A qualitative phenomenological study using van Manen’s human science method was conducted to gain insight into the lived experience of patients and their family members transitioning through one hundred days post haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Three families between zero and five years post HSCT were recruited from a bone marrow transplant unit in central Canada. Multiple in-depth open-ended interviews and field notes were employed to arrive at a detailed description of the lived experience of patients and family members. Awakening from the cocoon emerged as the main essence of patient’s and family members’ experiences, supported by three themes: the disruptions, the chrysalis, and new beginnings. The results from this study provide evidence that the families viewed the HSCT in a positive perspective and highlight the importance of supporting families throughout the acute phase of transplantation.

A qualitative phenomenological study incorporating Photovoice was conducted to gain insight into the lived experience of patients with end-stage heart failure (ESHF). Seven participants were recruited and in-depth open-ended interviews were conducted with all participants. Three of the seven informants also opted to take part in the Photovoice portion of the project. “Working to preserve a sense of self” emerged as the essence of living with ESHF and was supported by three themes: i) the work of managing a failing and unreliable body, ii) the work of choreographing daily living; and iii) the work of charting the final chapter of one’s life. The findings from this study provide healthcare professionals with empirically grounded information and insights about the needs and everyday challenges individuals living with ESHF experience, and how clinicians can best support them. Such information is essential in order to plan meaningful, holistic, evidence-based care for ESHF patients.

This comparative study of the experiences of gay HIV positive men living in urban and rural areas explores the dynamic interrelationship between lived experience and service provision. The literature in this field has drawn on a familiar stereotype - the urban, sexually active, gay man. This man - and his community - does not exist in a rural environment in the way it is assumed nor does it necessarily fit the experience of gay men in London. By creating a link between the questions of subjectivity and the question of how we improve services, I argue that a mechanistic construction of need may follow an assumed urban model which may not hold for all men in an urban setting, nor for men in rural areas. Gay HIV positive men are faced with new psycho-social dilemmas in relation to the virus, including unpredictability of outcome, as well as the complexity and burden of the current treatment. They engage in a constant process of renegotiating their sense of themselves in space, time and relationships. Through the use of narrative methodology, my research builds a new perspective on the experience of these individuals which can help to shape the services and policies of the future. The stories of 21 gay HIV positive men were gathered and analysed in relation to five areas of focus: community/space, relationships, identity, health and services. Rural participants were less able to build and maintain a politically strong identity and rural services need to create strategies to enable gay men to draw on the strength of a collective voice. 'Doing for' services, prevalent in rural areas, may be appropriate for the very ill but can perpetuate a culture of helplessness. The healthist discourse adopted by London services promotes individualism and responsibility. Services for HIV positive men in all areas need to hold the dynamic between 'doing for' services for the sick and dying and a healthist discourse for those who can look to their future.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Since the Korean War (1950‐1953), over 170,000 Korean children have been adopted from South Korea and dispersed across the world to families in ‘the West’. As Korean adoptees reach adulthood, many are going back to South Korea through their own initiatives to understand their ‘past’ and to try to identify with a part of themselves that feels ‘unknown’. This study considers the significance of these dual transnational movements for Korean adoptees’ identities. Based on their lived experiences, this dissertation explores the ways Korean adoptees make sense of their identities in their adoptive countries and in South Korea. Specifically, it draws on social scientific theories to focus on topics of ‘difference’, embodiment, experience and belonging. Another key aim of this study is to examine some of the conventional ideas about kinship and identity that are embedded in a Euro‐American construction of adoption. Through this analysis, issues associated with adoptees such as ‘loss’, ‘incomplete identities’ and ‘a need to search’ are alternatively considered to be socially and culturally derived rather than unproblematically viewed as individual problems. Overall, this is a qualitative anthropological study that engages with Korean adoptees’ lived experiences as they work to situate their identities within shifting socio‐cultural contexts. A central goal throughout the course of this research has been to generate greater understanding about the complex processes involved for transnationally adopted people as they try to negotiate their identities within contested spaces of belonging. This study concludes by looking at the significance of shared experiences and mutual understanding between adoptees and the impact this has on their sense of belonging.

