Att vara ung kvinnlig chef är ett outforskat område som behöver belysas. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka vad det innebär att arbeta som offentligt anställd ung kvinnlig chef. Urvalet bestod av fyra unga kvinnliga chefer verksamma inom en stor kommun i Sverige. Med en etnografisk metodansats utfördes åtta deltagande observationer inklusive en fokusgruppsintervju. Resultatet påvisade att cheferna ansåg att faktorer som ålder och kön inte spelade roll när det gällde ledarskap. Trots detta uppfattades en känsla av ambivalens i synen på betydelsen av sin ålder och kön genom att man gjorde skillnad på sina medarbetares ålder och kön. Då ansåg cheferna att yngre, äldre, manliga och kvinnliga medarbetare behövde olika bemötanden. För att förstå studiens resultat i sin helhet användes teorier med inspiration från Charon och den symboliska interaktionismen som betonar att vi blir till i den sociala interaktionen med andra. Systemteori användes även för att synliggöra hur cheferna påverkas och påverkar den samhälleliga bilden av chefsrollen. / Being a young female manager is an unexplored area that needs to be highlighted. This study therefore aims to explore what it means to work as a young female public servant manager. The sample consisted of four young female managers in a large municipality in Sweden. With an ethnographic research approach, eight participating observations including a focus group interview was performed. The result showed that the managers felt that factors such as age and gender did not play a role in their leadership. Despite this, we perceived a sense of ambivalence in the view of the importance of age and gender by making a difference in their employees’ age and gender. The managers considered that younger, older, male and female employees were needed different treatment. To understand the result of the study in its entirety, theories inspired by Charon and symbolic interactionism was used which emphasizes that we become us by the social interaction with others. Systems theory was also used to show how the managers are affected and also affecting the society’s image of the general management role.

The struggles with patriarchy in the marriages of highly educated married black women are not clearly defined by research, leading to generalisations that all women experience, interpret and resist patriarchy in a uniform way. Written from an African feminist and symbolic interactionist perspective this qualitative study sought to investigate the cognitive processes of highly educated married black women that develop from their lived experiences, interpretations and resistance with regard to patriarchy in their marriages. Data were collected through (auto)biographical narrative essays, semi-structured interviews and observations and analysed using thematic data analysis. The findings indicate that highly educated married black women experience, interpret and resist patriarchy in diverse ways, highlighting three clusters of these women – the liberal, the conformist and the secretive. Their self-concept and identity are more likely to be shaped by their social experiences and interactions with their husbands and the extended family than interactions in their professions. / Sociology / M.A. (Sociology)

abstract: The purpose of this study was to answer the following question, How does one's conceptualizations of misbehavior account for the way classroom misbehavior is constructed, interpreted, and negotiated between teachers and students? The literature on school disciplinary inequities from 2000 to 2010 was systematically reviewed. Utilizing qualitative research methods, this study drew insights from sociocultural theory and symbolic interactionism to investigate discipline inequities in moment-to-moment interactions between students and teachers during classroom conflicts. Fieldwork lasted approximately one school year and involved five male students and their two respective teachers. Data collection procedures included surveys, face to face and stimulated recall interviews, and direct and video observations. Findings revealed misbehavior is a ubiquitous notion in classroom everyday life; it is also malleable and dependent on contextual factors. In addition, classroom disciplinary moments between teachers and students are greatly influenced by intra and interpersonal factors. The situated intricacies and sophistication of teachers' and students' interpretations of negotiated classroom disciplinary moments are also reported. This study also sheds new insights into the situated nature of misbehavior as it arises from teachers' and students' sense making of classroom disciplinary moments and the findings have implications for teachers, school administrators, policy makers, students, and parents/guardians. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2014

