Due to medical advances, there has been an increased number of burn survivors, thus creating a dire need for research on burn recovery. As 70% of burn-injured patients are male, it is especially important to examine how men understand healing from a burn injury. One way to explore this is by investigating men’s stories of healing because it is through and by the experiential space of narrative that individuals are provided with the tools to reflect on and find meaning from their experiences of burn injuries. This thesis examined narratives men constructed about healing from a burn injury. Adult men with 0.5 – 30% total body surface area burned were recruited for an in-depth semi-structured interview, two to fifty-two weeks post-injury. Narrative analysis of the transcripts revealed that men principally constructed a dominant narrative that involved wanting to return to a life that was “normal” as soon as possible. I argue that these stories are indicative of a restitution storyline, that is, they follow a plotline in which the men view themselves as being temporarily injured but soon recovered. I then explore how agency, or more specifically, how agentic behaviours facilitate these narratives about men returning to their pre-injury selves. Men also constructed narratives about boredom, grief and regrets at the same time as the restitution narratives. These narratives indicated distress because they were counter to the stories that the men wanted to construct. The discussion contextualizes the men’s restitution narratives in terms of masculine socialization, and considers the role of agency in informing narrative plotlines. Lastly, recommendations to health care providers who treat men that have survived a burn injury are provided.

Due to medical advances, there has been an increased number of burn survivors, thus creating a dire need for research on burn recovery. As 70% of burn-injured patients are male, it is especially important to examine how men understand healing from a burn injury. One way to explore this is by investigating men’s stories of healing because it is through and by the experiential space of narrative that individuals are provided with the tools to reflect on and find meaning from their experiences of burn injuries. This thesis examined narratives men constructed about healing from a burn injury. Adult men with 0.5 – 30% total body surface area burned were recruited for an in-depth semi-structured interview, two to fifty-two weeks post-injury. Narrative analysis of the transcripts revealed that men principally constructed a dominant narrative that involved wanting to return to a life that was “normal” as soon as possible. I argue that these stories are indicative of a restitution storyline, that is, they follow a plotline in which the men view themselves as being temporarily injured but soon recovered. I then explore how agency, or more specifically, how agentic behaviours facilitate these narratives about men returning to their pre-injury selves. Men also constructed narratives about boredom, grief and regrets at the same time as the restitution narratives. These narratives indicated distress because they were counter to the stories that the men wanted to construct. The discussion contextualizes the men’s restitution narratives in terms of masculine socialization, and considers the role of agency in informing narrative plotlines. Lastly, recommendations to health care providers who treat men that have survived a burn injury are provided.

Numerous aspects of job scheduling in manufacturing systems have been the focus of several studies in the past decades. However, human factors in manufacturing systems such as workers’ mental conditions are still neglected issues and have not received adequate attentions. Job boredom and mental fatigue are both aspects of workers’ mental condition. They affect work performances by increasing sick leave duration and decreasing work productivity. On the other hand, job rotation could be an alternative strategy to cope with such human issues at work. The benefits of job rotation for both employees and firms have been widely recognized in the literature. Although some studies found job rotation as a means to reduce workers' physical work-related traumas, they did not consider the effect of variable mental conditions on workers. Despite the proven importance of boredom and mental fatigue at the workplace, they have not been a combined precise objective of any job rotation problem in current literature. The study of mental conditions proposed in this paper attempts to extend the previous works by addressing new methods and developing a feasible solution to increase manufacturing productivity. A new job scheduling program has been designed specifically which combines a new job rotation model and a job assignment method.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / In this dissertation, Van Davy makes a case for a cohesive system of schools which can serve the public — both the national interest and individual interests — while directly addressing the current national schooling system’s failure: * to replace, for the entire student cohort...high levels of student boredom with high interest and engaging curriculum and pedagogy; * to replace, for low SES and indigenous students...low levels of learning outcomes, low enrolment levels in senior schooling, and only brief experience of curriculum choice with a curriculum paradigm providing intrinsic value, understanding of pathways from disempowerment to empowerment, curriculum choice from the earliest years, and schooling outcomes which, over time, equal those of the national cohort of students * to replace a citizenry divided in its support for public, church-based, and exclusionary schools with a community united in its support for a socially agreed set of social purposes for schooling and a