PhD / This thesis explores the lives of key female members of the Bolshevik elite from the revolutionary movement’s beginnings to the time of Stalin’s death. Through analysing the attitudes and contributions of Bolshevik elite women – most particularly the wives of Lenin, Molotov, Voroshilov and Bukharin – it not only provides for a descriptive account of these individual lives, their changing attitudes and activities, but also a more broad-ranging, social handle on the evolution of elite society in the Soviet Union and the changing nature of the Bolshevik elite both physically and ideationally. Chapters one and two focus on the physical and ideological foundations of the Bolshevik marriage. Chapter one traces the ideological approach of the Bolsheviks towards marriage and the family, examining pre-revolutionary socialist positions in relation to women and the family and establishing a benchmark for how the Bolsheviks wished to approach the ‘woman question’. Chapter two examines the nature of the Bolshevik elite marriage from its inception to the coming of the revolution, dwelling particularly on the different pre-revolutionary experiences of Yekaterina Voroshilova and Nadezhda Krupskaya. Chapters three and four then analyse two key areas of wives’ everyday lives during the interwar years. Chapter three looks at the work that Bolshevik wives undertook and how the nature of their employment changed from the 1920s to the 1930s. Chapter four, through examining the writings of wives such as Voroshilova, Larina and Ordzhonikidze, focuses upon how wives viewed themselves, their responsibilities as members of the Bolshevik elite and the position of women in Soviet society. The final two chapters of this thesis explore the changing nature of elite society in this period and its relationship to Soviet society at large. Chapter five investigates the changing composition of the elite and the specific and general effects of the purges upon its nature. Directly, the chapter examines the lives of Zhemchuzhina, Larina and Pyatnitskaya as wives that were repressed during this period, while more broadly it considers the occupation of the House on the Embankment in the 1930s and the changing structure of Bolshevik elite society. Chapter six focuses on the evolution of Soviet society in the interwar period and how the experiences of Bolshevik elite wives differed from those of ‘mainstream’ Russian women. While previous studies of the Bolshevik elite have focussed upon men’s political lives and investigations of Soviet women’s policy and its shifts under Stalin have mainly concentrated upon describing changes in realist terms, this thesis demonstrates that not only is an evaluation of wives’ lives crucial to a fuller understanding of the Bolshevik elite, but that by comprehending the personal attitudes and values of members of the Bolshevik elite society, particularly with regards to women and the family, a more informed perspective on the reasons for changes in Soviet women’s policy during the interwar period may be arrived at.

Summary: My excuse for attempting this thesis is firstly, that I am a graduate in medicine of the University of New Zealand and secondly, that my mother was a Maori. It seems to me that with a young university such as that of New Zealand, without the facilities for research work provided by older and richer homes of learning, the scope for original work, which it is the duty of every University to encourage and foster, is somewhat limited. In the philology, history and ethnology of the Polynesian Race, however, is provided a wide field for research work which it is the bounden duty of this University to explore and lead the way. As an obligation to my �alma mater� I take up the subject nearest to my family - medicine amongst the Maoris, in ancient and modern times. As another reason, I have the honour through my mother of belonging to the Maori race. As a result of four years work amongst them as an officer of Health, I am much struck by the different view-point with which the two races, European and Maori, approach the subject of disease. As a member of the Race I am perhaps enabled to understand my mother�s people more intimately than the more progressive but some what forgetful Anglo-Saxon. My experience of Maori ideas and customs dates from beyond the time of graduation in medicine. In childhood�s days, I experienced the bitter taste of the decoction prepared from phorium tenex and I heard around me the whispered diagnosis of �makutu� and �mate Maori�. Constantly throughout youth and early manhood, I have seen the European doctor wax impatient with what he terms prejudices or superstitions which retard or prevent the recovery of Maori patients. I have understood and sympathised with him. At the same time, with the priveledge of the half-breed inheriting the blood and ideas of both races I have been able to detach myself from European thought and look at the question of disease from my Maori countryman�s viewpoint. I understood the burden of the neolithic man�s fears and I symathise with him more deeply still. There are deep holes in the Urenui river which flows through our tribal territory wherein, so my Maori mother taught me, dwelt �taniwhas� or �dragons of slime� who destroyed the transgressor of the multitude of Maori laws and observances. Years of College and University education, combined with the unbelief inherited from a European father, have not been able to suppress the involuntary shudder and contraction of the erector pilae which the suggestion of bathing in those dark holes gives rise to. We inherit our fears in our blood, we imbibe them at our mother�s breast. The schools and teaching of a father appeal to us as we grow older. We subject customs and faiths to the light of comparative criticism and we ridicule the ideas of more primitive races as absurd. But in times of stress, despondency and lowered vitality, there is a tendency to revert to the mother�s fears which slumber within beneath the veneer of civilisation. How much more so in the case of the full Maori who has not had the advantage of even primary education! Clodd says, "In structure and inherited tendencies each of us is recent". The Maori has not been civilised for a century yet. As a duty to my kin, I have attempted to put on record their view of disease, in the hope that though anthropologist�s and others have done so much in collecting the ideas and customs of races on a lower culture stage, this thesis may serve as a small contribution to ethnology.

