Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-141). / The focus of this dissertation is on colonisation and decolonisation as cornerstones in the development of sub-Saharan Africa's current institutions and how these historical institutions affect current economic growth outcomes. The dissertation consists of three main chapters besides the introductory and concluding chapters. The rst main chapter considers conditions of optimality in a co-optive strategy of colonial rule. It proposes a simple model of elite formation emanating from a coloniser's quest to maximise extracted rents from its colonies... In the second main chapter, I argue that the pattern of decolonisation in West Africa was a function of the nature of human capital transfers from the colonisers to the indigenous elites of the former colonies. Underpinning the nature of these human capital transfers is the colonial educational ideology... The third main chapter investigates the channels through which colonial origin affects economic outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It focuses on four key channels of transmission namely, human capital, trade openness, market distortion and selection bias.

Under de senaste åren har psykisk ohälsa fått ökad uppmärksamhet i samhället, men också inom elitidrottens värld. I svensk media pågår det en växande trend av att fler elitfotbollsspelare offentligt talar ut om sin psykiska ohälsa. Detta trots att elitfotbollen är stigmatiserat från ämnet och elitfotbollsspelare har haft svårt att söka hjälp för sin psykiska ohälsa. Till anledning av det finns det ett ökat behov av att undersöka hur miljön ser ut hos elitföreningar, samt vilka stödinsatser elitföreningar arbetar med för att främja den psykiska hälsan hos elitfotbollsspelare. Studien har baserats på en kvalitativ metod till de sex intervjuer som genomfördes med elitfotbollsspelare som tidigare offentligt har berättat om sin psykiska ohälsa. Via våra intervjuer har vi fått ta del av elitfotbollsspelares upplevelser och erfarenheter kring elitföreningarnas arbete gällande detta område. Med hjälp av teoretiska perspektiv har vi bundit detta till det resultat vi kom fram till. / In recent years, mental illness has received increased attention in society, but also in the world of elite sports. In the Swedish media, there is a growing trend of more elite football players publicly speaking out about their mental illness. This is despite the fact that elite football is stigmatized from the subject and elite football players have had difficulty seeking help for their mental illness. Due to this, there is an increased need to investigate what the environment looks like at elite clubs, and especially what kind of support elite clubs work with to promote the mental health of elite footballers. This study has been based on a qualitative method for the six interviews that were conducted with elite football players who have previously publicly told about their mental illness in the media. Through our interviews, we have been able to take part of the experiences of elite footballers regarding the elite clubs' work in this area. With help from theoretical perspectives, we have tied the theories to the result of our study.

Bakgrund Fysisk aktivitet har setts ge positiva hälsoeffekter i den vuxna populationen, så som ökad psykosocialt välmående och goda levnadsvanor. Detta är fortfarande lite beforskat gällande barn och ungdomar.   Syftet var att undersöka skillnader avseende fysisk aktivitet, upplevd stress och antal sömntimmar mellan gymnasieungdomar som går elitidrottsutbildning och de som går en teoretisk utbildning. Studien undersöker även huruvida mängden fysisk aktivitet korrelerar med upplevd stress och sömn hos respektive grupp.   Metod Studien hade en deskriptiv jämförande och korrelerande design. Totalt 130 elever i årskurs 3 på gymnasiet deltog varav 79 deltagare gick elitidrottsgymnasium. Data samlades in genom enkäter där eleverna fick självskatta nivå av stress och fysisk aktivitet samt bakgrundsfrågor om t.ex. antal sömntimmar och boendesituation.   Resultat Skillnader sågs mellan grupperna avseende mängd fysisk aktivitet på hög och måttlig intensitet, samt total fysisk aktivitet under en vecka. Korrelationerna var nära noll och icke signifikanta mellan fysisk aktivitet och sömntimmar respektive upplevd stress.   Slutsats Elitidrottande gymnasieungdomar är mer fysiskt aktiva än sina icke-elitidrottande klasskamrater och når upp till rekommendationerna för fysisk aktivitet. Fler studier behövs för att vidare bedöma psykosocial hälsa hos gymnasieungdomar, samt för att vidare undersöka samband mellan fysisk aktivitet, stress och sömn. / Background Physical activity has positive health benefits in the adult population on for example psychological well-being. This is still sparsely studied amongst the young population.   The aim was to research differences in physical activity, stress and sleep between high school students in elite sports education versus those in a theoretical education. Also, to see if the amount of physical activity correlates with experienced stress and sleep.   Method The study had a descriptive, comparative and correlating design. 130 students in last year of high school participated of which 79 was in elite sports education. Data was gathered from forms concerning self-perceived stress, physical activity and sleep. Results Differences were seen between the groups in the amount of physical activity on high and moderate intensity and the total amount of physical activity. The correlations were close to zero and non-significant between physical activity and  hours of sleep as well as perceived stress.   Conclusion The students in elite sports education have a higher level of physical activity and reaches the recommendations for physical activity. More studies is needed for further evaluation on the psychosocial well being in high school students and the correlations between physical activity, stress and sleep.

Bakgrund: Inom fotbollen råder det oenighet kring definitionen av begreppet talang. Vissamenar att talang utgörs av medfödda egenskaper, andra hävdar att talang bildas vid mycketträning. Ändå är talang hos unga fotbollsspelare en central del av den akademi som finnsinom fotbollsklubbar med elitambitioner. Tränaren är en viktig del av hur talang uppfattas ochpåverkar vilka som elitsatsar i akademier. Som teoretiskt ramverk används en idrottsanpassad version av gatekeeping- teorin.Syfte: Studien syftar till att undersöka hur akademitränare ser på talang hos ungafotbollsspelare.Metod: Fem semi-strukturerade intervjuer med akademitränare har genomförts.Den insamlade datan bearbetades sedan utifrån en induktiv tematisk analys.Resultat: Analysen av materialet resulterade i fem övergripande teman; Arvet, Miljö,Inställning, Oviss Framtid och Helheten.Diskussion: Tränarnas syn på talang visar att den definieras av tränarnas eget tycke och smak.Talang verkar vara en sammansättning fysiologiska, tekniska och kognitiva egenskaper sombildas av det genetiska arvet och miljön. / Backround: Within football there is disagreement around the definition of the term ”talent”.Some say that talent consists of abilities that are innate. Others say that talent is formedthrough training. Despite that, talent in young football players is regarded a central part of theacademy system that exists in football clubs with elite ambition. The coach is also animportant part of how talent is perceived and affects which players makes an elite investmentin an academy. The theoretical frameworks that were used on the study consists of a sports-customized version of the gatekeeping theory.Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine how academy coaches view talent in youngfootball players.Method: Five separate semi-structured interviews with academy coaches were conducted.The data collected were processed using an inductive thematic analysis.Resultat: The analysis of the gathered material resulted in five overall themes: Legacy,Environment, Attitude, Uncertain Future and Entirety.Discussion: The coaches view on talent shows that talent is defined by the coaches liking andtaste. Talent seem to be a composition of the physiological, technical and cognitive abilitiesthat are formed by the genetic legacy and the environment.

Objectives: The objectives of this research were to gain a detailed understanding of approaches, facilitators and constraints to creating an optimal motivational climate within elite youth soccer programs in North America by examining the insights of expert coaches in this field. Design and Method: By using a case study design, six coaches were interviewed using a semi-structured interview format which explored perceptions about and key aspects of the optimal motivational climate and identified specific strategies while reporting challenges to the process of creating the desired climate. Inductive thematic analysis was used to identify major recurring themes that occurred amongst the participant responses and then discussed from the perspective of existing motivational frameworks. Results: Five dimensions of the desired motivational climate emerged from the theming: developing the autonomous player, connectedness, the opportunity for player advancement, failure as part of the process, and context may have an influence on the climate. Five specific strategies used in creating the desired motivational climate were identified: communication within the group, player advancement, modeling, selection/de-selection, and communication with parents. Five challenges to creating the desired climate surfaced: contact time with the athletes, parents/parental involvement, consistency within club staff, player movement within the club, and mentality of the player coming into the club. Conclusion: The findings of this study show that coaches tried to create a motivational climate that was autonomy supportive and task involving. Some aspects of the motivational climate were consistent however with facets of an ego-involving climate. It was also found that parents were believed to have an impact on the motivational environment surrounding the players. The research highlights the complexity of motivational climate in elite youth soccer programs and demonstrates the need for further exploration into education for coaches as well as observation and intervention-based research. / Graduate

Recent research shows a global trend of declining voter turnout and increasing levels of elite-challenging political action. In France, elite-challenging political action, such as participating in demonstrations, is especially prominent. In addition, the voter turnout in France has been recently declining. The French case is interesting in this regard, as the voter turnout is lower than the European average while participation in demonstrations is more common than in other European countries. What characterizes people who abstain from voting but nevertheless participate in demonstrations?  This study shows that the factors that characterize non-voting demonstrators are self-expression values, internal efficacy as well as dissatisfaction with the government. In addition, the group of non-voting demonstrators tend to differ compared to the group of voting demonstrators regarding external efficacy, net income level and gender. However, explanations of elite-challenging political action seem to be able to explain demonstration behavior better among voters than non-voters. This shows that the contemporary research field of political participation needs to advance. Understanding why people abstain from voting while engaging in demonstrations is important from several perspectives: it can help us understand how contemporary old democracies can become more stable and in congruence with the current democratic culture, which thereby would make them more stable; it can help us understand what characterizes critical citizens who participate in our democracy; and finally, it can help us understand how traditional forms of political participation, such as voting, are no longer the only ways for people to participate in politics.