new curriculum paradigm, one half of which is generated by this set of social purposes * to address a major political issue: social cohesion The proposed new and cohesive system of schools is envisaged to meet the needs - both Common Good and Individual Good - of the citizenry. It will grow from an earlier and pre-requisite national social agreement around a set of political goals which together sketch a preferred future society - these political goals in the hands of education specialists will generate an "essential" curriculum as one of two elements in a new two-tiered curriculum to be followed from the earliest until the latest years of schooling. The second element, occupying the other half of the curriculum from the earliest to the latest years of schooling, will be an elective curriculum designed to encourage all students to pursue their own interests in as much depth as desired. Studies of sectarian studies will be included in the elective curriculum. Davy’s analysis ranges across a number of disciplines, fusing together a number of viewpoints: historical, political theory, educational performance, and educational theory. It searches Australia’s schooling outcomes, identifies low SES and Aboriginal outcomes as major areas of failure, and challenges a number of widely accepted schooling practices. In the process, Davy discovers OECD and ACER data, but little official interest or analysis, concerning widespread boredom amongst Australia’s students. He argues that, in respect of both low SES students and student boredom, system responsibilities such as the nature of Australia’s curriculum, could be just as implicated as concerns for “teacher quality.” Davy’s interest extends beyond the purely educational. He examines the purposes that public and non-public school authorities articulate, as well as reasons parents give for enrolling their children in schools. From this research Davy identifies several issues and suggests that very considerable “choice” in schooling could be found in a different curriculum paradigm, and that both public and non-public schools are deficient when measured against widely-accepted concerns for religious freedom, social cohesion, and fundamental democratic principles. For Davy, a major political issue confronting Australia is the national imperative of “social cohesion.” He searches Australia’s schooling history for evidence of any social agreement around the social purposes of schooling, including more recent attempts to formulate “essential" and “new basics” and “national” curriculum. He concludes that while many educators, and the OECD, refer to the need for a pre-requisite set of social purposes that outline a preferred future society, the politics of schooling has not permitted this to eventuate and, given the absence of this management fundamental, “it is not surprising that schooling systems are shaped by internal logics (ideologies, religions, personalities, internal politics, quest for advantage and/or privilege) rather than wider concerns for the shape of the globe’s and nation’s future, and the advancement of the twins: Common Good and Individual Good.” With these problems laid bare — low SES and indigenous outcomes, student boredom, and social cohesion — Davy addresses all three simultaneously. He draws confidence from contemporary political theorists proposing political processes which engage the public in a “deliberative democracy.” He constructs a surrogate “foundation of agreed principles” which, he deduces, the processes of deliberative democracy might lead the Australian people to construct, then outlines a step-by-step means by which these principles can generate an essential curriculum for all Australian children, while encouraging a full range of choice within an elective stream. The political processes of open collaboration throughout civil society which produces the social agreement may produce a new political context. This new, less adversarial and more trusting political context is seen to be fertile ground for the replacement of Australia’s fractured schooling system with a cohesive schooling system for the Australian public — an Australian schooling system — to be managed nationally.

Cette thèse porte sur l’ennui dans cinq romans de Julien Green (Mont-Cinère, Adrienne Mesurat, Minuit, Le Malfaiteur, Le Mauvais Lieu). L’enjeu est d’étudier la représentation de l’ennui dans des romans qui y consacrent tous une place différente. Dans une première partie, l’analyse du décor de l’ennui greenien, que ce soit l’espace extérieur ou l’espace intérieur, a permis de mettre en évidence l’aliénation intérieure des personnages greeniens qui reflète leur incapacité à vivre. L’étude du milieu dans lequel baignent les personnages permet en effet de se faire une idée de l’ampleur de l’ennui. La ville devient alors la toile sur laquelle se projettent leur ennui et leurs maux tandis que la liberté dont ils croient avoir pleine possession n’est qu’une illusion. Symbole de cet emprisonnement, la maison est la métaphore d’une impossibilité d’évasion hors de soi. La maison est un huis clos où se cumulent puis se déchaînent les passions. Les êtres greeniens sont face à une immutabilité qui ne peut que les mettre devant leur impuissance à sortir de cet ennui. Le constat est amer : il n’existe aucune possibilité de distraction, les hommes sont condamnés à s’ennuyer. Dans la deuxième partie, les conséquences de l’ennui sur les personnages ont été mises en évidence. Alors que tous les protagonistes sont prématurément vieillis par cette vie d’ennui, ils tentent désespérément de s’ancrer dans un réel fuyant par des habitudes ridicules et des occupations sans intérêt, à part celui de combler coûte que coûte le néant qui les engloutit. La haine d’autrui apparait et déteint sur leur famille : impossible d’aimer et d’être aimé, il s’agit désormais de se sentir exister en