This study investigates some factors involved in the genesis of political deviance by regarding established values and norms as major sources of deviant behavior. Important kinds of political deviance in North American society are seen as emerging from a cleavage in perspective which originates in the different social backgrounds of elites and non-elite groups. 'Elites' are groups of individuals who hold positions at the apex of the various institutions, and who can appreciably influence the life chances of others. The term 'non-elite groups' refers to those groups of persons who have no such prerogative. Existing standards of behavior are taken as a point of departure by regarding them as alienating conditions from the viewpoint of some non-elite members of society. Such non-elite estrangement from existing values and norms may result in protest which, in a given circumstance, officialdom may define as deviant conduct. In order to dissolve the challenge which this deviance signifies to commonly accepted standards the authorities may react to it by the enacting and/or application of rules. The types of devices the authorities will apply to control the deviant conduct depend upon the conditions they perceive as motivating it. Two social conditions are here assumed to be frequent sources of alienation and, ultimately, deviance. One such condition has its origin in the man-work relationship and can be described in terms of the orthodox Marxian notion of alienation from work. Another condition refers to the total disenchantment of a group of individuals with established values and norms. These assumptions suggest the interrelation of the three major sociological concepts of alienation, deviance and social control in order to demonstrate that the phenomena represented by them manifest themselves in a temporal sequence that is integral to the process of becoming deviant. This theoretical outline guided the sociological interpretation of historical materials that encompass some of the activities engaged in by radical labor movements in North America during the post-World War I and II periods. Documents from Labor, business and government sources were introduced as the data. The study confirms an often-made assumption that political deviance and possibly other forms of deviance emanate from a cleavage in perspective that arises from the different social experiences common to elites and non-elite groups. Where such cleavage is appreciable, the authorities frequently perceive Labor's conduct as motivated by a Communist conspiracy that aims at the replacement of existing standards with the objectives of the "co-operative commonwealth". Where this cleavage is less pronounced, the authorities perceive some groups of individuals as disaffected from the work role. A comparison of the U.S. and Canadian perspectives of the events examined generally reveals only minor differences between the U.S. and Canadian Labor Movements. These differences are here regarded as resulting from the evolution of the North American Trade Union Movement itself. No important differences are found to exist between the perspectives of these incidents by the U.S. and Canadian authorities in the two historical periods examined. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

Au croisement de la sociologie des classes populaires et de la sociologie urbaine, cette recherche analyse les effets de la rénovation urbaine dans les cités HLM, à partir d’une monographie dans le grand ensemble des Minguettes (Vénissieux). Elle souligne d’abord que cette politique, qui s’inscrit dans la continuité d’une action publique préoccupée par la maîtrise du peuplement, utilise l’espace résidentiel comme levier de transformation sociale, étendant ainsi l’encadrement des classes populaires au « monde privé », d’ordinaire préservé des rapports de domination. En analysant les pratiques de logeurs et les trajectoires résidentielles des habitants, elle met au jour les conséquences des transformations de l’habitat et des nombreuses mobilités résidentielles suscitées par les démolitions-reconstructions. Parvenant à retenir sur place une minorité de ménages appartenant aux fractions stables des classes populaires, elles ne bouleversent cependant pas le caractère majoritairement populaire du peuplement et ont surtout pour effet d’accentuer la hiérarchisation interne et les logiques de différenciation au sein de l’espace local. Ce travail met enfin en évidence les manières – différenciées selon les profils et les trajectoires – dont ces transformations résidentielles affectent les styles de vie localement en vigueur : elles mettent à l’épreuve les équilibres domestiques, encourageant le repli sur la sphère privée, et affectent les rapports au quartier, marqués par une plus grande réserve et une mise à distance du voisinage. / This research, which lies at the intersection between the sociology of the working classes and urban sociology, analyses the effects of urban renewal in areas of social housing, taking as its starting point a monograph of the social-housing estate of Les Minguettes in Vénissieux, in the south-eastern suburbs of Lyon. It first underlines the fact that this public policy, which follows in the tradition of public action aimed at controlling settlement patterns, uses residential space as a lever for social transformation, thus extending control over the working classes to the “private realm”, a sphere ordinarily exempt from such power relations. By analysing the practices of landlords and the residential trajectories of inhabitants, it sheds light on the consequences of transforming housing and of the many different forms of residential mobility generated by demolition and rebuilding operations. While only a minority of households, from the most stable sections of the working classes, typically remain in such neighbourhoods, these operations do not, however, radically change the broadly working-class character of the population, and tend above all to result in an accentuation of the internal hierarchies and differentiation processes at play within the local space. Lastly, this work reveals the various ways – depending on individual profiles and trajectories – in which these residential transformations affect dominant lifestyles locally: they challenge household equilibrium, encouraging inward-looking attitudes that focus on the private sphere, and affect residents’ relations with the surrounding neighbourhood, which are marked by greater reserve and a tendency to distance themselves from neighbours.

