Tillgång till sanitet är en mänsklig rättighet och en förutsättning för liv och hälsa. Trots det lever miljontals människor världen över med bristande sanitet. Den här uppsatsens syfte är att studera hur sanitetssituationen i informella bosättningar kan se ut och hur den upplevs av de boende, samt hur det är möjligt att förbättra den situationen. Genom att utföra en intervjustudie i den informella bosättningen Kibera i Kenyas huvudstad Nairobi, har de boende där fått ge sin bild av hur de upplever sanitetsproblemen och hur det gått till när sanitetslösningen Peepoo introducerades i området. I den här uppsatsen står själva förändringen i centrum och Kurt Lewins teori om förändringsprocessen används som teoretiskt verktyg. Med hjälp av den har informanternas svar analyserats för att se hur processen fortgått och vilka krafter som drivit respektive hindrat förändringen. Det framkom att ett framgångsrikt sätt att genomföra en dylik förändring är genom att minska motståndet till den genom information, både från formella och informella kanaler. Det är också viktigt att det finns tydliga incitament till att genomföra förändringen, både direkt märkbara och ur ett längre perspektiv. / Access to sanitation is a human right and a prerequisite for life and health. Despite that millions of people worldwide lives without adequate sanitation. The aims of this thesis is to study how the sanitary situation in informal settlements might look like and how the situation is perceived by the residents, as well as how it is possible to improve the situation. By conducting an interview study in the informal settlement of Kibera in the capital of Kenya, Nairobi, the residents got to give their own view of how they experience the sanitary problems and how the implementation of the sanitary solution Peepoo was conducted in the area. In this thesis the change itself is in the centre and Kurt Lewin's theory of change is used as theoretical tool. With this tool the informants' answers were analysed to see how the process of introducing Peepoo proceeded, and what forces drove and hindered the change. It emerged that a successful way to implement such a change is by reducing the resistance through information, both from formal and informal channels. It is also important that there are clear incentives to implement the change, both directly perceptible and from a longer perspective.

Svart arbete, informal purchases of work, is a widely debated societal phenomenon in Sweden. It is often seen as detrimental to contemporary welfare society, eroding taxpaying morals, fair competition and solidarity with fellow citizens. Acknowledged as wrong, it is in many instances also an acceptable and commonplace exchange practice. This study addresses this incongruity and aims to show how these inconspicuous exchanges of work are distinguished in terms of legality and licitness. Methodologically, the study is based on ethnographic interviews with a group of people in all walks of life, who have their roots in a small town in southern Sweden. In the midst of life and work, they address situations where living in accordance with moral standards becomes difficult. The study aims to illuminate multifaceted reasonings about the illegal but licit purchases made and how people make sense and meaning of them in retrospect and in the larger context of societal economy. The ways in which these purchases of svart arbete are justified illustrate inherent tensions in contemporary welfare society. Purchases of svart arbete are often justified as rational economic decisions in terms of being cheap and simple. The study shows that purchasing work informally is not only a rational economic decision, but can also be the result of resolving necessities in daily life due to societal bottlenecks and/or probing tax legislation. As an economic phenomenon, these purchases are therefore not seen as set apart from the formal structures of the Swedish economy, but as co-existing with them. Justifying the illegal but licit svart arbete, purchasers are seen to emphasise a reciprocal relationship with the provider of the work and also with the state. In this way, a sense of balance and justice is achieved.

Police corruption is a primary concern for law enforcement agencies. The purpose of this study was to identify factors that could predict the likelihood of police officer susceptibility to corruption. Data was collected through surveys of 1083 officers within eight U.S. police agencies that were participating in the National Police Research Platform funded by the National Institute of Justice. The data were analyzed using multilevel structural equation and base multilevel models. The theoretical model for this study addressed susceptibility to corruption on both the departmental (clusters) and individual officer levels. Four main constructs were utilized in this study. Acceptance of deviant norms was the outcome variable operationalizing susceptibility to corruption. Anomie was a departmental predictor operationalizing expectations that socially accepted goals could not be accomplished through socially acceptable means. Decoupling was a departmental predictor measuring the extent to which departmental pragmatic goals were out of alignment with official ethical codes. Moral disengagement was the individual predictor operationalizing the ability to use cognitive mechanisms to excuse unethical decision-making. Departments higher in anomie and decoupling were hypothesized to have higher acceptance of deviant norms that condone corruption. Officers with higher levels of moral disengagement were also expected to have a greater acceptance of deviant norms. The departmental environment was expected to have more influence than individual officer traits such that anomie and decoupling would moderate the effects of moral disengagement within departments. The results demonstrated the promise of the multilevel theoretical model. Anomie was a strong predictor of acceptance of deviant norms. Moral disengagement was also a moderately strong predictor of acceptance of deviant norms in the base multilevel models. Anomie moderated the effect of moral disengagement to some degree, although it had no impact on the slope between acceptance of deviant norms and moral disengagement. Differences between departmental subgroups indicated how officer assignments and demographic characteristics may impact susceptibility to corruption. Study limitations related primarily to the multilevel structural equation model, scale construction, and sampling. Limitations are addressed as regards their general relevance to theory and methodology. Implications of the results for policy and future research are discussed.