opprimant et réduisant à néant autrui. La troisième partie de la thèse est l’occasion de s’arrêter sur les conséquences avérées de l’ennui. Un déchaînement de violence est la conséquence logique d’un mal qui puise son origine dans la haine. Si les personnages se réfugient un instant dans le monde de la rêverie pour fuir un réel étouffant, cette rêverie les éloigne progressivement du réel et leur fait perdre toute attache à la réalité. C’est en créant leur monde qu’ils se soulagent de leurs maux, de leur inadaptation sociale et de la violence qui couve en eux. Ces folie et violence débouchent directement dans le meurtre comme solution pour se débarrasser d’autrui, cause de l’ennui. Mais le meurtre n’est jamais délibérément voulu et la mort apparaît comme l’unique solution : le personnage se tue parce que – comme Baudelaire écrivait dans sa Correspondance générale – « la fatigue de [s]’endormir et la fatigue de [se] réveiller [lui] sont insupportables » / This thesis aims at studying how boredom is depicked in five novels – Mont-Cinère, Adrienne Mesurat, Minuit, Le Malfaiteur, Le Mauvais Lieu – and how differently Julien Green painted it. In a first part, our analysis of the Greenian boredom from within and without has highlighted his characters’ internal alienation mirroring their inability to live. Indeed, studying the characters’ environment gives some insight into the scope of boredom. The town then becomes the canvass on which their boredom and suffering are displayed whereas the freedom they believe is theirs, is only an illusion. The house – a symbol of this confinement – is the metaphor of some escape beyond the self. The house is a prison cell where passions build up and run high. Greenian beings are involved with some immutability failing to confront them with their inability to ride out this boredom. A sobering conclusion as they cannot enjoy themselves : men are condemned to get bored. In the second part, the consequences of boredom on the characters have been highlighted. While this boring life prematurely makes the characters older, they desperately attempt to ground into an elusive reality through ridiculous habits and pointless activities, except filling the empty nothingness drowning them. Their hating others appears and influences their family : they cannot love or be loved ; from now on they will have to feel they are alive by oppressing and destroying others. The third part points out the proven consequences of boredom. This outburst of violence stems logically from some uneasiness originating in hatred. If the characters retreat for a while into the world of musing to escape from a stifling reality, this musing gradually keeps the real at bay and deprives them of all connections to reality. While creating their world, they relieve their suffering, their social maladjustment and the violence simmering in them. Mania and violence directly lead to murder as the solution to get rid of others, a source of boredom. But murder is never deliberately wanted and death appears as the unique solution : the character kills himself because – as Baudelaire wrote in his Correspondance générale he cannot bear the weariness of sleeping and the weariness of waking up.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This study has as objective to investigate the approach of Martin Heidegger on ontological foundations of a phenomenology of affects. For this, to limit the interpretation to the period from 1927 to 1930, specifically in the works Being and Time , What is metaphysics? and Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics: World, finitude, solitude . From the reconstruction of the general theory of affective measures in Being and Time , seeking to prove the privilege of the provisions of anxiety and boredom and their modes of openness. We will argue that, based on the structures derived from the existing analytical human faced immediately with a fundamental existential structures to be the be-there, namely the affective disposition [Befindlichkeit]. For Heidegger the affective disposition is an ontological structure that is open and the world, while the states of specific mood [Stimmung] are embodiments of the ontic disposition that pervade the world. Further evidence of the crucial role played by anxiety, noting that this sentiment is not enough to be there be-delivered the very existence, but has an obligation to answer for that. Finally we discuss the boredom in their respective ways culminating in an attempt to understand the essence of 'profound boredom' in its primacy. / O presente trabalho tem como objetivo investigar em Heidegger os fundamentos ontológicos de uma fenomenologia dos afetos. Para tanto, circunscreveremos a interpretação ao período de 1927 a 1930, mais especificamente nas obras Ser e Tempo, Que é metafísica? e Os conceitos fundamentais da metafísica: mundo, finitude, solidão. Partiremos da reconstrução da teoria geral das disposições afetivas em Ser e tempo, buscando evidenciar o privilégio das disposições da angústia e do tédio e seus respectivos modos de abertura. Argumentaremos que, com base nas estruturas obtidas a partir da analítica do existente humano, depara-se imediatamente com uma das estruturas existenciais fundamentais ao ser do ser-aí, a saber, a disposição afetiva [Befindlichkeit]. Para Heidegger a disposição afetiva é uma estrutura ontológica que constitui abertura de mundo, enquanto que os estados de humor específicos [Stimmung] são concretizações ônticas da disposição que perpassam o mundo. Posteriormente evidenciaremos o papel fundamental desempenhado pela angústia, ressaltando que neste sentimento, não basta ao ser-aí estar entregue a própria existência, mas tem a obrigação de responder pela mesma. Por fim abordaremos o tédio em suas respectivas formas culminando na tentativa de compreensão da essência do tédio profundo em sua primazia.

