertation home page (viewed Oct. 9, 2006).

This thesis analyses the conditions of the James Bay Cree using the Dependency Theory. The first chapter consists of a discussion surrounding the theory. This is followed by a look at how the Cree became a periphery through the years. The third chapter highlights the effects of dependency on the mental and physical health of First Nations Citizens across the country. The James Bay Hydroelectric Project is then given as an example of how the centre exploits the peripheries. Finally the possible solutions to the problem of dependency are discussed in the conclusion.

Identification d'un probleme de depart. Le theme de l'autogestion ne semble plus etre actuellement au centre des grands debats politico-intellectuels comme conception alternative d'exercice et de redistribution du pouvoir politique et economique dans la societe. Pourquoi? Quel est le sens de cette aphasie? Objectif du projet. L'objectif general sera de mettre en lumiere l'evolution du discours autogestionnaire (theorique et politique) tel qu'il s'est defini en France a partir des annees 1960 jusqu'a aujourd'hui. Question generale. N'y a t-il pas dans l'evolution du discours autogestionnaire en France un basculement d'une reflexion portee a la question de l'economique et du social dans l'entreprise (democratie a la base, conseils ouvriers) vers une reflexion portant un interet au politique (democratie parlementaire, participation collective des formes contestatrices, multiplicite des groupes d'autonomies et mouvements sociaux)? Question principale. En quoi le discours autogestionnaire porte-t-il aujourd'hui une reflexion sur le politique qui est importante?