Male ballet dancers are often constructed as being feminine or homosexual (Bailey & Obershneider, 1997; Phillips, 2008), attributes that do not conform to the broader social ideas of what it means to be a masculine male in South Africa. Therefore, the space occupied by male ballet dancers in South Africa is one that contradicts the patriarchal ideas of masculinity and provides further insights into constructions of masculinity that do not conform to essentialist understandings. Therefore, the aim of this research report was to investigate the ways in which male ballet dancers construct their gender identities, sexualities and bodies within this contradictory space. A purposeful sample of four classically trained male ballet dancers over the age of 18 from Johannesburg, South Africa, was invited to participate in the study by means of snowball sampling. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and were examined using narrative analysis. It was found that male ballet dancers construct their gender identities through their bodies by virtue of their performances. They believe that by linking ballet to other masculine activities, such as sport, they can better negotiate their gender identities in a context where their profession is viewed as inferior, feminine and homosexual. The findings of this research have contributed to a better understanding of gender in an alternative domain, where the ways in which male ballet dancers construct their gender identities are challenged.

The relationship between Sweden and religion serves as a case of how its secular mode of governance has become an increasingly pervasive ideology that is not only encroaching on the rights of its religious community but is also on a mission to produce a homogenous civic nation, rather than allowing for plurality. Through its increased regulation of religion, particularly evident within the area of education, the case is made by focusing on Christianity and its differing values. A discourse analysis of the two most authoritative documents, the Education Act 2010 and the National Curriculum of Compulsory Schools 2011 is conducted. Based on the theoretical assumptions of social constructionism, this research seeks to make the case that through the state’s authoritative power, its ideologies and values are the most dominant in directing, determining, and maintaining the discriminatory and oppressive structural and social context.  Through critical discourse analysis (CDA), which posits that language and discourse are not ‘neutral’, this research finds there is a deliberate project on the state’s part to bring about the secularization of its faith-schools. The texts sustain a social system that ‘others’ the religious and discriminates against their ways of life and thought. The analysis of the Education Act 2010 and the National Curriculum display a very strong bias toward secular thought that is not accommodative of religious beliefs, values and practices. These documents display through its restrictions, allowances, its inclusions and exclusions, an attempt on the part of the state to create an education context which is devoid of religion and enforces one worldview, that of secular liberal thought and seeks to socialise students in this way. This, in its essence is in fact ‘illiberal’

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This research focuses on the influence of institutions on entrepreneurship among Kuwaiti youth. It aims to capture the role played by institutions on youth entrepreneurship at the backdrop of a dampening ‘spirit’ for it. This research is currently very important due to various economic and geo-political factors leading to an economic downturn, which has led to the need for entrepreneurial ventures. It reviews and consolidates concepts and factors purported to facilitate and increase entrepreneurship for the benefit of the society and economy of Kuwait. This research uses a social constructionist approach to make sense of how institutions influence Kuwaiti youth in their quest to become entrepreneurs. It exposes institutional endorsement and legitimacy from formal and informal institutions. It shows the use of regulative, normative and cognitive dimensions and influences on entrepreneurial intentions and actions. This research shows how institutions interact with Kuwaiti youth and what role they play in the formulation of intentions and actions concerning entrepreneurship. A number of key formal and informal institutions have come to the fore that influence one another (in)directly as living entities, and likewise influence the youth (in)directly. The research contribution also shows that young people have to approach some key institutions and in return their desire to become entrepreneurs is strengthened or weakened depending on how institutions respond and what role they are willing to play in their lives.

Over the past decade, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of cases of criminal charges laid against those who do not disclose their HIV-positive status to their sexual partners. The criminalization of HIV non-disclosure has generated an intense debate which is the object of this analysis. Using a social constructionist framework, particularly the work of Donileen Loseke, a leading social problems theorist, and documentary data drawn primarily from the internet, my goal is to shed light on the debate. More specifically, I am concerned with definitional contests or competing constructions inherent in the debate. The dissertation is organized around three papers. The first paper explores how the condition of HIV itself is socially constructed in the debate. Claims-makers who support criminal sanctions construct the disease as deadly and devastating, while claims-makers who oppose criminalization construct HIV as chronic and manageable. The second paper explores the rhetorical strategies used by those who support criminalization to construct non-disclosers as villains. I coined the term techniques of vilification to capture these strategies. The third paper examines the rhetorical strategies used by those who oppose criminalization to neutralize the label of victim for partners of non-disclosers. As a whole, the dissertation contributes to a better understanding of social problems claims-making processes, particularly around the construction of conditions and people. The dissertation also makes contributions to ongoing discussions in the sociology of health and illness, and victimology. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis investigates the debate around the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure with an emphasis on the Canadian context. Adopting a social constructionist approach, particularly as it has been used in the sociological study of social problems, and building on the work of social problems theorist Donileen Loseke, the thesis explores three themes: 1) how claims-makers understand HIV as a condition based on whether they support or oppose criminalization, 2) how claims-makers who support criminalization vilify those who do not disclose their HIV-positive status, and 3) how claims-makers who oppose criminalization work to downplay claims to victimhood by partners of non-disclosers. This work contributes to our understanding of the definitional contests underlying the debate. More broadly, it contributes to our understanding of social problems claims-making processes.

No / In this paper I take up the various ontological positions forwarded in social constructionism. While acknowledging its advances over other approaches to psychology, I nevertheless argue that the various ontological positions create confusion over the nature of human perception and the sensible realization of a world that does not rest wholly in language. Using the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty, I argue for a more fundamental ontology that grasps the relation of the whole human being to the world. Essential to this are the metaphors of `field of Being', `dimensionality' and `transformation'. The field of Being is realized in bodily perception of the sensible world, which is then articulated and transformed in linguistic expression. This has to be understood as a naturally embodied topography as well as a culturally and historically articulated and transformed space. I therefore present these metaphors as an extension of constructionism, seeing psychological phenomena as existing more broadly in a field of Being.

People who are disabled encounter income inequity and employment discrimination. The intersection of disability-based inequity and employment discrimination has increasingly been called the Disability and Employment Conundrum (DEC). Within the last 20 years, the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) model attempts to resolve the DEC. Through a policy-based method called Supported Employment (SE), the IPS model aims to gain employment for people who are disabled and seeking employment. Much of the research that supports the IPS model neglects to look at external factors that impact the DEC. The IPS model's scope focuses on internal factors, or the individuals who are seeking employment, and is thereby narrowed. The IPS model's narrowed scope disproportionately impacts people with cognitive disabilities who are seeking employment. From a social constructionist perspective, this thesis examines how the IPS model became focused on internal factors at the expense of people who are disabled and seeking employment. / Master of Arts / People who are disabled encounter income inequity and employment discrimination. Disability-based employment problems are increasingly fall under what is called the Disability and Employment Conundrum (DEC). Within the last 20 years, several models to reintegrate disabled people back into the workforce have been used to attempt to resolve the DEC. Through a policy-based method called Supported Employment (SE), the Individual Placement Support model aims to gain employment for people who are disabled and seeking employment. Much of the research that supports the IPS model does not look at external factors that impact the DEC. Instead, the IPS model primarily focuses on the individuals who are seeking employment. This narrowed scope disproportionately impacts people with cognitive disabilities who are seeking employment. From a social constructionist perspective, this thesis examines how the IPS model became focused on internal factors at the expense of people who are disabled and seeking employment.

This study explored the interaction between persons and songs in therapy, and was described according to the ideas of Social Constructionism and the Narrative Approach (Freedman & Combs, 1996; Gergen, 1985, 1994; Hoyt, 1998). The meanings around songs and the therapist-client interaction were explored. A flowing process evolved that allowed for new ideas to become part of the therapeutic conversations (Anderson & Goolishian, 1988; Hoffman, 1994). The research was qualitative as befits the above-mentioned epistemology. Therapeutic conversations evolved with a single client, in which songs and music were used to explore her life story. An unstructured interview was conducted to explore the therapeutic process underlying the incorporation of songs in therapeutic conversations. The hermeneutic method of analysis was employed to identify themes and meanings that encompassed the research participant's life story as well as the therapeutic process in which songs were utilised to facilitate therapeutic dialogues. It was found that the themes elicited in this study reflected the themes discussed in the literature. The following themes underlying the therapeutic process of songs were identified: songs created an emotional release; they elicited memories, feelings and imagery; they facilitated relaxation, coloured relationships and provided a new skill. This exploration of the themes allowed for rich descriptions of the participant's story and the therapeutic conversations, to emerge. / Clinical psychology / M.A. (Clinical psychology)

The state of Maleness has received much attention in academic and public discourse of late. One such instance is the play Defending the Caveman, which depicts men in their ”natural” settings as Cavemen, thereby justifying Caveman-like behaviour. On the other hand, much writing exists that find men culpable of discrimination, violence and abuse towards others. Discourses like these have real effects on the ways in which men choose and act on their Maleness. Six men engaged in narrative therapeutic discussions in an attempt to share their stories of Maleness, to discuss how society constructs men, and to re-evaluate the Maleness chosen by the participants. / Practical Theology / M.Th. (Pastoral Therapy)

The purpose of the research, which shaped the research question, was exploring the social construction of cultural stories of substance abuse and the difference that God-stories can make in these circumstances. The research is about the difference that the positioning of the self in the biblical and Christ-stories, the stories of faith, can make in the construction of self-stories in the context of substance abuse. This study thus studied the social construction of self-stories embedded in God-stories in the context of a short-term rehabilitation programme for addiction. I had conversations with 12 participants in Ramot, a rehabilitation centre for alcohol and drug addiction in Parow, Cape Town in the year 2005. A narrative approach was followed, because it is particularly suited to exploring the interaction between stories of identity or self-stories, stories of faith or God-stories, and stories of the struggle with substance abuse. The concept of stories opens up issues and ideas that initially seem to be fixed „realities‟ to change, as alternative meanings can be applied and stories can be told differently in different contexts. This approach therefore correlates with people‟s lived experience. Stories as texts are constitutive of our worlds, but are open to re-visioning and editing. With regard to problematic stories, hope can thus be performed in telling stories differently (recognising different contexts) or in telling different stories (previously marginalised texts). The main body of the research is a theoretical consideration of the way self-stories, God-stories and the stories of a struggle with substance abuse are socially constructed. Particular attention is paid to the way in which self-stories are socially constructed, because that is the basis for the narrative approach adopted in the research. This includes the postmodern, social constructionist and poststructuralist emphasis on the discursive positioning of the self, with the alternative positionings that this makes possible. Religion/spirituality are explored as part of the narrative resources or context that contribute to the social construction of self-stories. For a believer, this relationship with God through biblical stories informs other relationships and influences the construction of the person‟s self-stories.This research report therefore also reflects a critical interaction between the contemporary situation in respect of the struggle with substance abuse and the stories of the Christian tradition for the sake of improved praxis by the faith community. / Systematic Theology & Theological Ethics / D. Th.