abstract: The thesis for this study is that structural racism within the U.S. criminal system causes Black mothers to assume the emotional work of caring for incarcerated sons. This project was designed using an interpretive approach that employed a combination of qualitative and auto-ethnographic methods, drawing on grounded theory principle. Six interviews were conducted with mothers in order to gain in-depth insight into their lived experiences. An auto-ethnographic method was used to analyze the author’s own personal experiences as a family member of the incarcerated in dialogue with the experiences of the broader research population. Studies on the key finding of the psycho-social impacts on mothers with incarcerated sons have explored the relationship between the mental depression of mothers and their son’s incarceration. They have found that financial challenges, dwindling social connections, lousy parenting evaluations, as well as the burden of care of the grandchildren of the incarcerated sons are some of the mediating factors of this relationship. A second key finding also showed that incarceration have had social-economic effects on the prisoner’s families. These families experience extreme financial hardship as a result of incarcerated loved ones. Another finding showed the unique coping strategies for mothers included assuming care taking responsibility, maintaining family relationships, and budget control. Finally, this study found that there are challenges to re-entry experienced by mothers with incarcerated sons when their released. Research findings and original contribution to scholarly knowledge uncovered that Black mothers of the incarcerated in addition to working the Second Shift, are experiencing the phenomena of what is coined to be the “Third Shift.” / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Social Justice and Human Rights 2019

The purpose of this essay is "How is time allocated in a family in between women and men who live in a relationship?" We conducted a qualitative interview study to answer the purpose of the study. The study was conducted based on semi-structured interviews with four couples consisting of a woman and a man living in a relationship. All couples live and work in Värmland and have at least one child living at home under 12 years of age. Three of the couples have children from previous relationships and two of them also have joint children, while the third couple is expecting their first newborn. The last couple has no children since previous relationships and two children in common. The results of our study indicate that even disposition of time in a family constellation requires that both the woman and the man have a consensus on how their joint time should be distributed. Structure, awareness, commitment and presence have been central to the couples in the study who have an even distribution of time and live equally. The couples have their own experiences of living in a relationship where time has not been evenly distributed and today strive together not to fall into stereotypical gender roles that contribute to an uneven distribution. What unites the couples who do not dispose of time evenly is characterized by gender norms and acts to some extent by traditional forms of action. The term third shift largely describes the basic aspects of how couples dispose of their time, the term aims to shed light on the time that is not perceived as measurable like the first and second shifts. One of our conclusions is that when the third shift is largely or completely attributed to one in the couple, the time is not divided evenly, this then only one is responsible for initiative and emotional presence.

Die aufsteigende Kleinterzrückung des tonalen Zentrums stellt eine im amerikanischen Musical mittlerweile geradezu klischeehafte Wendung zur Erzeugung erhöhter musikalisch-espressiver Intensität dar, die in ungezählten Songs zu beobachten ist. Um ihre spezifische Qualität musiktheoretisch darzustellen, wird im vorliegenden Aufsatz auf das u.a. von Jacques Handschin und Hermann Pfrogner entwickelte Modell der ›relativen Helligkeitswerte‹ der Töne einer diatonischen Skala je nach ihrer Position in der als Quintenkette vorgestellten Diatonik zurückgegriffen. Anhand dreier Beispiele – Leonard Bernsteins Tonight (West Side Story, 1957), Kurt Weills Speak low (One Touch of Venus, 1943) und Alan Menkens Out There (The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1996) – wird zudem untersucht, wie die Distanz der tonalen Zentren im Rahmen einer primär an diatonischen Verläufen orientierten Melodik im Einzelfall überbrückt wird. / In American musicals the shift of tonal center up by minor-third represents a downright cliché for heightening musical-expressive intensity that can be observed in countless songs. In order to illustrate the specific quality of this shift, the present article employs among other things the model of “relative brightness values” (relative Helligkeitswerte) developed by Jacques Handschin and Hermann Pfrogner, which describes the tones of a diatonic scale according to their position in a diatonic system understood as a chain of fifths. The examination of three examples—Leonard Bernstein’s “Tonight” (West Side Story, 1957), Kurt Weill’s “Speak low” (One Touch of Venus, 1943), and Alan Menken’s “Out There” (The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1996)—will reveal how, within melodies confined primarily to diatonic processes, the distance between tonal centers can at times be spanned.