This dissertation analyzes how discourses of risk shape teens’ digital media practices. The purpose is to understand the relationship between discourses of risk, policy regulations, informal learning, and teens’ everyday experiences. This research serves to combat discourses that construct technology as a threat and youth as ‘at-risk’ in two ways. One, it demonstrates the agentive ways teens manage risks and two, it provides empirical evidence of the ways technologies and literacies function as risk reduction strategies. From a Foucauldian perspective of governmentality, this study considers risk to be an always already historically, socially, and politically constructed phenomenon; as such, policies serve as risk intervention strategies. The first part of this dissertation traces how risk discourses are mobilized through moral panics and federal policies regulating young people’s use of the internet. Despite research to the contrary, policies reify anxieties associated with the threat of pornography and predators. As such, policies rely on constructions of young people as passive victims and technologies as risks; such regulations unintentionally limit learning opportunities. The second part analyzes how schools regulate subjects of risk and digital media, as well as how teens themselves manage risks. Ethnographic research was conducted in a large, ethnically diverse, low-income high school in Texas. As part of a team, the researcher spent eight months observing two after-school digital media clubs. The ethnography also consisted of 18 case studies with diverse high school students. Researchers conducted individual, semi-structured, qualitative interviews with the students on a regular basis for an entire academic school year. Findings suggest discourses of risk were mobilized through school district policies which regulated teens’ use of digital media. Specifically, regulations limited students’ opportunities to develop a) social, b) network, and c) critical digital media literacies. However, students generated agentive ways to resist regulations in order to maintain robust peer and learning ecologies. The clubs constructed technologies as interventions for ‘at-risk’ youth. Within informal learning spaces teens a) developed skills, b) acquired social capital, and c) negotiated empowered identities. Lastly, the study considers how teens acknowledged and negotiated risks associated with privacy. Teens demonstrated three strategies for managing consumer and social privacy: a) informational, b) audience management, and c) spatial strategies. / text

This study was undertaken to answer the question, “In a cross-section of the featured creative entrepreneurs from Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design, what kind, if any, of art education did these full time, handmade-craft business owners receive in EC-12 schooling and how has it affected their adult lives as successful craft business owners? In what ways, if at all, does it appear their formal art education led to their successful creative ventures in their adult years?” In order to answer this question, a survey was conducted of a cross-section of the participants featured in the book (Levine & Heimerl, 2008) and film (Levine, 2009) Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design about their art educational backgrounds, including what amount of art instruction they received in EC-12 schooling, as well as in informal or community settings. Based on the survey results, four representative participants were interviewed. Their responses were then constructed into narratives so as to portray holistic portraits of their individual paths through art instruction to entrepreneurship. In doing this it was revealed that while EC-12 can be attributed with furthering the participants’ interest in art, and giving them a grounding in many technical skills still used in their daily lives, in most cases, formal art education alone has not seemed to provide enough training on its own to promote the participants’ future successes as creative business owners. It is only through the blending of the sum total of their formal, familial, and informal art education that successful outcomes have been found. / text

The purpose of this study was to investigate why adult students engage in arts learning and what they gain from that experience. Specifically, this research combined case study and narrative inquiry methods to produce a richly textured understanding of the John C. Campbell Folk School and the experiences had by students, instructors, and staff at the school. Due to the unique nature of a rural, interdisciplinary folk arts school, a survey of the Folk School’s history and educational philosophies was conducted to provide a framework for understanding the school’s specific environment. Through informal narrative interviews with students, instructors, and staff, individual accounts of the Folk School experience were established. By identifying what drives enrollment and outcomes of attendance, this study draws conclusions about what individuals seek through informal arts learning. The findings of this study indicate consistent motivations for initial enrollment at the school, but a broad range of reasons for re-enrollment. The reported outcomes were strongly related to personal development, enjoyment, and relationships built at the school. Based on the findings of this study, key components of informal, adult arts learning were identified that can inform other schools and institutions as they promote adult programs. / text