This dissertation can broadly be summarized as an examination of the construction and maintenance of a specific type of “authentic” American identity through the lens of folk music. Drawing from interpretive perspectives within the sociology of culture and social psychology, social constructionism and symbolic interactionism in particular, I combine ethnographic research with 61 interviews at two different “folk musicians’ festivals” (festivals where attendees, not hired professionals, produce the music). My principal focus at these festivals concerns the various practices and stories surrounding the creation and performance of original folk music. I use the empirical platform of musicians’ festivals, where folk songwriters are plenty, combined with the theoretical synthesis of music and narrative, to examine how such practices and stories shape, and are shaped by, culture, emotion, and identity. Specifically, I am interested in the cultural “work” accomplished by the interrelationships among music and narrative at festivals, around songwriting, and in songs, particularly as such “work” relates to the (re)production and reception of folk and festival culture, participants’ emotional experiences, the construction and maintenance of participants’ personal and collective identities, and the purposeful evocation of social change. In attending to the importance of process and meaning-making, I examine the process through which one accomplishes authenticity as a folk and festival member, the creative process of songwriting, and the process through which listeners experience and interpret “good songs.” I offer the concepts (and processes) of songwriting as inquiry and songwriting in action to account for how these interrelationships “work” for songwriters and listeners, but also for sociologists, particularly in terms of including the (mostly neglected) lived and embodied dimensions of emotional experience. Throughout, I explore how stories and practices in and around the process of musical production and performance are largely influenced by broader cultural narratives that circulate in and around folk music culture, particularly as they relate to the notion of “authentic identity” through emotionality, creativity, and social justice.

The purpose of this research was to explore the experiences of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder in a therapeutic social group. Using a social constructionist theoretical framework and drawing on disability theories, the study examined how participants’ experiences were co-constructed through relationships, language and socio-political factors. A generic qualitative research paradigm was used with particular attention paid to social constructionist methodology. Video recordings and field notes were collected over three sessions during an established therapeutic social group at a community organization with five children ages 10-13, and two adult group facilitators. Verbatim transcripts were analyzed using an inductive process that took into account and acknowledged the co-construction of the information. Salient themes were identified based on multiple readings of the data, analyzing and re-analyzing how the experiences of children in the group are constructed. The research emphasizes the strengths and skills exhibited by the children, their strong friendships with one another and how they construct their identities. The study also examines how the highly structured learning environment produced an artificial quality to “real world” experiences and questions what “normal” social skills are. The research highlights how both children and facilitators assume deficits and explores the label of autism from a socio-political lens. The study contributes to the research on lived experiences of children with autism, including insights into how practitioners can work with children rather than providing services to them. / Graduate

Magister Artium - MA / Breast cancer is a common cause of death among women worldwide. It has long been recognized as a major public health burden in high-income countries, however, the majority of cases are said to occur in low and middle-income countries, such as in South Africa. A breast cancer diagnosis and treatment heralds a series of frightening events and can be a traumatic experience. The manner in which women perceive and cope with their illness is predictive of emotional and physical health outcomes. It is thus imperative to explore the experiences of South African women, whose voices may have been silenced in the past. The purpose of my study was to explore the subjective lived experiences of women with early stage breast cancer undergoing treatment. The objectives of the study were to; explore the emotional experiences of women with early stage breast cancer undergoing treatment and secondly to explore how women perceive their bodies through their experience of early stage breast cancer while undergoing treatment. Phenomenology was used as the theoretical position conceptualising the study as well as the research design. This research study adopted a qualitative approach utilising in-depth face to face semi-structures interviews for collecting data. The participants were selected through purposive sampling and comprised six women aged between 30 and 40 who are undergoing treatment for early stage breast cancer. The data was analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Emotions experienced were characterised by the shock of the diagnosis due to factors such as lack of family history and age. Participants reported positive changes and viewpoints which they gained through their breast cancer journey. Emotions were heightened during treatment due to the physical change experienced and the effects this had on family members and the general public. Furthermore, results indicated that participants, even though they discovered a new found love for life and for their wellbeing, neglected their emotional needs in order to protect family members. An additional reason for this neglect centered on the lack of understanding other individuals may have regarding the experiences of participants. Recommendations involves the encouragement of accessing counselling services and that interventions tailored to the needs of each patient especially according to age. All ethical considerations as stipulated by the University of the Western Cape were adhered to.

