Rapid social change has become a hallmark of post-apartheid South Africa and part of this process has been the expansion of a middle class amongst previously disadvantaged people. My thesis contributes to our understanding of this upward mobility by investigating the role of two Pentecostal-Charismatic Christian churches in helping young, professional, previously disadvantaged women (re)shape their identities and negotiate the various networks of social, economic and political power they encounter as they strive towards socio-economic advancement. The thesis details His People and Grace Bible church and gives an explanation of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity in South Africa. In contrast to Latin American studies it is argued that within both churches there was a masculinization, rather than feminization of Christianity, which was attractive to men and women. Using some of Bourdieu's ideas I have tried to show that a central contribution these churches make in the lives of some of their members is to help them develop various social and cultural capital resources, which they felt they lacked. Through their engagement with these churches women (re)shaped their identities seeing themselves as having a life purpose and the potential to realise it. Their identities as mothers, wives and single women were impacted by the ideal of the nuclear family and wifely submission upheld in both churches and which the women in this study tried to fulfil. By aligning themselves with this ideal women found their faith legitimated distancing themselves from their extended families and the various demands of African cultural practices. Both churches strove to establish a sanitised, modem, African Christianity, which promoted individuality and socio-economic success, and offered an alternative to the hedonistic trends of popular Y culture.

This study draws on a feminist perspective on time and space, or a feminist time and space literacy, in order to better understand the times and spaces in distance learning. I seek to respond to some of the key gaps in the literature by considering the multiplicity of times and spaces in distance learning, and the underpinning power relations, within respondents' stories of being a distance learner. This research makes a substantial contribution to the research on time, space and distance learning. This is not only in terms of bringing a feminist time and space literacy to the area of distance learning but, by doing so in conjunction with data collected over time and space, it also adds many new layers to the stories about the multiplicity of times and spaces in distance learners' lives, and the ways in which gendered and other power relations shape these. Moreover, this study has contributed to the wider body of feminist knowledge in seeking to explore a multiplicity of times and spaces in women and men's lives- as opposed to a binary of women's time and space and men's time and space - and in seeking to focus on time and space simultaneously.

This thesis argues that questions of ethical life, moral identity, and gender are inextricably involved, and that an appropriate conception of each is necessary for the thinking of the others. In particular it seeks to demonstrate that the way in which freedom is conceived in its relation to moral identity and ethical life has profound implications for the thought of gender relations. It is further argued that the writings of Kierkegaard open up a way of relating freedom and the finite that offers the possibility of re-thinking gender. The writings of Rousseau and of Freud are examined to show the interdependence of their philosophical anthropology and the systematic subordination and exclusion of women that operates in each of them. In each case it is shown that, despite the very different, and even opposed ways that they construe the nature of moral identity and its relation to ethical life, a parallel gender polarity is at work. In Rousseau male moral identity rests on independence from society and infinite, excessive freedom. This is brought into relation to the mundane world of ethical life through gender. Women are denied independence and moral identity and made responsible for social being. Their subordination is such that dependence on them does not destroy the integrity of men. The crisis of this unstable structure is demonstrated through a reading of Rousseau's novel La Nouvelle Heloise, the death of whose heroine is shown to be the moment of collapse of the Rousseauean synthesis. In Freud moral identity is achieved through the identification of the self with social authority. The finite freedom that can be thought in psychoanalysis rests on a fusion of ethical and moral life. The "depersonalisation" of the super-ego is the road to liberation. Through the gendered experience of the Oedipal drama this path can only be taken by men. Woman are again exclude from moral identity, being allowed only a "masochistic" relation to the Law. The crisis of this structure is found in the notion of the "archaic heritage", which it is argued, represents a collapse of Freudian thought. Finally both Freud and Rousseau are brought into relation with the psychological writings of Kierkegaard, whose distinctive notion of freedom and faith is held to address the limitations of both sets of writing. Infinite freedom is made to co-exist with finitude. The implications of these writings for the thought of gender is briefly explored through other of the writings of Kierkegaard.

