No description available.

Psychosocial factors represent complex and enduring challenges for people with a traumatic brain injury (TBI), their families and health and rehabilitation systems, particularly in relation to social isolation, change/loss of role and identity issues. Traditional rehabilitation approaches to psychosocial issues target cognitive rehabilitation and psychological adjustment of the individual with a TBI, which reflect the medical model of health. However, the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) ushers a new era in TBI research and practice, which advances the conceptualisation of disability, to include the impact of environmental factors. The ICF identifies the Internet as one such environmental factor, which has the potential to facilitate or impede social participation of people with a disability. Empirical studies suggest the potential of the Internet to empower people with disabilities, via opportunities for social connection; social support; social role participation and identity experimentation. However, research has focused on people with sensory, physical, and mental health issues, with little known of the potential of the Internet for people with a TBI. This area of deficit warrants investigation, in view of the potential of the Internet to address many dimensions of psychosocial concern following TBI. This study explores the role of the Internet in the lives of people with a TBI, with a focus on the potential of the Internet to influence psychosocial recovery. Psychosocial recovery is conceptualised as the reconstruction of a positive identity, as found in subjective accounts of people with a TBI (Lewington, 1996), and strongly supported in the mental health consumer literature. Using a social constructionist approach, this study explores how people with a TBI use the Internet and how they make meaning of their Internet experience. This approach acknowledges the socially situated nature of Internet use and validates the subjective accounts of people with a TBI, whose perspectives are underrepresented in the rehabilitation literature. This study also trials the method of email-facilitated qualitative interviewing, to address face-to-face interviewing barriers, relating to cognitive-linguistic impairments (Lloyd, Gatherer, & Kalsy, 2006; Paterson & Scott-Findley, 2002). Thus, the Internet is the focus of the enquiry and the mediator of the method. The findings highlight the positive potential of the Internet to facilitate social participation for people with a TBI. Participants reported that features such as asynchronicity, reduced cues and anonymity made the Internet an accessible and usable technology, for social connection; social support; social role participation and identity reconstruction. A major theme emerging from the data was control of self, which this study conceptually linked to identity reconstruction and psychosocial recovery. Findings allayed concerns regarding the negative potential of the Internet to increase social isolation of vulnerable people, as participants regarded face-to-face relationships as more fulfilling than online friendships, supporting classic communication theories (Rice, 1987; Rice & Love, 1987), which propose that the Internet is a less personal medium than face-to-face communication, due to the feature of reduced cues. The findings of the method indicated that email facilitated qualitative interviewing addressed face-to-face interviewing barriers related to cognitive linguistic impairments; mobility factors; chronic health issues and environmental stimuli. Most participants indicated that asynchronicity, reduced cues, and anonymity facilitated control of communication, cognition and identity, thus enabling interview participation. The method had also advantages for the researcher, including time for reflection and the ability to yield richer data than in face-to-face contexts. However, the method was resource intensive, requiring information technology proficiency, familiarly with the impact of cognitive-linguistic impairments in online contexts and counselling experience. In addition, ethical guidelines required the involvement of a support person for the emotional protection of participants. This study makes two contributions to knowledge. One contribution relates to the potential of the Internet as an ICF environmental factor to address long-term psychosocial concerns, in addition to positively influencing psychosocial recovery from TBI, as reported by participants. This study contributes to a new era of research, which considers the impact of environmental factors on the experience of TBI, as framed by the ICF. The second contribution relates to the method of email facilitated qualitative interviewing, which advances knowledge of interviewing barriers for people with a TBI and addresses calls for innovative methods with this population. The findings of the method bring into question long held assumptions about the capacity of people with a TBI to participate in research and have implications for research design in qualitative and quantitative methodologies.