Several researchers as well as high-profile female athletes have recently challenged the longstanding view that pregnancy/motherhood mark the termination of an elite athlete's career in sport. While these conversations have sparked change concerning the degree to which pregnant/parenting athletes are accepted within the sport industry, elite athletes continue to face discriminatory policies and practices as they navigate parenthood alongside their elite athletic pursuits. My thesis is presented in the publishable papers format. In my first paper, I used new masculinities theory, community-based participatory research, and semi structured interviews to explore the experiences of 10 elite/international and world-class male athletes (9 fathers, 1 expectant father) and the impact of children on their athletic careers. Through critical discourse analysis, I found that fatherhood both improves and impedes elite athlete-fathers' athletic performance. In my second paper, I used feminist poststructuralist theory, feminist participatory action research, and semi-structured interviews to explore the perspectives of 21 pregnant and parenting elite/international and world-class athletes (11 women, 10 men) on the developing degree of acceptance of parenthood in elite athletics. Through critical discourse analysis, I identified that, despite considerable recent advancements, there is still a need for increased acceptance of pregnant/parenting athletes. Taken together, these two papers advance understandings regarding athletes' perspectives on the current shifts surrounding parenthood and athletics. Further, the recognition of fathers' involvement in childcare underscores how male athletes represent an untapped resource for allyship for female athletes. My findings also call for significant continued change and action to better support pregnant/parenting athletes.

This dissertation explores how internationally educated youth in contemporary Egypt negotiate issues of national identity, postcoloniality and belonging while participating in globalizing class practices. Based on fourteen months of ethnographic research in and around for-profit international schools in Cairo, it focuses on how this privileged youth group constructed, experienced and enacted belonging at the intersection between class and nation. I argue that internationally educated Egyptians were caught in a cultural bind between competing constructions of class and national belonging. On the one hand, globally-oriented socialization practices and international education reproduced a historically-specific and colonially-inspired configuration of social distinction that linked elite belonging to a cosmopolitan-inflected distance from local culture. On the other hand, these markers of elite belonging excluded internationally educated youth from a materially embodied conception of Egyptianness that tied national belonging to essentialist constructions of local culture and identity. I suggest that the tension between class and national belonging expressed a single dialectical process that was rooted in colonial binary conceptualizations of culture and difference, which split ‘elite’ and ‘local’ into mutually exclusive cultural and symbolic repertoires. My analysis challenges dominant theoretical approaches that conflate the reproduction of class and nation by exposing the educational, gendered and linguistic gaps between class and national culture in contemporary Egypt. I present a bottom-up approach to understanding national attachment that highlights the embodied and moral labor that goes into the production of local selfhood in a transnational postcolonial setting. This approach also shows the differential gendered dynamics of class and national reproduction. The burden of maintaining cosmopolitan-inflected class boundaries falls squarely on the girls while boys are expected to embody the nationally-inflected skills and dispositions necessary for personal and professional trajectories that transcend class boundaries. In telling this story, I expose the sociohistorical dynamic by which colonial/postcolonial categories are reconfigured through globally-oriented class practices and highlight the unexpected ways that neoliberal globalism can become the incubator for intensely and irreducibly local gender and cultural norms. / 2028-10-31T00:00:00Z

The history of Harlem as an epicenter of Black Culture can be traced to the late 1800s, with initial African American migrants to Harlem who were solidly middle and upper class. These migrants made the neighborhood their home, establishing businesses and investing in the community, but after the economic downturn of the 1970s and the rise in social problems, many fled. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, cities across the United States, including New York, experienced a resurgence. This resurgence in New York City did not exclude Harlem. Using multiple techniques: observation; informal, semi-structured, individual, and group interviews; spot observations; autoethnography; and archival research. This eleven-year study documents the lives of the Black Elite Who Chose to Stay in Harlem, reviewing the rationale behind their staying. Some factors included a sense of belonging, fleeing microaggressions, leveraging class status to confront macroaggressions, and maximizing the economic opportunity of moving to a prime undervalued asset. Engaging anthropology, Women’s studies, Black studies, and American studies, this study defines elites through the use of case studies and responses from the participants.

The purpose of this research is to examine the legislative process that led to the Imported Vehicle Safety Compliance Act of 1988. This research will look at the original intent of the law, as well as its possible irrelevance today. This research will compare the environment that existed during its creation, and compare it to the drastically different landscape that exists now in the new car market. From this comparison, this paper will recommend a route for the United States to better open trade with other countries and allow more consumer freedom. This research will look at the Imported Vehicle Safety Compliance Act from a political science viewpoint. This analysis will take into consideration the legislative process that led to this act and show that it is an example of the legislative process helping large companies while hurting ordinary consumers. The history of this legislation will show that the justification presented represents protecting consumers from a harmful product. However, the recent history will reveal a government that is quick to make assumptions without regard to facts that disprove the reasoning for this act. This research will seek to use the Imported Vehicle Safety Compliance Act as example of a law that is in need of an update, but has not had any meaningful reform. The goal of this research will be to illustrate why laws that are no longer effective remain without reform.