Purpose <br>The purpose of this focused ethnography is to understand the meaning and cultural influences of healthy eating and the role of nursing in the promotion of healthy eating practices from the Mexican American child's point of view. <br>Background <br>No current studies directly measure the meaning of healthy eating from the Mexican American child's perspective. Mexican American children have a unique perspective and understanding of the meaning of healthy eating and can help identify cultural norms and other factors that may be vital in directing culturally appropriate health promotion interventions. <br>Research Design <br>A focused ethnography method using Leininger's four phases of data analysis was utilized. <br>Informants <br>The researcher interviewed twenty-one children aged eleven to thirteen for the study. Fifteen individual interviews and two group interviews were completed. <br>Data Collection and Analysis <br>Data gathering and data analysis occurred simultaneously. Leininger's four phases of qualitative data analysis and utilized NVivo9 qualitative data management software. <br>Results <br>The data emerged into three themes within the culture. Theme one: Mexican American children connect healthy eating with familiar foods in the context of their Mexican American culture. Theme two: Foods that provide feelings of happiness and well being are essential for healthy eating. Theme three: Sources of food and health information education are valued when provided by familiar and trusted sources. <br>Conclusions and Implications <br>For the informants of this study the meaning of healthy eating is closely tied to the cultural life ways learned and valued by the Mexican American culture. Culture cannot be separated from the child when considering the meaning of healthy eating. Mexican American children view healthy eating within the context of culture, associating familiar foods that provide a feeling of happiness and well being with healthy foods. Mexican American children view eating habits as healthy when taught by familiar and trusted sources. <br>This study provides nurses an enhanced understanding of the meaning of healthy eating and valuable information to improve nutritional health education and promotion activities, better assists children and their families to improve and maintain health and provides culturally congruent care that is valued by the population. / School of Nursing; / Nursing / PhD; / Dissertation;

This manuscript traces the development of sexual abstinence and virginity as a commodity and describes how this development has contributed to modern conceptions of sexual abstinence. Within this analysis, the author provides what demographic and statistical information is available on abstinence practice in North America as well as outlines some of the perspectives critical of abstinence and abstinence-only sex education. More importantly, the author argues that within many Evangelical churches a defined social spacea sexual marketplaceexists where individual agents exchange and convert this commodity, among others, to attract potential marital partners. Furthermore, the manuscript outlines the effects and implications of this marketplace on its participants. The author derives these conclusions from the ethnographic observations and interviews he conducted while attending an urban Canadian Pentecostal Church.

Humor is usually associated with trivial or non-serious banter; it is however a significant factor in the construction of organizational culture. This work provides an experience based organizational account of how organizations are produced and reproduced, as well as how organizational interaction is coupled with structure. This dissertation is based on two ethnographic studies: the first, a year-long study of a hotel kitchen, and the second, a three-year study of a private boarding school. This long term examination of an organization??s interaction is used to illustrate how organizational interaction produces the duality of organizational structuration overtime. An ethnographic communication-focused approach provides methods for recognizing multiple sites and levels of the Structuration process. As a result, this approach provides a major contribution to understanding the process of Structuration through agents?? actions in the context of their organizational culture.

This dissertation posits a new model for understanding media audiences, bringing the scholarship of game studies to the critical analysis of audience practices. The concept of play proves beneficial for understanding the complex processes of media audiences, as they are able to traverse dichotomous categories when engaging media content. The genre of professional wrestling proves a perfect case study for examining these playful audience practices, and this study is an ethnographic account of the practices of wrestling fans. Focusing on the behaviors of fans at live wrestling events, in online contexts, and in the subcultural setting of a card game entitled Champions of the Galaxy, this study demonstrates the necessity of the concept of play for understanding what media audiences do when they engage media content. These practices, however, are always negotiated by the hegemonic power of the rules that structure how audiences are encouraged to engage content, resulting in ideological constraints on the possibilities play offers.

Humor is usually associated with trivial or non-serious banter; it is however a significant factor in the construction of organizational culture. This work provides an experience based organizational account of how organizations are produced and reproduced, as well as how organizational interaction is coupled with structure. This dissertation is based on two ethnographic studies: the first, a year-long study of a hotel kitchen, and the second, a three-year study of a private boarding school. This long term examination of an organization??s interaction is used to illustrate how organizational interaction produces the duality of organizational structuration overtime. An ethnographic communication-focused approach provides methods for recognizing multiple sites and levels of the Structuration process. As a result, this approach provides a major contribution to understanding the process of Structuration through agents?? actions in the context of their organizational culture.

