<p>Världen blir allt mindre och fler människors levnadsstandard runt om i välden blir allt mer påtaglig.</p><p>Samtidigt lever vi i västvärlden i ett samhälle som strävar efter att bli individualistiskt. Vi i väst har</p><p>aldrig tidigare varit så medvetna, kritiska och utbildade som nu, vilket även borde betyda en ökad</p><p>sympati för våra medmänniskor. Men forskare säger annat. Våra handlingar bygger allt mer på vad</p><p>som kommer att se bra ut i våra CV.</p><p>Detta projekt försöker gestalta människans behov av medmänniskor och hennes behov av att</p><p>känna sig behövd.</p><p>Projektet producerade en artefakt i form av en golvlampa som ska förmedla projektets budskap.</p><p>Projektet skiljer sig något från en konventionell designprocess då budskapet och berättelsen är</p><p>beställaren. Processen bygger på ett förhållningssätt som har kommit att kallas konceptdesign.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2003. / Advisor: Dr. Piers Rawling, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Philosophy. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Apr. 8,04). Includes bibliographical references.

This work attempts to examine the relevance of the conceptual opposition between modernity and postmodernity on the basis of a typological analysis of the modes of subjectivity and intersubjectivity which are implicated in the integration and the reproduction of a given form of society. We first show that traditional societies rest on concrete and particular modes of personal identity and of mutual recognition, which are integrated together within a common culture, whereas modern societies rest on an abstraction and universalization of forms societally legitimized of subjective identity and of intersubjective recognition. These we propose to designate by the concept of individualism. After presenting the main stages in the construction of modern individualism, we attempt to illuminate some of the implications, but also some of the aporias, that the modern conception of subjectivity and intersubjectivity presents. In the final part of this work, we seek to establish the validity of the notion of postmodernity to define contemporary society. We try to show that the universalist type of individualism, which characterizes modern society and provides its identity, gradually gives way to a "singularist" type of individualism. This latter form of individualism attests to a crisis of personal identity and is associated with the progressive dissolution of any collective identity, that is, of any a a priori intersubjectivity.

This study was an effort to uncover four major facts: (a) the predictive power ofthe proposed integrated model, which posits the influence of attitudes (ATT), subjectivenorms (SN), perceived behavior control (PBC), altruism, self-construal, and paperrecyclingknowledge on behavioral intentions; (b) the moderating effects ofindividualism-collectivism (I-C) on the attitudes-intentions relationship and thesubjective norms-intentions relationship; (c) the comparison of the predictive power ofthe TPB model and the proposed integrated model; and (d) the relationship between twointentions measures: behavioral intentions and implementation intentions.This cross-sectional research consisted of two phases: the TPB elicitation researchand the main study. Participants were undergraduate students recruited from two majorpublic universities in Thailand and the U.S. The sample size used in the main analysiscomprised 417 respondents from Thailand (representing a collectivistic society) and 432respondents from the U.S. (representing an individualistic society). Structural equationmodeling (SEM) was employed to investigate the predictability of the TPB model and theintegrated model. Multi-group SEM was implemented to examine the moderating effectsof I-C. Correlation analysis was conducted to detect the relationship between the twointentions measures.The results yielded some significant findings enhancing our understanding ofpaper-recycling intentions of college students in the two countries. First, TPBdeterminants, especially PBC and SN, were potential predictors of paper recycling.Although ATT was not a successful antecedent of intentions in Thailand, it predictedintentions of U.S. participants. Second, altruism was a significant factor explaining ATTand PBC for both samples; it also directly influenced intentions. Third, two types of selfconstrualsignificantly and distinctively affected ATT and SN. Fourth, paper-recyclingknowledge failed to predict either attitudes or intentions in either country. Fifth, althoughthe ratio difference of the model X2 and the R2 showed the TPB model to be slightly morepowerful than the integrated model, and TPB was more parsimonious, the integratedmodel advances our understanding of additional psychosocial and cultural factors withregard to paper recycling. Finally, the significant correlation between the behavioralintentionsand the implementation-intentions measures were positive and relatively high.Findings can benefit communication campaigns targeting audiences in different cultures.