This report documents the growth of renting in Texas colonias, low-income informal settlements along the US-Mexico border. Historically, owner-occupied self-help and self-managed housing has been the norm in these settlements, so scholarly treatment of renting in colonias has been very limited. I begin with a literature review of housing development and housing policy in colonias, before turning, for comparison, to a discussion of renting in the US as well as in informal settlements in the developing world. Chapter 2 draws upon data from the US Census Bureau to describe the nature and extent of the colonia rental market in the six Texas counties with the largest colonia populations: my analysis reveals that renters now make up more than one in five colonia households. I expand on this discussion by examining differences between renter and owner households, paying particular attention to factors that make renters more vulnerable than owners. Chapter 3 employs a variety of regression models to identify the determinants of varying rental rates in colonias. The results suggest that larger, older, and more densely populated colonias have higher rates of renting. In Chapter 4, I utilize a mixed methods approach -- including household surveys, key informant interviews, and intensive case study interviews -- to a) better understand the tenure decisions of colonia renters and to place such decisions within a context of extreme socio-economic vulnerability and b) examine the factors that incentivize a turn toward renting among property owners. I conclude with a discussion of potential policy solutions to ensure that colonia rental accommodation remains affordable, accessible, and of sufficient quality. / text

This thesis studies the usability issues of the mobile phone in informal Swedish language learning. The concept of usability is defined by expanding the technical usability attributes of Jakob Nielsen with other recent attributes derived from considering the technical aspects of mobile learning (m-learning). Thus, the ultimate structure of the usability factors that are discussed in this study consists of: accessibility, easy-to-learn, technical design, efficiency and satisfaction. With the support of the relevant previous literature and interview, we research this topic by considering the mobile-assisted language learning (MALL), informal language-learning and usability elements, in order to explore and identify the usability of mobile phone. The goal of this study is to contribute to detailed understanding of mobile phone usage, further identify the usability issues of mobile phones by obtaining both critical and commendatory feedbacks and reflections from the users. For final results, through qualitative research approach, we offered several findings regarding the mobile phone usability with specified reasons.

The purpose of this study is to fill the gap in research about women in Venezuela by investigating the determinants of their labor force participation between 1995 and 1998. The Central Office of Statistics and Information in Venezuela provides cross-sectional data collected semiannually about individual, demographic, socio-economic and geographical characteristics of individuals living in Venezuela during this period. This study uses binomial and multinomial logit models to test a number of hypotheses. First, the full sample of women between 15 and 60 years old is used to investigate the importance of individual, demographic, socioeconomic, and geographical characteristics in the labor force participation decision, also controlling for a time trend. The same decision is also analyzed for three subsamples: married women, single women, and women heads of household. Comparisons are made between each subsample and the full sample, and also among the different subsamples. Next, multinomial regressions using the same explanatory variables are performed to examine labor market behavior when there is a three-way choice: whether to participate in the formal sector, the informal sector or not to participate in the labor market at all. The multinomial regressions are also performed on the three subsamples as well as on the full sample. Again comparisons are made between each subsample and the full sample and also among the three subsamples. The results of these analyses show considerable differences in motivating factors among the three groups. The conclusion that must be drawn from this research is that one cannot generalize about the women's labor force participation just by studying the behavior of women in the aggregate. The relative importance of motivating factors depends strongly on the specific subsample to which a woman belongs, a fact unrevealed by previous empirical work. The more detailed analyses produced by this dissertation provide deeper understanding of the labor force participation of Venezuelan women. This information will make a valuable contribution to policy-makers who seek to encourage the important economic contribution of women to this previously under-studied labor market.

Coalitions are widely associated with collective or collaborative attempts to influence organizational members, decisions, policies and events. Yet, surprisingly, relatively little is known about how coalitions develop within organizations. Employing an exploratory case study design and using social network analysis, the Rokeach Value Survey, and semi-structured interviews, this research demonstrated that it is possible to identify and study coalitions in a real organizational setting. I suggest that the inclusion and investigation of member relationships may advance the state of the art in organizational coalition research. A benefit of this study, and contrary to most coalition research, is that it used multiple forms of data, including demographic, historical, values-based and interaction patterns for work and social relationships.Two coalitions were identified in the organization studied. Formation centered on a single issue and each coalition followed a strategy designed to influence a possible change in structure and operation. Coalition members exhibited similarities across several factors, including tenure within the organization, education, race, age, and previous experiences. Analyses showed some similarity in member values within and between coalitions. The coalition attempting to maintain the current work structure demonstrated higher value similarity with non-coalition members. Social network analysis revealed that coalition members tended to be structurally similar to each other, more centrally located in the work network, and had higher correlation between coalition interactions and existing social relationships.