Des études récentes ont démontré l’importance du travail dans la construction de l’identité. Pour les personnes atteintes d’un trouble psychiatrique qui se retrouvent la plupart du temps exclues du marché du travail, l’absence d’un emploi suppose une construction identitaire problématique. Dans cette perspective, ce mémoire vise à mieux comprendre ce processus. Le cadre conceptuel utilisé dans cette recherche se base sur les principes de l’approche théorique de Dubar. Il permet d’étudier la reconstruction identitaire à partir de l’interaction entre l’identité revendiquée par les personnes atteintes d’une maladie mentale et l’identité attribuée par des personnes de leur entourage. En conséquence, cette recherche analyse le discours de 28 personnes atteintes d’un trouble mental ainsi que de celui de 6 intervenants sociaux. Nos résultats démontrent la reconstruction de formes identitaires problématiques. La première forme touche la majorité des personnes atteintes de troubles mentaux. Ces dernières aspirent à réintégrer le marché du travail et vivre une vie normale. Toutefois, les intervenants sociaux les perçoivent comme des malades qui ne peuvent fonctionner normalement. La deuxième forme identitaire est reconstruite dans un rapport de concordance entre les perceptions des personnes atteintes de troubles mentaux et celles des intervenants. Les répondants se perçoivent comme étant des malades. Cette identité est validée par les intervenants. La dernière forme identitaire s’inscrit dans un rapport conflictuel qui touche seulement une personne. Cette dernière se perçoit comme une personne malade, mais cette identité est refusée par l’intervenant qui la perçoit comme une personne fonctionnelle et apte à retourner sur le marché du travail. / Recent research has identified the important role of work in a person’s identity. Given that most people who suffer from mental health disorders find themselves unemployed, the lack of exposure to the work environment has a significant effect on the process of their identity construction. This thesis explores the process of identity reconstruction and resulting identity of people having suffering life altering mental health problems who are then prevented from returning to work. Using Dubar as a starting point, we built an analytical model applicable to our research and then applied that model to 28 subject and 6 counsellor interviews. The interviews, qualitative data issued previously from research conducted from 1995 to 1997, were analyzed using NVIVO and then classified according to the requirements of the model. The model consists of four quadrants resulting from the interaction of the identities developed from self perception and from the perception of others. Our results show the reconstruction of identity of people with mental health difficulties is problematic. The first and largest category consists of people who aspire to lead a normal life including regular work. Their counsellors find them unable to work. Our second group, find themselves in agreement with their counsellors. They feel unable to contribute normally to society because they are mentally sick. Our third category has one participant. This is a person who does not have aspirations for a normal life but their counsellor felt they were capable of working and interacting normally with society.

This dissertation adds to the growing body of research on L2 academic discourse socialization in classroom contexts. Although the importance of students' writing in socializing them into their target discourse communities has been well documented, much less has been made of how students learn through online activities when the division between more and less knowledgeable individuals are blurred. Addressing this gap, this qualitative extended case study explored the experiences and perspectives of novice L2 graduate students in academic literacy practices that involved online writing activities. The focal participants included five first-year female graduate students from different cultural backgrounds enrolled in a graduate class during fall 2008 semester. Data sources included interviews with focal students and with the professor, class observations, field notes, questionnaires, handouts, and students' reflective essays. Anchored in language socialization theories (Duff, 1996, 2003; Schieffelin & Ochs, 1986) and the notion of community of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998), this study provides an ecological perspective on these five L2 students' socialization into academic literacy activities. The findings revealed how the students negotiated competence, relations, and identities to participate legitimately as competent members of their classroom communities. This study also contributes to an understanding of the changing role of novice learners in a given academic community by analyzing how they variably exercise their agency and develop their subject positioning in academic literacy activities that are imbricated in social, cultural, and discoursal contexts. Ultimately, this study enriches the notions of academic discourse socialization by demonstrating the dialogic and transformative nature of academic literacy practices mediated by online discourses in order to highlight ever more contextual information. / text