Background: Uninformed generalizations about how many elderly people have ever lived, based on a poor understanding of demography, are found in a surprising number of important publications. Objective: We extend the methodology applied to the controversial question "how many people have ever been born?" initiated by Fucks, Winkler, and Keyfitz, to the proportion of people who have ever reached a certain age y and are alive today (denoted as TT(y, T ))). Methods: We first analyze the fraction TT(y, T )) by using demographic data based on UN estimates. Second, we show the main mathematical properties of TT(y, T )) by age and over time. Third, we complete our analysis by using alternative population models. Results: We estimate that the proportion who have ever been over 65 that are alive today (as of 2010) ranges between 5.5 and 9.5%. We extend the formal demographic literature by considering the fraction of interest in two frequently referred models: the stable and hyperbolic growth populations. Conclusions: We show that statements claiming half of all people who have ever reached the age of 65 are alive today ranges would never be attainable, neither theoretically nor empirically, according to existing data. Contribution: We have produced for the first time a harmonized reconstruction of the human population by age throughout history. For a given contemporaneous time T, we demonstrate analytically and numerically that TT(y, T )) is nonmonotonic in age y. For a given age y, we show tthat TT(y, T) may also be nonmonotonic with respect to T.

This diploma thesis deals with the issue of fair value measurement of tangible long-lived assets under IAS/IFRS. It is objective is to assess the impact of revaluation of long-lived assets from their historical prices to their fair value. The work further characterizes the harmonization of the accounting systems and detailed described IFRS 13 – Fair Value Measurement. The work is focused on company describing particular the valuation methodology as well as specific data on the asset. At the end of the work the potential risks of users of the financial statements are displayed.

Tutoring services have experienced exponential increases in enrollment in Canada, with Ontario alone witnessing a 60% increase in enrollment from 1996 to 2000 (see Aurini & Davies, 2004). While Canadian research has documented organizational changes (Aurini & Davies, 2004; Aurini, 2006) and parents’ motives to enroll in tutoring services (Davies, 2004; Gale, 2016), the lived experiences of students with tutoring services are notably absent from the literature to date. In response, the current study investigates the experiences of high school students receiving math tutoring services (n =3) and their parents (n =2). The extent to which their participation in tutoring demonstrates “transboundary learning” (Kim & Jung, 2019b) is also examined in response to claims that tutoring services represent mainly peripheral learning environments as opposed to a core part of students’ learning (Aurini & Davies, 2013). Guided by a poststructuralism theoretical framework, the study employs qualitative methods to respond to three questions: (1) What are the lived experiences of high school students receiving math tutoring from a private tutoring service in Ottawa (Ontario, Canada)? (2) What are parents’ motives for seeking private tutoring services? and (3) How do participants perceive the learning taking place in different environments (e.g., tutoring vs. school)? Data from semi-structured interviews with high school students and their parents are analyzed using thematic analysis and interpreted using a Transboundary Learning framework (Kim & Jung, 2019b). Findings reveal key characteristics of transboundary learning in participants’ math tutoring contexts, suggesting a shift in the relationship between tutoring and schooling from peripheral to transboundary learning, whereby, tutoring is not regarded as peripheral as it has been in the literature to date. These findings are discussed in light of the noteworthy influence of tutoring over students' learning and schooling, and the potential for more inequalities in education.