I focus on the issue of ghettization of cities in the Czech Republic in my diploma thesis. Summary of the current state and methods of settling is the main point. In the theoretical part, I introduce the definition of ghettization, and furthermore, I describe the development of ghettos and the current state in the world and namely in the CR. In the practical part, I focus on the city Litvínov -- its settlement Janov, in which one of the biggest ghetto in the CR has formed in recent years. Ghettization is analyzed from the viewpoint of demography and social-economic composition. These statistics are supported with a summary of current models of solutions.

In this thesis, Giddens' theory of structuration is employed in an analysis of the ghetto of ex-psychiatric patients in Hamilton, Ontario. A review of the main concepts of of structuration theory forms the basis for a theoretical model of the structuration of urban space that considers both the individual agent and the social system as equal partners in the production and reproduction of the urban built environment. From this general model, methodologies are developed for institutional analysis and an analysis of strategic conduct. The institutional analysis enables an understanding of the ghetto as the unintended outcome of deinstitutionalization policy. An examination of the city of Hamilton's attempt to dismantle the ghetto focuses on the strategic conduct of the actors in the policy-making process, and provides insight as to why the city's attempt has thus far proved unsuccessful in halting the ghettoization of ex-patients. The study demonstrates the theoretical and empirical utility of structuration theory in providing an analysis that considers the complex interrelationships of system, structure, agency, time and space. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

<p> This dissertation uses multilevel models to test the veracity of two competing theories regarding the effect of Aboriginal language use on socioeconomic well-being. The cohesion hypothesis suggests that Aboriginal language use will contribute to a sense of ethnic identity and, in turn, to socioeconomic prosperity. The ghettoization hypothesis suggests that Aboriginal language use will reduce well-being by contributing to social and economic isolation. </p> <p> Descriptive statistics from the 2001 Census of Canada support the ghettoization hypothesis. Compared to Aboriginal people who do not use an Aboriginal language, Aboriginal language users have lower levels of educational attainment, income, labour force participation and employment. Multilevel models however, demonstrate that neither hypothesis merits unqualified support. Aboriginal language users are predicted to have lower well-being than non-speakers under some circumstances- most notably in non-Aboriginal communities. Under other circumstances, however, the opposite is true. Tests of the mechanisms by which Aboriginal language use is supposed to affect well-being also have inconsistent implications. Additional research is proposed that might clarify the apparently complex relationship between Aboriginal language use and well-being. </p> <p> Aboriginal language use in Canada is declining very rapidly. Of the dozens of Aboriginal languages used in Canada today, only a few are expected to survive into the next century. This dissertation may provide guidance to Aboriginal leaders tasked with allocating resources, as well as to politicians and policy-makers faced with increasingly urgent demands to support Aboriginal language maintenance. </p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

abstract: The Civil Rights Project estimates that Black girls are among the least likely to graduate from high school. More specifically, only about half, or 56%, of freshman Black girls graduate with their class four years later. Beyond the statistics little is known about Black girls who drop out, why they leave school and what happens to them once they are gone. This study is a grounded theory analysis of the stories eight adult Black women told about dropping out of high school with a particular focus on how dropping out affected their lives as workers, mothers and returners to education. There is one conclusion about dropping out and another about Black female identity. First, the women in my study were adolescents during the 1980s, experienced life at the intersection of Blackness, womaness, and poverty and lived in the harsh conditions of a Black American hyperghetto. Using a synthesis between intersectionality and hyperghettoization I found that the women were so determined to improve their economic and personal conditions that they took on occupations that seemed to promise freedom, wealth and safety. Because they were so focused on their new lives, their school attendance suffered as a consequence. In the second conclusion I argued that Black women draw their insights about Black female identity from two competing sources. The two sources are their lived experience and popular controlling images of Black female identity. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2011

Le roman policier espagnol écrit au cours des trois dernières décennies se définit essentiellement comme un roman social urbain. Les déplacements des détectives mettent en lumière la cartographie d’un espace urbain espagnol en mutation, en accord avec les transformations subies par la société espagnole. Cette thèse se propose, à partir d’œuvres de quatre écrivains, Alicia Giménez Bartlett, Antonio Lozano, Juan Madrid et Andreu Martín, de dégager les lectures possibles de l’espace urbain qui permettent de mieux comprendre l’évolution de la société espagnole. Nous verrons d’abord un espace de proximité constitué d’une combinaison de lieux anthropologiques ; puis, un espace traversé de frontières visibles et invisibles qui entravent le mouvement d’une partie de la population ; enfin, un espace dans lequel la mobilité se généralise accentuant les inégalités entre ceux qui y ont accès et ceux qui sont condamnés à l’immobilité. Cette thèse propose une approche littéraire et sociologique du roman policier espagnol contemporain. / The Spanish crime novel that has been written over the last three decades can be essentially defined as an urban social novel. The movements of the detectives reveal the cartography of a Spanish urban space which is in mutation, reflecting the transformations undergone by Spanish society. Based on the work of four authors, Juan Madrid, Andreu Martín, Alicia Giménez Bartlett and Antonio Lozano, this thesis proposes various possible ways of interpreting that urban space, thus enabling a better understanding of the evolution of Spanish society. First of all, we encounter a space of proximity comprising a combination of places - as defined by Marc Augé ; then a space across which visible and invisible frontiers run, hindering mobility for a part of the population ; finally a space in which mobility is widespread, so emphasizing the inequality between those who have access to it and those who are condemned to staying put. This thesis thus proposes a literary and sociological approach to the contemporary Spanish crime novel.

In Holocaust research, the study of elderly Jews in Nazi German ghettos remains a blind spot. This thesis begins to fill the research gap by exploring the everyday life of elderly Jews and their agency under the structural conditions of the Warsaw ghetto. On a broader scale, my key findings contribute to scholarly debates and lay the foundation for further research, on Jewish responses to ghettoization and agency during the Holocaust, including the continuity and disruption of gender roles and social hierarchies in the family and Jewish ghetto community as well as religious practices as a coping strategy for elderly Jews in the ghetto. The theoretical framework augments current gender scholarship and explanations of agency and structure in the ghetto with intersectional theory, including gender, class as intervening variables, which represents a barely used theoretical approach to an under-researched subject. To answer my main research question "How did gender, class, and family as well as the Jewish community and German authorities influence the life of elderly Jews in the ghetto?”, the analysis is conducted in the tradition of the history of the everyday on the micro-level. My empirical analysis examines the living conditions, agency, survival, and vulnerability to violence and death of elderly people in the Warsaw ghetto. The primary sources used in the empirical analysis are a combination of archival documents - including the clandestine Oneg Shabbat ghetto archive -, diaries and memoirs by elderly Jews as well as oral history interviews of their grandchildren. A general scarcity of sources by elderly, especially poor elderly and female elderly Jews in the primary sources available to the author, constitute the limitations of this thesis.