Des études récentes ont démontré l’importance du travail dans la construction de l’identité. Pour les personnes atteintes d’un trouble psychiatrique qui se retrouvent la plupart du temps exclues du marché du travail, l’absence d’un emploi suppose une construction identitaire problématique. Dans cette perspective, ce mémoire vise à mieux comprendre ce processus. Le cadre conceptuel utilisé dans cette recherche se base sur les principes de l’approche théorique de Dubar. Il permet d’étudier la reconstruction identitaire à partir de l’interaction entre l’identité revendiquée par les personnes atteintes d’une maladie mentale et l’identité attribuée par des personnes de leur entourage. En conséquence, cette recherche analyse le discours de 28 personnes atteintes d’un trouble mental ainsi que de celui de 6 intervenants sociaux. Nos résultats démontrent la reconstruction de formes identitaires problématiques. La première forme touche la majorité des personnes atteintes de troubles mentaux. Ces dernières aspirent à réintégrer le marché du travail et vivre une vie normale. Toutefois, les intervenants sociaux les perçoivent comme des malades qui ne peuvent fonctionner normalement. La deuxième forme identitaire est reconstruite dans un rapport de concordance entre les perceptions des personnes atteintes de troubles mentaux et celles des intervenants. Les répondants se perçoivent comme étant des malades. Cette identité est validée par les intervenants. La dernière forme identitaire s’inscrit dans un rapport conflictuel qui touche seulement une personne. Cette dernière se perçoit comme une personne malade, mais cette identité est refusée par l’intervenant qui la perçoit comme une personne fonctionnelle et apte à retourner sur le marché du travail. / Recent research has identified the important role of work in a person’s identity. Given that most people who suffer from mental health disorders find themselves unemployed, the lack of exposure to the work environment has a significant effect on the process of their identity construction. This thesis explores the process of identity reconstruction and resulting identity of people having suffering life altering mental health problems who are then prevented from returning to work. Using Dubar as a starting point, we built an analytical model applicable to our research and then applied that model to 28 subject and 6 counsellor interviews. The interviews, qualitative data issued previously from research conducted from 1995 to 1997, were analyzed using NVIVO and then classified according to the requirements of the model. The model consists of four quadrants resulting from the interaction of the identities developed from self perception and from the perception of others. Our results show the reconstruction of identity of people with mental health difficulties is problematic. The first and largest category consists of people who aspire to lead a normal life including regular work. Their counsellors find them unable to work. Our second group, find themselves in agreement with their counsellors. They feel unable to contribute normally to society because they are mentally sick. Our third category has one participant. This is a person who does not have aspirations for a normal life but their counsellor felt they were capable of working and interacting normally with society.

Qu’est-ce qui se négocie, s’invente, ou se noue, dans les trames de l’histoire intergénérationnelle, à travers le processus d’arrachement et de rattachement à l’islam des étudiantes descendantes de migrants originaires du Maghreb ? S’y dessine une dialectique de l’arrachement et du rattachement qui donne sens et forme aux recompositions religieuses opérées par les filles en même temps qu’à leur rapport complexe à la société française, où se projette leur volonté affirmée d’exister comme sujet féminin autonome. Inhérent à la dynamique du processus d’expérimentation de la jeunesse, révélateur des tensions, des doutes et des contradictions, la conflictualité qui hérisse cette quête d’autonomie la signale comme un marqueur de rupture identitaire qui modifie en profondeur les relations intergénérationnelles. Ce processus, à la fois cohérent dans son unité et scandé par de grandes ruptures, se déroule dans une trajectoire en quatre phases traversées par une même dialectique de l’arrachement et du rattachement :1/ le temps du questionnement identitaire, temps de la déstabilisation de l’identité individuelle et du rejet des marqueurs ethniques ; 2/ le temps « de l’adolescence », temps des choix et de la rappropriation de l’origine ; 3/ le temps « exploratoire » des possibles religieux, temps de l’affranchissement de la transmission patriarcale et de la libre enquête autodidactique ; 4/ le temps de la « militance », temps de l’invention d’une islamité féminine originale des « soeurs ». In fine, se pose la question de la possibilité d’une émancipation féminine structurée par l’engagement religieux auprès des 31 étudiantes de Bordeaux et d’ailleurs. / What sort of bargaining or devising attitude or even deciding point is to be found in the yarns of the weft of their personal history down through generations when young female students descendants of Maghreb migrant families choose to experiment islam ? So “entry” into religion cannot be regarded as a sudden occurrence. It is an intense dialectical process, of painful separations followed by renewed ties which gives meaning to even shapes identity reconstruction of these young women. Simultaneously, the dialectic also clarifies the complex relationships which the latter have with French society. Here there is no change in religion rather a conversional process marked by an « entrance » in an Islamic religious time and space which is not obvious for them. It is a Muslim religious belonging which the girls choose, as opposed to their family heritage and in the feminist vision of the integration model like “Frenchies”. The typical ideal path of French female students’ process to Islam goes through four analytic phases and ultimately raises the issue of a possible emancipation of women structured by religious commitment. The different phases of a religious trajectory examined in our study are as follows: the first phase is one of questioning identity, destabilization of individual identity and rejection of ethnic markers. The second is the phase of adolescence. The third is the exploratory phase of religious possibilities. Finally, the fourth and last phase is a time for religious activism (University/halqa/mosque). Thus, the quest for emancipated behavior, part of a process of modernity, occurs through their religious experiment. among 31 students in Bordeaux, Grenoble and Marseilles.

L’œuvre migrante de Walter Bauer, immigrant allemand ayant quitté l’Allemagne en 1952 et s’étant établi à Toronto, est digne d’intérêt, car elle exprime le malaise de l’auteur face à sa situation d’exilé. Bauer, amoureux de l’Allemagne et de sa culture, doit en effet tenter de vivre avec la honte du passé nazi de son pays natal. Incapable de faire cohabiter l’amour et la honte, Bauer fait donc face à une crise identitaire à laquelle il répond en tentant de se reconstruire une identité nouvelle. Le Canada y jouera un rôle à la fois positif et négatif. C’est de ce rôle du pays d’accueil pour la réussite de l’écrivain migrant dans sa quête identitaire dont il sera question dans ce mémoire de maitrise. En nous appuyant tant sur le poids du passé pour l’auteur que sur l’espoir qu’il porte en ses possibilités de reconstruction identitaire au Canada, nous pourrons faire ressortir l’idéal identitaire de Bauer : être un homme des deux pays, chez lui sur les deux continents. En analysant le traitement de l’expérience immigrante que nous retrouvons dans son œuvre, nous arrivons à la conclusion que le choc de la réalité vient cependant mettre à rude épreuve cet idéal et, ultimement, l’empêche de le concrétiser. L’idéal de l’auteur, né du contact de la fracture identitaire suite à la Deuxième Guerre mondiale et de l’espoir d’une nouvelle naissance représenté par un Canada idéalisé, est donc rendu impossible à cause du Canada réel qui le met dans une situation d’aliénation. / German-Canadian Walter Bauer’s writings are a striking example of the identity struggle he faced as an exiled person. Walter Bauer, who profoundly loved his native country, Germany, and its culture, had to learn to live with the shame inherited from the National-socialist regime. In his work, he is incapable of reconciling his beloved Germany with the horrors of the war and is faced with an identity crisis, leaving him with the need to rebuild his identity. His host country, Canada, played an ambivalent role in this quest, both positive and negative. This master’s thesis explores the role of Canada in the identity quest of the migrant writer Walter Bauer. By analysing both the burden of the German past and the promise of renewal given by Canada, it describes the identity ideal towards which Bauer strived: to be a man from both Canada and Germany, to be at ease on both continents. The way in which the author represents the immigrant experience through his work leads us to conclude that the clash with reality ultimately questions this ideal. The writer’s identity crisis, resulting from the Second World War and his false hopes of a new beginning in an idealised Canada, ends in alienation lived.

The purpose of this study was to explore the nature of changes that take place in surviving HIVpositive spouses’ explanations of themselves in relation to their acquired positive status, and in relation to the role that forgiveness may play, all through Hermans’ theory of dialogical self in the self-identity reconstruction process. The interpretive qualitative paradigm was used, along with a phenomenological research design. Research was carried out in a rural area of Gwanda South Constituency in Zimbabwe. Homogenous purposive sampling was used to select five HIVpositive widows and five HIV-positive widowers. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were used and thematic, narrative and interpretive phenomenological analyses were employed to analyse the data. The results showed that the surviving HIV-positive spouses faced a plethora of challenges following the deaths of their partners. Identified key relations to the reconstruction of a new self were found to be: a good knowledge of HIV; being at peace with the past self; forgiveness of self; and reconciliation with what has happened. These were found to be good ingredients for quick recovery and self-identity reconstruction. Significant others play an important role in self-identity reconstruction as they offer an environment that is supportive of HIV disclosure, thereby reducing the occurrence of stigma and discrimination. The study recommends that HIV activists and all education systems that are involved in the HIV campaigns in Gwanda South Constituency incorporate teachings about and awareness of forgiveness, reconciliation, stigma and discrimination at all levels of their education efforts and campaigns. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