O contexto social de pobreza exige práticas efetivas para a garantia de qualidade e segurança alimentar de crianças, entre elas a amamentação. No entanto, os índices de aleitamento materno entre populações de baixa renda não se mostra promissor, indicando a necessidade de se conhecer como se dá o processo de prática do aleitamento materno em comunidades que vivenciam a pobreza. Este estudo teve os objetivos: Compreender o significado de amamentar e como se desenvolve a prática de amamentação da mulher moradora da Comunidade Mangabeira, próxima ao aterro sanitário da cidade de Arapiraca-Alagoas. Adotou-se o método qualitativo, tendo como referencial teórico o Interacionismo Simbólico, Modelo Pesando Riscos e Benefícios; a estratégia do DSC para organização dos dados. Foram coletados dados quantitativos para caracterização biológica e social da mulher e sobre a prática de amamentação, que ampliaram, de forma descritiva, o entendimento da experiência de amamentação das 35 mulheres participantes do estudo, residentes na comunidade, que sobrevivem da catação de material reciclado e que tinham tido a experiência de amamentar pelo menos um de seus filhos. Os resultados mostram que elas têm baixa escolaridade e renda não superior a dois salários mínimos, a média de idade é 36,2 anos, com taxa de fecundidade de 4,2 filhos por mulher. Apenas 58,3% das mulheres referem ter amamentado exclusivamente seus filhos e a mediana de AM é 22,3 meses, sendo maior que a mediana para os estados do Nordeste. Com base nos dados qualitativos, emergiram três temas explicativos da experiência de amamentar: Determinada a amamentar: do saber à necessidade; Prática de amamentar: cuidado familiar e coletivo; Fragilidades na valorização da amamentação. A amamentação é utilizada como recurso contra a fome do recém-nascido, pois dificilmente as mulheres conseguem adquirir alimentos de outras fontes, mas ao mesmo tempo o aleitamento materno mostra uma prática frágil do pondo de vista das escolhas dessas mulheres, podendo ser substituído por outro alimento quando é possível obtê-lo. Essa prática está sujeita à condição e disponibilidade física e emocional da mulher para amamentar, apesar de reconhecida a sua importância para suprir a necessidade da criança. Não sendo valorizada pela sua importância em si, a amamentação é vista como uma experiência normal, previsível e habitual, a ser incorporada no seu cotidiano enquanto for possível ou necessária. O significado da amamentação para essas mulheres mostra-se como sendo uma experiência nem boa, nem ruim, mas apenas normal. Considerações finais: Além de medidas sociais de distribuição de benefícios para as famílias carentes, urge o acompanhamento de mães e lactentes dessas famílias, para garantir a valorização e oportunidade do AME e práticas que favoreçam a segurança alimentar de crianças e adultos que vivem em situações de extrema pobreza como as aqui retratadas. / The social context of poverty demands effective practices to assure nutritional quality and safety for children, including breastfeeding. Nevertheless, breastfeeding rates in low-income populations are far from promising, pointing at a need to identify how breastfeeding is carried out in poor communities. The objectives of the present study were: to understand the meaning of breastfeeding and how it takes place among the women living in the Mangabeira Community, located near the municipal sanitary landfill of Arapiraca, Alagoas state, Brazil. The qualitative method was used, with Symbolic Interactionism and the Weighing Risks and Benefits Model as the theoretical frameworks; and the Corporate Sustainable Development strategy was used to organize the data. Quantitative data were collected for the biological and social characterization of the women and of the breastfeeding practice. Through a descriptive approach, this analysis improved the understanding of the breastfeeding experience of the 35 study subjects. The participants were women living in the referred community, who survive by collecting recyclable material, and who had breastfed at least one of their children. The results reveal that the women have a low education level, income of two minimum salaries or less, mean age of 36.2, and a fecundity rate of 4.2 children per woman. Only 58.3% of the women reported having exclusively breastfed their children, and the breastfeeding median was 22.3 months, i.e., higher than that of Brazilian Northeastern States. Based on the qualitative data, three explanatory themes emerged from the breastfeeding experience: Determined to breastfeed: from knowing to needing; The breastfeeding practice: family and collective care; Weaknesses in valuing breastfeeding. Breastfeeding is used as a resource against the newborns hunger, as the women face difficulties to obtain food from any other sources. Breastfeeding is also noticed as a fragile practice from the standpoint of the womens choices, as it can be replaced when other alternatives are