Crianças são seres em pleno desenvolvimento físico, intelectual, afetivo e moral. Envolvem-se em brincadeiras com alegria, entusiasmo e curiosidade. Porém, tem sido cada vez mais possível encontrar crianças com sinais de apatia, de desinteresse e de pouco envolvimento em atividades típicas da infância. A partir do reconhecimento de traços da pós-modernidade, como a fragmentação do tempo, a velocidade da evolução das tecnologias, o excesso de informação, o distanciamento de si mesmo, o desencontro das pessoas e a vida voltada para o consumo, é possível destacar o fenômeno do tédio como característica da nossa cultura atual. Ele está relacionado com a ausência de significado, a falta de projetos de vida e a dificuldade em lidar com o vazio diante da necessidade de estar sempre em movimento num mundo tão acelerado. Neste trabalho, procurou-se entender quais seriam as possíveis relações entre o consumo e a vivência do tédio infantil. Para tanto, verificou-se de que maneira se compõe a rotina extraescolar de crianças oriundas de famílias de alto poder aquisitivo de uma mesma escola particular internacional e bilíngue da cidade de São Paulo. As agendas dessas crianças estão ocupadas por inúmeras atividades que visam a um futuro promissor, os equipamentos eletrônicos estão mais acessíveis e ficam ligados por mais tempo e os adultos são cada vez mais controladores e superprotetores. O resultado é a falta de autonomia e a falta de sentido na própria vida. Neste cenário, o tédio se impõe / Children are beings that are undergoing full physical, intellectual, affective and moral development. They get involved in childrens play with joy, enthusiasm and curiosity. However, it has become much easier to come across children with signs of apathy, of lack of interest and of little involvement in activities that are typical of childhood. As from the recognition of traces of postmodernism, such as the fragmentation of time, the velocity of the evolution of technologies and the excessive information, the distancing from oneself, the dissent between people and a life that is focused on consumption, it is possible to bring to light the phenomenon of boredom as a characteristic of our current culture. It is related to the absence of meaning, the lack of life projects and the difficulty to deal with emptiness due to the necessity of being always in movement in a world that is so accelerated. In this work one has sought to understand what would be the possible relations between consumption and the existence of child boredom. For this it was verified what makes up the extracurricular routine of children coming from families with high purchase power of an international private bilingual school of São Paulo. The agendas of these children are occupied by numerous activities that aim at a promising future, the electronic devices are more accessible and are turned on for longer periods of time while the adults are increasingly controlling and overprotective. The result is lack of autonomy and lack of meaning in ones life. In this scenario, boredom imposes itself

This is a suggestive thesis that aims to investigate the potential within boredom literature to supplement explanations of interaction patterns with jihadist propaganda from the so-called Islamic State (IS). The media strategy of IS has benefited from a comprehensive narrative, and an inclusive approach to production and dissemination of propaganda, which has seen a heavy emphasis on the grass root participation within a loosely structured digital network. The thesis builds on the precept that boredom has been associated with lack of agency, meaning and excitement – three attributes that features prominently in IS propaganda. Through a scoping literature review of published articles on boredom, certain thematic elements was perceived to have an analytical potential with regards to the jihadist propaganda – including boredom proneness, boredom and meaning-seeking, boredom and excitement, and boredom’s relation to violent agency. The study showed a potential for boredom as a concept, via the respective theoretical and methodological frameworks, to broaden our understanding of the interaction with IS propaganda. By investigating boredom as a driving force in the interaction process, it is possible to highlight several aspects of how and why people relate positively to the propaganda – most importantly the connection between boredom and central human emotions, needs and characteristics.