[pt] A cultura de consumo é uma arena para a produção e circulação de representações identitárias. Nesse espaço, o estigma do peso pode afetar diretamente a criação de um projeto identitário. Diante de uma recorrente dificuldade de atenderem seus desejos próprios de consumo de vestuário, os projetos identitários de mulheres obesas acabam sendo impactados pelas condições estabelecidas pela indústria da moda, que, por décadas, adotou um posicionamento marginal em relação ao segmento plus size. Apesar do tamanho deste segmento, existe uma carência de estudos qualitativos direcionados ao consumo simbólico de moda plus size no Brasil, especialmente com um olhar voltado à reconstrução da identidade de mulheres submetidas à cirurgia bariátrica. Portanto, este trabalho investigou, a partir de uma perspectiva interpretativa, os significados simbólicos do consumo de vestuário plus size feminino e como a cirurgia bariátrica impacta na reconstrução da identidade de consumidoras obesas e sua relação com a moda. Foram realizadas entrevistas em profundidade com 15 mulheres bariatricadas, entre 30 e 50 anos de idade, selecionadas por meio da técnica bola de neve. Todas as entrevistas foram gravadas e transcritas integralmente, e analisadas de forma sistemática a partir de categorias que emergiram do campo. Os resultados sugerem a existência de uma variedade de aspectos subjetivos associados à reconstrução da identidade por essas mulheres, por conta da passagem pela cirurgia bariátrica, que refletem expressivamente os diversos significados atribuídos ao consumo simbólico de moda feminina, com destaque a novas percepções, hábitos, experiências e preferências de consumo. / [en] Consumer culture is an arena for the production and circulation of identity representations. In this space, the stigma of weight may directly impact the creation of an identity project. Faced with a recurrent difficulty in meeting their own clothing consumption desires, the identity projects of obese women have been impacted by the conditions established by the fashion industry, which has adopted a marginal position about the plus size segment for decades. However, despite the size of this segment, there is a lack of qualitative studies aimed at the symbolic consumption of plus size fashion in Brazil, especially with a view to identity reconstruction of women who have undergone bariatric surgery. Therefore, this work proposes to investigate, from an interpretive perspective, the symbolic meanings of the consumption of female plus size clothing and how bariatric surgery impacts the identity reconstruction of obese consumers and their relationship with fashion. By exploring this phenomenon, aspects such as the social stigma to obesity, the segregation of the fashion universe, and the retail influences on these women shopping experiences were highlighted. In-depth interviewing was conducted with 15 bariatric women, between 30 and 50 years of age, using the snowball sampling technique. All interviews were fully recorded and transcribed. The analysis used categories that emerged from the field. The results suggest the existence of a variety of subjective aspects associated to the identity reconstruction of these women, due to the experience of bariatric surgery, which reflects expressively in the various meanings attributed to the symbolic consumption of women s fashion, with emphasis on new consumption perceptions, habits, experiences, and preferences.

Ce projet de mémoire examine les perceptions et expériences d’une douzaine de personnes travaillant et/ou vivant sur une ferme de réinsertion pour les personnes contrevenantes. Après avoir participé pendant un mois aux activités de la ferme et nous être entretenu auprès de 12 personnes, nous avons exploré comment la ferme fonctionne, comment ses différentes composantes sont utilisées et comment l’intervention s’intègre avec le concept du désistement assisté. Nous avons trouvé qu’un lien unissait la ferme et la communauté environnante. Cependant, ce lien n’a pas encore été exploré par la littérature. En plus de promouvoir le maintien d’une abstinence de délit, le care farming, à travers le contact avec la communauté se place comme une intervention de choix en ce qui a trait aux pratiques soutenant la reconstruction identitaire et la réintégration des personnes judiciarisées. En effet, cette intervention, bien que permettant de multiples bienfaits, ne trouve son sens qu’à travers la collaboration avec le monde extérieur. / This dissertation project examines the perceptions and experiences of a dozen people working and/or living on a rehabilitation farm. After participating for a month in the farm's activities and interviewed 12 people we explored how the farm operates, how its various components are used, and how the intervention fits with the concept of assisted desistance. We found that there was a connection between the farm and the surrounding community. However, this connection has not yet been explored by the literature. In addition to promoting the maintenance of abstinence from crime, care farming, trough contact with the community, is an intervention of choice for practices that support the reconstruction of identity and the reintegration of offenders. Indeed, this intervention, while providing multiple benefits, only makes sense through collaboration with the outside world.