This thesis is concerned with the ambivalence expressed towards feminism by many women in the last decade and identifies post-feminism as a problematic through which to explore this in contemporary women's writing. It focuses on selected fictional and non-fictional texts of the 1980s and 1990s and examines the ways in which they engage with feminist concerns. Until now, post-feminism has not been studied through its articulations in popular literature. To do justice to the wide range of views held by women and avoid a defensive and pessimistic reading of commercialised mainstream culture, I have made use of intertextual readings. The methodology is derived from feminist critical theory and cultural studies in order to address the relation between feminist and non-feminist literary texts and the dynamic interchange between what have been labelled as feminist politics and mainstream or consumer women' s interests. The significance of the research lies in the identification of ways in which such works of fiction and nonfiction provide an outlet for women's voices which could serve as a basis for developing feminist criticism and politics. The thesis is divided into three chapters, the different themes of which illustrate post-feminist concerns. In the first, I address the literature of popular therapy by women. The second chapter focuses on contemporary fictional and non-fictional writings by women on sex. The final chapter examines women' s relationship to transgression through genres of crime writing. I have found that popular literary forms used by women may offer a progressive and complex reading of post-feminism. I conclude that post-feminism has drawn on popular elements of feminism and that, at the beginning of the 1990s, one may identify a reincorporation of feminism into postfeminism.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1992.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1992. / Also available in print.

This thesis analyses international gay rights advocacies in Africa, using the country Ghana as a focal point. Gay rights by their mere sound, seem a concept that all should embrace without questions or qualms. Yet, there are not many concepts that have seen so much controversies, complexities and ironies than gay rights; especially in Africa. This thesis attempts to understand what gay rights are; how they have been received; and the reasons that underpin such receptions in an African country. It argues that, the intrinsic complexities embedded in gay rights advocacies require a cautious socio-legal unpacking beyond the easy and lazy racial stereotyping that currently characterises the debates. That systematic unpacking of the events of the (colonial) past and (postcolonial) present in order to make sense of the future is the central objective here. Using qualitative empirical evidence from primary and secondary sources, this thesis juxtaposes the philosophical realms of human rights theory, postcolonial theory and queer theory to the everyday and practical realities affecting gay people and stakeholders alike. It holds that, perhaps it is through engaging these theories holistically; and transposing them meaningfully to the contextual dispositions, could we make sense of the enormous issues (like the sources and effects of homophobia) that confront us.

This thesis is a critical introduction to the ideas and public influence of French child psychoanalyst Françoise Dolto (1908-88). In the late twentieth century Dolto was a figure of significant cultural importance in France, seen as the country’s leading authority on child psychology. The thesis approaches her career from the perspective of social and cultural history. It historicises Dolto’s resonance with wider French society, explains the intellectual genealogy of her ideas, and explores the societal implications of her fame. It constitutes a substantial contribution both to the history of psychoanalysis ‘beyond the couch’, and to the socio-cultural history of twentieth-century France. The thesis covers a relatively long historical period, and a wide range of topics including child-rearing, education, autism, radical psychiatry and broadcasting history. This span is justified by the length and breadth of Dolto’s career and by the consistency in her ideas over time. The thesis contends that fundamental tenets of Dolto’s thinking were rooted in the intellectual and political climate of interwar France – specifically debates over the social roles of women, children and the family in the 1930s. Dolto’s stances were ‘permissive’ in that they opposed intransigent authoritarianism in child-rearing, education and religion; and patriarchal in that Dolto upheld paternal primacy and familles nombreuses, and often argued against extending women’s rights. The thesis proceeds in two parts. Part I, ‘Becoming Dolto’, focuses on the intellectual, personal and historical background to her emergence as a public figure. It situates Dolto as a product of the interwar haute bourgeoisie and of intellectual trends towards holism and technocracy associated with the anti-Republican Right of the 1930s-1940s. Part II, ‘Taking Psychoanalysis Public’, explores the settings in which Dolto popularised her ideas and her impact on popular opinion and state institutions. It mines the archive of letters to Dolto’s radio programmes to show how her ideas interacted with the concerns of the 1970s French public. It demonstrates her impact on contemporary children’s centres and on the treatment of autism in France into the twenty-first century.

This thesis takes ‘mixed-race’ individuals and parents of ‘mixed-race’ children in Scotland as its subject, exploring the meanings and significance of ‘mixed-race’ and the process by which ‘mixed-race’ identities are constructed. Contributing to the burgeoning ‘mixed-race’ scholarship in Britain, and more broadly to the intersection of the sociology of ‘race’ and the sociology of family relationships literature, this thesis presents a qualitative analysis of ‘mixed-race’ identities by exploring how mixed individuals view themselves through interactions with others. Informed by a theoretical approach combining interactionist and intersectional perspectives, this thesis stresses the role of everyday interactions with family members in shaping one’s views of the self, but it also pays attention to the ways in which meanings associated with ‘mixed-race’ are conditioned by and produced in the wider social context. Based upon thirty-one in-depth interviews with ‘mixed-race’ individuals and parents of mixed children conducted over a 24-month period, this thesis qualitatively examines interviewees’ experiences and interpretations of ‘mixed-race’ by locating them within the wider socio-cultural context. Focusing on personal and family experiences of being ´mixed race’ or being associated with mixedness, this thesis pays particular attention to family dynamics, seeking to explore the ways in which family practices influence children’s attitudes towards mixed heritages. In so doing, empirical data is analysed and presented in a ‘thick description’ fashion. Illustrative cases are employed to draw out and exemplify the complex processes of negotiating and constructing meanings of ‘mixed-race’. Contending that the relative centrality of mixedness varies between individuals, the analysis shows that ‘mixed-race’ identities are embedded in various forms of social relations and conditioned by structural constraints. Due to the uneven access to symbolic and material resources, mixed individuals have different capacities to mobilise collective meanings ascribed to ethnicities in order to negotiate racialised differences. Within this process, ‘mixed-race’ families play a pertinent role in providing their children with access to knowledge about their mixed heritage. Furthermore, parents have an impact on children’s early attitudes towards their ethnic heritages by either reinterpreting or reproducing racial ideologies. Once again, parents’ priorities, strategies and specific plans to communicate the idea of ‘mixed-race’ are structured by their racialised, classed and gendered positions.

This thesis is a study of six mixed-sex political partnerships, all of which functioned within the context of heterosexual marriage. It considers these partnerships involvement in, and attitudes toward, the campaigns for women' s enfranchisement over a fifty year period from 1880 - 1930. The aim of this study is to contribute to our understanding of the gendered nature of political activity and identity through an examination of the women' s suffrage campaigns, in particular the still under-researched, yet extremely important question of men's support for women' s suffrage. This thesis takes as its point of departure historical studies of gender, that is, a critical examination of the constructions of masculinity and femininity; ideas which have been informed and developed by women's history. It will consider the extent to which developments within the suffrage movement both challenged and reinforced gendered political identities and influenced attitudes toward the parts that men and women had to play in both the public and private spheres. The partnerships studied demonstrate not only the diversity of opinion within the women's suffrage movement but also how this single issue affected familial politics at a variety of levels. Each chapter focuses on one political partnership and charts its involvement - whatever form it took - during one of the most dynamic periods in modern British history. The partnerships included in this thesis are diverse and are comprised of Emmeline and Richard Pankhurst, James and Marion Bryce, John and Katharine Bruce Glasier, Emmeline and Frederick Pethick-Li1wrence, Annot and Sam Robinson, and Elsie Duval and Hugh Franklin. This thesis is, therefore, a contribution to both suffrage history and to the study of political partnerships in relation to changes in British political culture during a period of intense debates about the symbolic and actual representation of women.