Depuis le XVIIe siècle, l’étude de la notion d’ennui a connu une évolution constante en Occident qui lui a permis de se détacher des autres concepts auxquels elle était préalablement associée, notamment ceux de mélancolie, de tædium vitæ et d’acédie. Au XXe siècle, le discours sur l’ennui en philosophie, en sociologie et en psychanalyse s’intéresse spécialement aux rapports entre l’homme et le monde à partir des représentations individuelles et collectives du temps, de l’action et de la vocation. Ces trois composantes de l’ennui aident à comprendre comment ce phénomène s’est répandu dans les sociétés postmodernes et comment il est devenu une forme d’expérience (Erfahrung) pour l’individu capable de se confronter à ses propres limites en tant que sujet agissant et ennuyé. Les cinq romans retenus pour le corpus littéraire du XXe siècle (Senilità de Svevo, Le Puits d’Onetti, Malone meurt de Beckett, L’Ennui de Moravia et La Télévision de Toussaint) analysent l’ennui à travers la mise en abyme de la création. En effet, les cinq héros se heurtent au paradoxe caractéristique de l’ennui profond qui les incite à s’engager dans la voie de l’action créatrice tout en les enfermant dans l’inertie contemplative de leur milieu immédiat. L’ennui permet aux héros-ennuyés de comprendre leur situation dans le monde, d’appréhender l’instant présent et d’aller au-delà de la représentation première de ce qu’ils considéraient leur réalité. Leur expérience de l’ennui, rendue manifeste à travers leur création, permet aux héros d’accéder enfin au statut de configurateurs de monde, au sens de Heidegger. / Since the 17th century, the study of the concept of boredom has known a continual evolution in the Occident, which allowed it to be separated it from other associated concepts such as melancholy, tædium vitæ and acedia. In the 20th century, the discourse on boredom in philosophy, sociology and psychoanalysis took an interest in the relationship between the individual and the world, based on the personal and collective representations of time, action and vocation. These three components of boredom help to understand how this phenomenon spread through postmodern societies and how it became a form of experience (Erfahrung) for the individual able to bring himself face to face with his own limits as an acting subject and as an ennuye. The five novels chosen for the literary corpus of the 20th century (Svevo’s As a Man Grows Older, Onetti’s The Pit, Beckett’s Malone Dies, Moravia’s The Empty Canvas and Toussaint’s Television) analyze boredom through a mise en abyme of the creation. Indeed, the five heroes face the characteristic paradox of boredom that encourages them to engage in the path of the creative action while being restrained by the contemplative inertia of their immediate environment. Boredom enables the heroes-ennuyes to understand their situation in the world, to comprehend the present moment and to go beyond their first representation of what they called their reality. Their experience of boredom is made manifest through their creation that allows them to finally reach the status of world-forming, in Heidegger terms.

Optimists used to suggest that the anonymity of the internet allows people to interact without prejudices about race, sex, or age. Although some websites still foster anonymous communication, their popularity pales in comparison with sites like Facebook that foreground identifying characteristics. These social network sites claim to enrich their users’ lives by cultivating connections, but they sometimes have the opposite effect. Given the widespread and growing use of social media, my research poses the following questions: Does a particular form of (dis)engagement with the world flow from the reduction of the person to a profile? Does this (dis)engagement extend beyond social media, possibly into the way that we understand the world as such? What can we conclude about the broader theoretical framework in which an analysis of social media might be couched? I answer these questions through Martin Heidegger’s work, which provides the theoretical orientation for the dissertation as a whole. Noting that history informs the way that he understands ontology (Chapter One), I argue that the social changes that are accompanying the spread of the internet suggest modifications to his characterizations of boredom (Chapter Two) and technology (Chapter Three). I then turn to three emblematic social media sites – Facebook, which renders its users connected and identifiable (Chapter Four); Reddit, which gathers its users into a pseudonymous community of common interest (Chapter Five); and 4chan, which demands that its users engage in an anonymous fashion (Chapter Six) – and analyze them using the framework developed above while drawing from them to alter that framework further. I claim that although the patterns of use apparent on these sites differ, they all express different aspects of the mood that holds sway over the internet. Social media is both the cause of, and solution to, boredom, and it is shaping a generalized mood that is coming to seem ontological in its purchase. / Graduate