Martinborough, a small rural settlement renowned for its Pinot Noir wines, is a popular holiday destination for many of the new middle class resident in nearby Wellington, New Zealand's capital city. Attracted by the prospect of a rural idyll experience and conspicuous opportunities for urbane consumption, Martinborough's wine tourists also typically desired highly idealised and personalised holiday experiences. My thesis therefore examines the tourists' performative displays and public narratives of social distinction and ideal reflexive individuality. I explore the collusive framing of Martinborough as a metro-rural idyll dedicated to urbane and leisured consumption, and how within this performative setting tourists attempted to reconcile their middle class distinction (general and hierarchical) with their simultaneous pursuit of a reflexive praiseworthy self (Howland 2004). My analysis arises from participant-observation fieldwork, interviews, and surveys in a number of public tourism and wine contexts in Martinborough and elsewhere. Social distinction is marked by the competitive struggle for, and deployment of, various capitals by individuals and groups (Bourdieu 1984). Bourdieu (1984, 2002) contends that within habitus various subconscious, durable, and transposable dispositions are generated. I argue that reflexive individuality is a pervasive habitus, especially for Martinborough's middle class tourists, and that this "reflexive habitus" (Sweetman 2003: 537) generates ideal dispositions, which are mediated through other habitus (e.g. occupational, ethnic etc), and which individuals variously enact, aspire to, narrate, or performatively display. These ideals include autonomy in thought and action, and dedication to self-improvement. In post-industrial societies reflexive individuality is an influential dynamic in social connectedness, occupational pathways, political movements, consumption, and in the individualised assembly of intersubjectivities (Beck 2002; Giddens 1991). The tourists' desire for ideal reflexive individuality is, however, routinely frustrated within their everyday domestic, occupational and consumerist experiences. The stratification mechanisms of social distinction also clearly possess the capacity to disrupt or invalidate the praiseworthy self. Individuals are thus drawn to fields of action where they perceive the greatest opportunities for personal autonomy and choice. For Martinborough's tourists this included various urbane and leisured consumption activities, their reflexive sociality, and the articulation of autobiographical narratives that affirmed personal tastes and individual orientations toward social distinction. Martinborough's tourists reproduced a mythology of an enduring vernacular rural idyll. This rural idyll provided the moral foundation for an equally romanticised metro-rural idyll which, in conjunction with the tourists similarly idealised notions of 'the French tradition' of fine wine, provided a corroborating setting for their leisured consumption of urbane commodities that performatively affirmed their middle class distinction. The tourists' pursuit of social distinction was also significantly enhanced by the democraticisation of the cultural capital of wine connoisseurship, the tiered production of wine, and by the provision of conspicuous opportunities to engage in singular, episodic, and performative wine consumption. The metro-rural idyll, in combination with a pervasive New World wine ethos that promoted personalised innovation and experimentation, also provided a validating locale for the tourists' pursuit of ideal reflexive individuality. Accordingly tourists' personal wine choices were conspicuously celebrated and many aspects of wine production, producers, purchasing, and consumption were reflexively biographised. The tourists' displays of reflexive sociality and their reflexive distinction narratives were also important components in their performative assertions of ideal reflexive individuality.

This study examined the relation among ethnic group membership, ethnic identity, collectivism and individualism in a sample of European American and African American college students. Findings suggest that African Americans are more collectivist than European Americans only in reference to their ethnic group. There were no significant differences between ethnic groups in collectivism toward friends, family, strangers or colleagues. Contrary to findings of previous research, there was no significant moderating effect of gender on collectivism differences between ethnic groups. In congruence with previous research, ethnic identity mediated the relation between ethnic group membership and collectivism toward the ethnic group. African Americans were also significantly higher on overall individualism when compared to European Americans and this relation was not mediated by ethnic identity. In addition to these findings, discussion focuses on issues regarding the measurement of individualism, collectivism, and ethnic identity.

Culture is made up of numerous components that interact upon the individual to help form and shape his/her perspectives about the world. Two such components are machismo (the degree to which a population views gender roles as particularly male oriented) and self-construal (the internal attributions of individualism/collectivism). In a survey conducted among native English speaking individuals and native Spanish speaking individuals within the Midwestern United States, a measure of both of these components was used to determine whether there are differences in scores for selfconstrual and machismo between two samples. The results indicate that in the samples included, the native Spanish speaking group scored significantly higher on machismo, and the native English speaking cohort scored significantly higher on independent selfconstrual. Differences between the two groups for mean age and gender composition may explain the lack of significance for the measure of interdependent self-construal. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

The thesis argues that the development of the New Liberalism in the late nineteenth century was opposed from the standpoint of a more "traditional" conception of liberalism by a group of political theorists who owed their inspiration to the work of Herbert Spencer. Despite the protestations of these self-styled "Individualists" that they were the true heirs of mid-century liberalism, it is argued that their political theory represented as much a transformation of Benthamite Radicalism as did that of the New Liberals. The Individualists developed raid-century liberalism in a conservative direction, arguing that social change was not to be attained by conscious design and developing an ethical justification for the actual distribution of property and power in late Victorian Britain. The thesis establishes this claim by examining six Individualist arguments derived from Spencer's Synthetic Philosophy: (1) the argument from the biological theory of evolution; (2) the argument from psychological theory; (3) the sociological conception of society as an "organism"; (4) the theory of historical development; (5) the doctrine of utility; and (6) the theory of justice and property rights.

"This study is an investigation of progress in Australia over the 20th century. Progress is defined here as the enhancement of human wellbeing. For the purposes of this study, human wellbeing will be characterised by five main components: knowledge, environment, economy, individual and social. Enhancement refers to positive directional change in terms of these components. The study firstly develops a framework to conceptualise progress. It then collects and uses statistical data in a descriptive study of what happened in Australia, over those 100 years, in terms of progress in general and in terms of its components. The study also develops a typology of relationships for models of progress, which best explain the Australian data. This study finally explores some of the relationships between the elements that make up the components of progress and looks at ways to best explain what has happened..." --p.1. / Doctor of Philosophy

"This study is an investigation of progress in Australia over the 20th century. Progress is defined here as the enhancement of human wellbeing. For the purposes of this study, human wellbeing will be characterised by five main components: knowledge, environment, economy, individual and social. Enhancement refers to positive directional change in terms of these components. The study firstly develops a framework to conceptualise progress. It then collects and uses statistical data in a descriptive study of what happened in Australia, over those 100 years, in terms of progress in general and in terms of its components. The study also develops a typology of relationships for models of progress, which best explain the Australian data. This study finally explores some of the relationships between the elements that make up the components of progress and looks at ways to best explain what has happened..." --p.1. / Doctor of Philosophy