Based on six-years ethnographic research, this thesis provides an in-depth account of a contemporary British drug market. The study follows a group of twenty-five friends, termed The Lads, during their transition from late-adolescence (16-22) through to early adulthood (22-28). This was a critical stage in their life course; it was a time when many had begun advancing into the world of work and business entrepreneurship, in search of their chosen career. Yet it was during this time that two key developments occurred: bulk volumes of illicit drugs became available to The Lads through credit and the UK experienced several years of economic recession and stagnation. The economic constraints The Lads encountered during this time prompted many to become involved in the trafficking of illegal drugs. Though their entry into the markets was not necessarily motivated out of absolute need or poverty, the experience of low-paying salaries, the loss of work and income, and the inability to secure legitimate investment capital, all made drug dealing an alluring source of untaxed revenue, available as and when needed. This study assesses the practices of this cohort of closed-market drug dealers, who capitalised on their expansive social networks as a means of trafficking a variety of illegal substances at the time of these two developments. During the course of the research their involvement came to span several stages of the supply chain, including: mid-level wholesale brokerage, import/export, wholesale, and retail (i.e. to the end-users). The study addresses various structural elements of their trade, including drug purchasing and selling, the assessment and mitigation of risks in relation to law enforcement, and the use of informal credit (i.e. ‘fronting’) as one of the principle facilitating factors of The Lads’ various trade networks. A variety of data collection methods were employed over many years to garner a depth of understanding and appreciation difficult to achieve in the study of active offenders. The data comprises of life narratives, observations, interview data and economic data. The findings offer some new insight into: the kinds of people who deal drugs; what characteristics they share; how they function as traders; what motivates them to either enter or exit the trade, and what social structures influence their offending careers?These young men were not the archetypal drug dealer: they were neither predatory nor territorial. They were ambitious and hard working. Drug dealing was simply a shortcut to the lifestyle they aspired to; it was a source of capital; a means of funding their studies; a ‘means to an end’. To these young men, drug dealing was just another form of work: a bad job that paid a good salary.

The forest products industry is a major part of British Columbia's economy, employing directly or indirectly about twenty percent of the province's workforce; and accounting for a significant percentage of the province's exports and government revenues. Historically, the industry has been characterized by highly centralized bargaining structures and formal pattern bargaining between the two regions, the Interior and the Coast, and between the two main industry sectors, pulp and paper and solid wood. Recent environmental changes however, have put considerable pressure on the current system. Because of these changes employers now desire less centralized structures and more local control over terms of the collective agreement. Pressures for decentralization have resulted from a combination of world wide trends and industry specific changes. The globalization of markets, increased volatility of currency exchange rates, and the increasing rate of technological change are examples of the former. Industry specific changes include the diversification of products and markets between regions and firms, and two major labour disputes in the 1980s. These changes however, have had little effect upon bargaining in the forest products industry. Some changes have occurred, but to date they have not been significant. Employers in the province's pulp and paper sector deaccredited their employer bargaining association in March 1985. Despite this change, bargaining in the last two rounds has been done jointly, as it has been done for the past four decades. The second change noted is the severing of ties between the Pulp Bureau and FIR, the Coastal solid wood employer association. Previously overseen by a common Chairman, these two bodies are now run independently to encourage the separation of bargaining outcomes in the two sectors. The final change of note is the role reversal between the pulp unions and the IWA. For many years it was the IWA who negotiated what would become the industry wide settlement. In the last two rounds of negotiations, however, the pulp unions have settled first. Despite what appear to be significant environmental changes, there has been relatively little change in bargaining in this industry. Clearly there are forces in the industry's industrial relations system that are preserving the status quo. Several organizational forces and one environmental force are identified which are preventing change in industry bargaining structures. Organizational forces include third party pressures (specifically threats of government intervention), industry tradition and past practice, and the unions' ability to resist unilateral changes in bargaining. The environmental force preventing employers from forcing change in industry bargaining structure is the economic health of product markets in the two sectors. Not until the pressures for change are great enough to overcome these inertial organizational forces will significant change occur in the bargaining structure and patterns of the B.C. forest products industry. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

The aim of this diploma thesis is an analytical comparison and deconstruction of views of social historians on labouring men. The object of my interest will be views of Czech and East German historians from the period of the socialist dictatorship, and the views of Czech and German historians from the period of post-socialism. Using the methods of poststructuralist approaches, I will place the comparison and deconstructions in the contextual analysis of ideological determinations. At the same time, I will pay special attention to the changes in the determinations and epistemological breaks, with the help of which I will analyze the changes in the position of workes's research in relation to science and society. Key words: labouring men, comparison, deconstruction, historiography, ideology, epistemological break, science, socialist dictatorship, post-socialism

Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur socionomstudenter med arbetarklassbakgrund upplevde universitetsmiljön och det sociala umgänget vid universitetet. För att svara på studiens syfte användes en kvalitativ metod, där åtta intervjuer genomfördes med socionomstudenter från tre olika universitet i Sverige. Studiens data analyserades med en kvalitativ innehållsanalys och med Pierre Bourdieus teorier om kapitalformer och habitus, samt Everett Stonequists begrepp ”the marginal man”. Studiens resultat visade att den första tiden präglades av spänning och oro för socionomstudenterna, då miljön var främmande för dem. Den visade också att det initialt var krävande för studenterna att socialt integreras med övriga studenter. Studien visade att efter en tid vid universitetet, blev studenterna mer bekväma i universitetsmiljön. De flesta hade assimilerats in i universitetsmiljön, det vill säga att studenterna accepterade de normer och förhållningssätt som råder vid universitetet, och kände en tillhörighet till andra socionomstudenter. Slutsatsen visade att de olika kapitalen studenterna hade med sig från uppväxten, hade betydelse för hur upplevelsen av universitetsmiljön blev. Det var framför allt den nya kulturen som var av ett annat slag än vad de var vana vid. Det visade också att ”the marginal man” uppstått hos socionomstudenter på grund av olika sociala kontexter. / The purpose of the study was to examine how social work students with a working-class background experienced the university environment and the social interaction at the university. To answer the purpose of the study, a qualitative method was used, where eight interviews were conducted with social work students from three different universities in Sweden. The data were analyzed with a qualitative content analysis and with Pierre Bourdieu's theories on capital and habitus, as well as Everett Stonequist's concept “the marginal man”. The results of the study showed that the first period at the university was characterized by excitement and anxiety for the social work students, since the environment was foreign to them. It also showed that it was initially demanding for the students to be socially integrated with other students. The study showed that after some time, the students became more comfortable in the university environment. Most had been assimilated into the university environment, which means the students accepted the norms and attitudes that prevailed at the university and felt a sense of belonging to other social work students. The conclusion was that the different forms of capitals had an impact on students’ experiences of the university environment. It primarily the university culture that was new to them. Belonging to different social contexts generated experiences related to “the marginal man” among social work students.

The romantic western, heterosexual couple´s love is a social and cultural construction, which has altered in significance and terms between different time periods, places and social or economic groups. The new, modernized ideal of “romantic love” has in earlier research been exclusively linked to the European bourgeois class during the 19th century and their economic and social progress. The modernizing processes in the Western society during this period has also been said to both form and be affected by the romantic ideal of love during the 19th century. Two of the most important processes of modernization in the western society at the time was the secularization and individualization of structures and lives. In this study I explore these modern values and their expressions through and within the romantic love concept typical for the 19th century, within a social and economic group that has not yet been explored in this context; the working class.       Through a collection of love letters written by two workers in Sweden during the 1890s I investigate expressions which contain a secular or individualized understanding of love and if and how these expressions differed from the modernity expressed in love letters within the upper-class pairs of the time. My purpose is thus to contribute with a more nuanced and representative account of the origin and practice of the modernized understanding of love, than earlier research has done. In my study I show that the working-class couple in fact seemed to inhabit a more modernized view of love then the contemporary couples from higher parts of society. This was expressed through a lack of Godly love and the absence of religious guilt or conflict related to the worldly love for another person in the letters. The working-class couple also expressed a more modernized understanding of love through a more intense and active need for reflexivity, reciprocity, and confirmation in the building of their relationship. Accept from the fact that this couple still placed God in charge of their future material happiness, the expressions of love within the working-class relationship which I have identified thereby shows a new standpoint to present research; modernization and the romantic love concept during the 19th century do in fact not seem to have been exclusively linked to the upper classes and their material wealth, family structure or gender roles.

Educational assessment is an ever-present component of any formal learning environment that has critical consequences for students.  Despite this relevance, there is a gap in knowledge regarding one of its foundations --namely, assessment fairness.  In particular, social class-based fairness of classroom assessment practices has been understudied at the higher education level.  We know little about how fairness is threatened due to class-related issues, and which strategies are deployed, by instructors and college students, to counter those threats.  Also, a gap in empirical knowledge exists regarding how working-class students resist those potentially unfair assessment practices. Therefore, the purpose of this multiple-case study was to explore how social class-based fairness was enacted in classroom assessment, and how working-class college students reacted when confronted with unfairness.  Data collection took place at two different Chilean universities: one affluent and one non-affluent university, in which I interviewed thirty faculty members and working-class students, and analyzed course syllabi, examples of assessment instruments, and examples of written feedback.  Guided by a conceptual framework formed by three bodies of theories and research (fairness in educational assessment, social reproduction in education, and student resistance), I conducted qualitative analyses that uncovered the findings of this study. I found that important threats to class-based fairness were present in all the phases of the assessment cycle (i.e., assessment construction, examination, grading, and provision of feedback), at both the affluent and the non-affluent institutions (although the threats were more prevalent in the former than in the latter).  At the same time, I found that instructors and students deployed a wide array of strategies in order to counter those threats, but their effectiveness varied.  However, some of the class-based threats to fairness did not have strategies countering them, leading me to conclude that unfair classroom assessment practices make higher education harder for working-class students than for their more affluent peers. Finally, I found that working-class students engaged in actions aimed to resist the classroom assessment practices that they perceived to be unfair. They exhibited conformity, conformist resistance, and transformational resistance, and engaged in both subtle and more disruptive forms of resistance.  Important differences between students in the affluent and the non-affluent universities emerged, regarding their perspectives, actions, and forms of resistance.  This study offers a number of strategies that faculty members could adopt to achieve fairer assessment, as well as an array of situations that constitute threats to class-based fairness and which they should avoid.  This study also highlights areas of training and reflection (such as provision of quality feedback and self-reflection on class privilege and ingrained stereotypes toward working-class students) that university administrators should include in faculty development initiatives.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyse how three books can be seen as a modern form of the Swedish working class literature tradition. The works are Linjen by Elise Karlsson, Tjänster i hemmet by Marie Hållander, and Cykelbudet by Anders Teglund. The first two books are fictional accounts of the precarious working conditions in contemporary Sweden, and the last book is a hybrid between novel and non-fiction. This thesis utilizies Marxist alienation theory, Bourdieu’s theory of capital and Guy Standing’s theory of the precariat. Furthermore, I relate the material to different defintions of working class literature. By analyzing the material with these theoretical concepts I establish that alienation is a common theme, that Bourdieu’s theory can explain the complex class positions of the main characters, and that all books depict precarious labor. The results show that the three books can be labeled as a modern form of working class literature, even though they differ from earlier forms of this tradition.

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