available, and is subject to the womans physical and emotional conditions, regardless it being acknowledged as important in meeting the childs needs. Because the importance of breastfeeding is undervalued, it is seen as a common, predictable and habitual experience, which is incorporated in ones everyday life whenever possible or needed. The meaning of breastfeeding to these women is revealed as being a merely common experience, one that is neither good nor bad. Conclusions: In addition to the social measures to provide benefits for poor families, there is an urgent need to follow the mothers and breastfeeding women of these families, so as to assure the valorization and opportunity of exclusive breastfeeding and the practices that favor the nutritional safety of children and adults living in extreme poverty, as those described herein.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:30:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Bruno Felix von Borell de Araujo.pdf: 5387313 bytes, checksum: 5efd83e0ed804d085ba283e5635406b5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-12-20 / Fundo Mackenzie de Pesquisa / The objective of this study was to understand how social meanings of dignity are built in the relationship between a local community and the companies placed in its geographic area. This is a qualitative research developed by the Constructivist Grounded Theory method. The study, that is exploratory-descriptive, is based the interpretative paradigm of social research. The theoretical perspective that guided the study was the Structural Symbolic Interactionism. The local community chosen for this study was the city of Litoral (fictitious name), located in the state of Espirito Santo. In this town, there are two large companies whose relationship with the community of Litoral has been the object of the present study. We built a substantive theory from 24 interviews with 20 residents, internet content, participant observation,photographic records, official literature of the city and the companies studied and notes in a field diary. The results suggest that the meanings of dignity in the relationship among the informed social actors are built by community members according to how they interpret and evaluate the care present in the conducts of companies towards objects of dignity. In this evaluation process, the community takes into account the interpretation that they make about the benefits and the intentions that underlie the conduct of the companies. This judgement is based on the expectations that the members of the community have about how that relationship should be, what may vary according to the tangibility of the firm in question and the timing of such a judgment. This process of construction of meanings takes place in a space of interactions between people and individuals ans objects. Suggestions for future research and practice are provided. / O objetivo do estudo foi o de compreender como são socialmente construídos os significados de dignidade no âmbito da relação entre uma comunidade de local e as empresas situadas em sua imediação geográfica. Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa desenvolvida pelo método da Grounded Theory Construtivista. O estudo, de natureza exploratório-descritiva, se encontra alicerçado no paradigma interpretativo de pesquisa social. A perspectiva teórica que orientou a realização do estudo foi a do Interacionismo Simbólico Estrutural. A comunidade de local escolhida foi a da cidade de Litoral (nome fictício), situada no estado do Espírito Santo. Nessa cidade,encontram-se duas empresas de grande porte cuja relação com a comunidade de Litoral foi objeto do presente estudo. A partir de 24 entrevistas com 20 moradores, conteúdos da internet, observações participantes, registros fotográficos, literatura oficial sobre a cidade e as empresas em questão e anotações no diário de campo foi construída uma teoria substantiva visando o alcance do objetivo determinado. Os resultados sugerem que os significados de dignidade no âmbito da relação entre os atores sociais de interesse nessa pesquisa são construídos pela comunidade de acordo com a forma como seus membros interpretam e avaliam o zelo presente nas condutas empresariais frente a objetos de dignidade. Nesse processo de avaliação, os membros da comunidade levam em consideração sua interpretação a respeito dos benefícios que as condutas empresariais trazem para eles e as intenções que subjazem às ações das organizações. Esse julgamento é baseado nas expectativas que os membros da comunidade possuem a respeito de como deve ser essa relação, o que pode variar de acordo com a tangibilidade da empresa em questão e o momento em que tal julgamento é realizado. Esse processo de construção de significados ocorre em um espaço de interações entre pesssoas e entre indivíduos e objetos. Sugestões para pesquisas futuras e para a prática são apresentadas.