This dissertation is about how knowledge is constructed in interactions and what knowledge entails in practical social work. It is about how a collective can provide a foundation for the construction and development of knowledge through the interactions contextualized in this study on Swedish elder care, organized by the municipality. This study follows a research tradition that recognizes knowledge as socially constructed, and focuses on the practice of knowledge within an organizational context of care. This is an ethnographic study. The empirical material consists primarily of field notes from participant observations at two elder care units in a midsized city in Sweden. Moreover, the collected materials include national and municipal policy documents, local policy documents and guidelines, and notes from observations in staff meetings and interviews with care workers and managers. This thesis uses Institutional Ethnography as a departure point for analyzing the contextual factors for workers in elder care, mainly women, and the situational factors for acquiring knowledge. The overall aim of this dissertation was to explore knowledge in elder care practice by analyzing the construction and application of knowledge for and by staff in elder care. This sheds light to the Mystery of Knowledge in Elder Care Practice: Locally Enabled and Disabled. In order to pursue this aim, two questions were addressed in the study: 1. How and what kind of knowledge is expressed and made visible in daily elder care practice? 2. How is knowledge shared interactively in the context of elder care? The findings shed light to the situation for care workers in elder care and the conditions for using and gaining knowledge. This situation is problematic as the local conditions both enables and disables knowledge use and sharing of knowledge. Contributing challenging factors are lack of recognition and equal valuing of various forms of knowledge; the organizational cultures and a limiting reflective work to the individual. The main findings in this thesis are presented in three areas: - a way of understanding tacit knowledge, which refers to knowledge gained by care workers through working in elder care; - the connection between an organizational culture and the knowledge shared within the organizational culture; - reflective practice in elder care work and the imbalance between individual and collective reflectivity. These findings have implications for specific knowledge in social work practice and the need for education linked to this knowledge. Formal knowledge alone is insufficient for effective elder care practice; however, informal knowledge is also insufficient alone. Both are needed, and they should be linked to create synergy between the two types of knowledge.

This study looks into communicative processes and media practices among members of a subaltern social movement. The aim is to gain an understanding of how these processes and practices contribute to symbolic cohesion in the movement, how they develop and are socialized into practices, and how these processes and practices help challenge hegemonic groups in society. These questions are explored through a qualitative study, based on fieldwork and interviews, of a subaltern social movement. The empirical object of the study is the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST), which was founded in 1984 to promote agrarian reform and defend the rights of rural workers in Brazil.   At the macro-level, the discussion addresses social realities marked by the meta-processes of globalisation, neo-liberalisation, and mediatisation. Against this background, the experiences of MST militants and of the movement as a whole help us to understand how different communicative processes play a role in the ways people experience globalisation, neo-liberalisation, and mediatisation in their daily lives. Departing from an understanding of communication as a process that structures practices (mediated and non-mediated), this study questions the media-centric understanding of communication, arguing that media practices are created through appropriation processes.   The results show that communicative processes are crucial to reinforcing values and symbologies associated with the rural worker identity. There is also a high level of reflexivity about media practices and an understanding that they must serve the principles of the collective. As a consequence, the movement seeks to maintain control over media, routinely discussing and evaluating the adoption and use of media. The interviews show ambivalence towards the alleged dialogic and organisational potential of digital media and to the adaptability of these media to the MST’s organisational processes. Through observation, it is possible to conclude that media have an instrumental function, as opposed to a structural function, in the processes of social transformation engendered by the MST. / This study looks into communicative processes and media practices among members of a subaltern social movement. The aim is to gain an understanding of how these processes and practices contribute to symbolic cohesion in the movement, how they develop and are socialized into practices, and how these processes and practices help challenge hegemonic groups in society. These questions are explored through a qualitative study, based on fieldwork and interviews, of a subaltern social movement. The empirical object of the study is the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST), which was founded in 1984 to promote agrarian reform and defend the rights of rural workers in Brazil. The results show that communicative processes are crucial to reinforcing values and symbologies associated with the rural worker identity. There is also a high level of reflexivity about media practices and an understanding that they must serve the principles of the collective. As a consequence, the movement seeks to maintain control over media, routinely discussing and evaluating the adoption and use of media. The interviews show ambivalence towards the alleged dialogic and organisational potential of digital media and to the adaptability of these media to the MST’s organisational processes.

These presentations were designed to provide orientation information for the Solar Energy Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement.