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In this manuscript, the speaker’s engagement with the father-lover-God figure forces a confrontation with larger existential questions. There is tension between the material and the non-material, between observation and intuition (what is knowledge?), and between seeking and being. The mind/thought walks the line between tangible and intangible, so thought—language, our definitions—is a central theme in Thorn. The mind can build its own reality, meaning it is either fragile or powerful. Everything to which we seem to have access is a construct and therefore everything is ultimately meaningless—now what?

One of the central areas of focus in organizational theory that has been of particular interest is the organization-environment interface. While various theories have made vital contributions to the study of organization-environment relations, their emphasis on organization adaptation is varied. However, research and practice have amply demonstrated that organizations do not exist in a vacuum; that if an organization is to survive and meet its goals, it has to adapt to or somehow make accommodations with its cognitive and normative environment. This study explores the issue of an organization trying to adapt to its normative environment by deeply examining the situation of a national private nonprofit organization, with ties to the land-grant university and college system, which found itself in the midst of a turbulent environment. Specifically, the study discusses how that nonprofit was affected by this turbulence when it accepted funding from the nation's largest tobacco company to develop and implement a tobacco prevention program. The act of this nonprofit accepting funds from the tobacco corporation caused challenges in internal management, worsened relations with some of its core constituencies, and fomented discord within leading non-profit organizations. The notion of turbulence, the mechanism of isomorphism as espoused by the new institutionalists, and the role of agency was explored, supplemented by a strategic approach that included components of contracting standards that organizations could adapt to attain congruency with elements of their turbulent normative environment. In particular, this strategic approach utilized a framework borrowed from research conducted by Oliver (1991), emphasizing strategies of Defiance, Manipulation and Avoidance. What this study offers is a strategic approach to help non-profit organizations when they partner with a controversial source of funding, especially in cases where they are faced with these kinds of management dilemmas. / Ph. D.

Thesis advisor: Celeste Wells / This study analyzes female students’ perceptions of sexual assault at Boston College. These perceptions are interpreted and understood using the theory of framework and organizational communication. The goal of this study is to effectively illustrate how female students form perceptions of sexual assault, and to understand why they are often hesitant to engage in conversations about it. Through the use of framing devices, this study explains how the administration and campus culture influence the way students view the issue of sexual assault. 135 female students at Boston College participated in an online survey, and their responses indicate that a culture of silence emerges from the perceptions of sexual assault on campus. While the culture of silence influences most female students to refrain from talking about sexual assault, a new framing device emerged from the data, which I refer to as the frame of defiance. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Communication.

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Pathways to becoming a college student are as numbered and varied as college students themselves. For some people, the pathway to college is marked by barriers, such as negative messages received by the student regarding their abilities to attend college and/or the likelihood that they will get to attend college. On one hand, research suggests that children and adolescents internalize these negative messages, which then have the potential to block achievement in higher education. On the other hand, the general body of resilience research suggests that youth can overcome challenges and defy negative influences, as did the participants of the current study. However, little is known about this process of achievement in the face of negative predictions. Consequently, the current study used qualitative grounded theory methodology to explore the experience of defying negative messages received about becoming a college student. In unstructured interviews, fourteen undergraduate students described their experience of receiving negative messages about their abilities to attend college or the likelihood that they would get to attend college, as well as their subsequent experience of becoming college students in the face of these messages. Based on the literature regarding resilience, negative prediction defiance, and the effects of expectations on academic competence, an ecological model of overcoming negative messages was proposed in which micro, meso, and macrosystemic influences were hypothesized to play a role in encouraging or discouraging college attendance. Although participants came from diverse demographic backgrounds and experienced varied types of negative messages, all of their narratives shared major components, which comprise the theory proposed in the current study. These components are sources of negative messages, perceived underlying influences on sources, reasons to defy the message, facilitators of defiance, and barriers to defiance. This theory was compared to existing theories regarding resilience, negative prediction defiance, and the effects of expectations on academic competence. Additionally, research and policy implications are discussed that highlight the importance of providing youth who may be at-risk to receive negative messages with support in their families, schools, and communities.

The main objective of this study is to analyse the concept of civil disobedience by providing an overview of its historical development; its objectives and strategies, and how this was applied in South Africa by the United Democratic Front in the 1980s. The sub-objectives were to determine if civil disobedience as a concept is going through, or has gone through any notable changes since its inception; to assess the extent to which United Democratic Front policies and strategies were in accordance with civil disobedience; and to briefly compare manifestations of civil disobedience in South Africa in the pre-1994 period, with some manifestations in the post-1994 period. The study included an assessment of the Defiance Campaign, analysing its impact and demise. It focused on the ANC strategy of mass action and assessed the role of the Pan African Congress. It outlined the formation of the UDF, assessing its vision, broad principles, organisation and objectives. Certain assumptions were assessed in the concluding chapters, namely that civil disobedience has developed into a broader concept than the original concept of passive resistance; that the policies and strategies of the United Democratic Front initially resembled some aspects of civil disobedience but eventually deviated from this due to a change in strategy; and that some contemporary manifestations of civil disobedience in South Africa resemble certain methods used in the 1980s, but the objectives differ. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / lk2014 / Political Sciences / MA / Unrestricted