The general purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate how individuals today, in a societywhere people spend more and more time on social media, create and alter their identity throughimages. The study is focused on Instagram, the most widespread social media only focused onphotos. The study is based on a postmodern perspective and focuses on symbolic interactionism,identity capital and psychological self. The empirical data was collected through semi-structuredinterviews with fifteen Instagram users, most of who are from the Stockholm, Sweden region. Thestudy was influenced by the Grounded Theory method where emergent themes describing howindividuals alter and create their identity through images were deduced from the interviews. Thesethemes were: showing a nuanced image of themselves, images as a means of conveying identity forrecognition, imagification as personal branding tool and reflexive social interaction.The findings suggest that individuals show only a selected, a nuanced, part of their identity onInstagram and Instagram gives a greater freedom to express what people want to express as theiridentity and their self. By using photos in social media individuals are not as limited as they wouldotherwise be in the real world in terms of how they want to market their identity. But there is also afrustration among many users of Instagram and other social media as many feel that the nuancedand perfected image that many people convey is fake and annoying to see and this could thus havea negative impact on that person’s personal brand. Images were seen to be more efficient than textfor the purpose of personal branding and it also appeared that identity creation through imagescould create a more expressive society.

Pupils from a low SES differ in their development within the same school context. It is argued that the mechanisms through which education and the school environment as a whole can contribute to the successful development of children from a low SES should be identified and mapped. Therefore a focus on the mechanisms that lead to children with a low SES succeeding, in addition to discussing the reasons for these children not succeeding is proposed. The present research is drawn upon bio-ecological and symbolic interactionist theories of human development in an effort to understand resilience as involving person-context transactions. Specifically, the resilience of adolescents in the school context is studied as a joint function of personal characteristics and social contextual affordances that either promote or thwart the development of person-level, resilient-enhancing characteristics. The study employed inductive as well as deductive methods for knowledge development. Firstly, the concept of “resilience” was defined and operationalized in a Resilience Questionnaire (VVL). This questionnaire was validated on 399 middle-adolescents from five Educational Opportunity Schools in the Netherlands. Secondly, the inductive “Grounded Theory” method was followed with 21 middle-adolescents from three of the five Educational Opportunity Schools. In answer to the main question “How does the school environment contribute to the resilience of middle-adolescent students?”, the school environment can contribute to resilience through facilitating safety and good education. Resilient and Not-Resilient middle-adolescents differ in their dependence on the school environment for their access to these resilience-enhancing circumstances and factors. In relation to the first sub question, “What are resilient middle-adolescents’ perceptions of the contribution of the school environment to their resilience?”, the school environment contributes to the resilience of resilient middle-adolescents by challenging them (e.g with high expectations) and by offering opportunities to create constructive relationships with adults and fellow students in the school environment (e.g through informal conversations and through keeping order in the classroom). In answer to the second and third sub questions, “What are the perceptions of not-resilient middle-adolescents of the contribution of the school environment to their state of resilience?” and “How can the comparison between these two perceptions be explained?”, Not-Resilient middle-adolescents identify and utilise the services and potentially protective factors in the school enviroment less of their own accord than Resilient middle-adolescents do. The school environment can contribute to the resilience of Not-Resilient middle-adolescents by facilitating an overview, insight and positive future expectations in a very direct, controlling manner: An overview over risks for one’s own development and the presence of potential resources to assist one’s own development; insight into his or her own abilities to deal with possible risks; and positive future expectations on the improvement of a situation after a problem or risk has occurred. In summary, the daily situations in the school environment offer enough tools to contribute to the resilience of resilient and not-resilient middle-adolescents. These should, however, be recognised by both the middle-adolescent and the adults in the school environment as opportunities for development, which should subsequently be grasped in order to learn to deal with these challenges constructively. / Thesis (PhD (Learning Supoort, Guidance and Counselling))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Educational Psychology / PhD / unrestricted

Deinstitutionalization has had an impact increasing the number of offenders with mental health problems within the correctional system. Furthermore, preliminary research claims that offenders with mental health problems are disproportionately denied when applying for parole. The reasons for this are not well understood. This exploratory qualitative research draws on 48 decisions from the Parole Board of Canada decision registry, four interviews with former parole board members, and observation data from 17 parole hearings to explore how mental health problems are constructed within the conditional release decision-making process. Against a risk logic back drop, this institutional ethnography analyzes the way parole board members understand and operationalize mental health within the decision-making process. Self-regulation, medication compliance, and the role of the expert were strong themes that emerged through a content analysis. By integrating symbolic interactionism and a governmentality framework, the current study explores how mental health in parole decision-making is influenced by individual, organizational, and macro-level risk rationalities that draw on neoliberal responsibilization strategies and "psy" expertise. The findings are presented within Hawkin’s (2002) legal decision-making framework. Policy and human rights implications are discussed.

In this study the aim was to describe and understand how meanings emerge from the context in which the food practices of the peoples of Mmotla were construed. South African society is multi-cultural and black South Africans, upon contact with Western-oriented societies, seem to have gradually or partially adopted the Western lifestyle including eating patterns, leading to changing traditional food practices that can be mostly attributed to the effect of acculturation, urbanisation and modernisation processes. The current knowledge base of food practices of the South African population as a whole is fragmentary, with limited information on what some sectors of certain population groups eat. Inadequate attention is paid to the reasons why specific food items are chosen or excluded. To facilitate meaningful consumer education and to recommend sound nutrition interventions, a thorough understanding of why as well as what South Africans eat is urgently needed. Moreover, cognisance should be taken of the factors that contribute to the development of typical food practices within specific communities. As confirmed in various studies in other countries, the reasons for human food choices require an appreciation of the fact that food practices are embedded in the food choice processes which, in turn are guided by numerous interrelated and interdependent factors that are context-specific. A holistic and contextual approach with knowledge of the socio-cultural, psychological, historical and demographic factors that contribute to food practices should be uncovered when attempting to understand and describe these practices and their underlying meanings. The human ecological perspective, as overarching theoretical perspective, is supported by cultural and symbolic interactionism perspectives and other theoretical models, and combined with a qualitative research design to uncover, describe and interpret all the environmental levels, the physical, politico-economic, socio-cultural and the micro-world of the individual, and their embedded factors. Data was obtained from focus group discussions and interviews, supported by participant observation and unobtrusive measures. Purposive sampling was used to select female participants for the focus groups and theoretical sampling for the individual interviews. Gathered data was systematically analysed according to the grounded theory approach throughout the data collection phase. From the findings it became apparent that the food practices of the peoples in Mmotla continue to develop and change. A distinct move towards the modern Western-oriented food practices emerged. Although acculturation of food practices was evident, traditional food practices were not discarded, and both traditional and modern food practices were embraced and regarded as important. Meanings linked to the socio-cultural and socio-psychological environments were used to define the context in which food items were used as symbols, signs or codes to define a specific situation and/or communicate the associated meanings. This resulted in dynamic movement between the two poles, the modern and the traditional, depending on the context. Thus the acculturation response is consequently seen to be fluid, context-specific and driven by various interacting factors from the different environmental levels. This valuable and noteworthy contribution augments existing theories and models on food choice within the South African context. Copyright / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Consumer Science / unrestricted

English Abstract To have a job is important for many reasons. It enables the individual to be able to support themself and make a living, and it provides an important part of one’s identity and a sense of belonging to a community. This is a literature review focusing on deaf people in work environments, with an aim to study the challenges deaf people face in hearing-norm work environments because of linguistic and cultural differences, and also which factors that can facilitate positive interactions between deaf and hearing people in the hearing-norm workplace. The aim of the study is to describe the psychosocial experience of being the only deaf person a in hearing-norm workplace, and what challenges and possibilities the individual may face. Theme analysis is used for the analysis method in the study. Themes in the study are Labor market, communication, experiences of the deaf, attitudes, responsibility and actions. Stigma and symbolic interactionism are used as theorical perspectives to analyze the material. The result shows that communication is a recurring theme through all the (studies?). The problems and the challenges in interactions between deaf and hearing individuals are related to communication. The exclusion deaf people experience is partly created by ”corridor talk”, informal interaction outside of the ordinary work where important social networks and contacts are created. The interventions necessary to solve the problem are increasing knowledge and changing attitudes.