This dissertation examines theatre and film in Ireland between 1988 and 2005, focusing on the plays of Sebastian Barry and Marina Carr, as well as a select group of films from this period. Employing a method of analysis that couples close-readings with attention to socio-cultural context, aesthetic form, and issues of representation, the dissertation demonstrates how theatre and film work to complicate conventional Irish historical narratives and thereby encourages a reassessment of contemporary constructs of Irish identity. The introduction provides a contextual framework for significant contemporaneous social, cultural and economic changes in Ireland, and includes a case study of ‘The Spire,’ a monument unveiled on Dublin’s central boulevard in 2003, which I argue is the architectural metonym for the transitional nature of Celtic Tiger Ireland. The case study explores the aesthetics of the monument, as well as the politicised public debate that ensued, and thereby provides a snapshot of issues relevant to the readings pursued in dissertation’s remaining chapters. The discussion of Sebastian Barry’s ‘family plays’ reveals the playwright’s effort to refuse traditional binary conceptions of identity and to proffer, instead, a dramatic landscape that similarly refuses to allow conflict to dominate. Barry’s use of a non-conflictual dramatic form supports his narrative interest in compassion and peaceful resolution, and provides a model for living with otherness that could prove useful in an increasingly diverse and globalised Ireland. Marina Carr’s plays share Barry’s desire to represent aspects of Irish character anew, but they also dramatise how cultural transitions are difficult and never linear, and how the conventional pull of memory and the past has a residual presence in the ‘new’ Ireland. Taken together, these chapters reveal Barry’s hopefulness as an antidote to Carr’s tragic endings. The final chapter provides close readings of several ‘Celtic Tiger’ films, arguing that the representation of landscape is the key lens through which Irish film communicates shifting images of Irish identity. A cycle of films from the first years of the new millennium ekes out a space for new modes of representation through a critical dialogue with major tropes in Irish film history.

The study looks at the land issue from the perspective of Missiology. It shows in what sense the land issue is an issue for mission. The pastoral cycle of Henriot and Holland is used to analyse the land issue in Zimbabwe. The analysis takes seriously the situation of the marginalized in Zimbabwe in relation to other stakeholders in the land issue. The study also looks at the ecological implications of the land issue. A comparison is drawn between South Africa and Zimbabwe as far as the land issue is concerned. A major aspect of the study is the theological question on God and land. The study concludes with a proposal on the kind of action that needs to be taken in resolving the land question. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M.Th.(Missiology)

Studiens syfte är att fånga brukarperspektivet och dess upplevda konsekvenser av en ofrivillig förändring i befintliga boendemiljön, på grund av en offentlig konkurrensupphandling. Studien är genomförd med kvalitativ metod och insamlandet av empirin gjorde jag genom semistrukturerade intervjuer.  Intervjupersonerna tillika brukarna i studien har en lindrig intellektuell funktionsnedsättning.   Den tidigare forskningen och teoretiska utgångspunkt för studien är brukarperspektiv, förändring, social identitet och Antonovskys (2009) teorier om känsla av sammanhang, KASAM.   Intervjupersonerna i studien beskriver processen som en lång och kaotisk tid med hög psykisk press, vilket går att jämföra med en traumatisk kris. De upplever sig inte vara delaktiga i förändringen utan beskriver sig stå utanför handlingens centrum. De beskriver att de inte fått tillräckligt med anpassad information om vad den kommande förändringen innebär och saknar förmåga att tolka den abstrakta ofrivilliga förändringen. Intervjupersonerna uppfattar att besluten är tagna utan deras delaktighet och att de står utan påverkansmöjligheter. Samtliga beskriver att de fått fysiska besvär av olika slag på grund av upphandlingsprocessen. De uttrycker en låg grad av begriplighet, hanterbarhet och meningsfullhet i händelserna. Intervjupersonerna menar att beslutet att byta utförare känns oförklarligt och beskriver den kommande verksamhetsövergången som meningslös och de önskar att den inte ska bli verklighet. Intervjupersonerna upplevde att personalen utgjorde en viktig del av deras i övrigt glesa sociala nätverk. Intervjupersonerna beskriver att personalen varit obeslutsamma kring om de ska arbeta kvar eller inte. Intervjupersonerna förstår inte varför personal väljer att sluta och tolkar besluten som att det beror på dem själva och upplever sig bli bortvalda av personalen. Studien visar på behov av att utveckla arbetsmetoder som fångar brukarnas frågeställningar och funderingar för att bättre kunna förbereda dem på en kommande förändring av den här digniteten. Studien visar att intervjupersonerna hamnar i en komplex och mycket utsatt marginaliserande situation vid en verksamhetsövergång efter en offentlig konkurrensupphandling. / The aim of the study is to capture the perceived consequences of an involuntary change after a public competitive procurement of an existing group-home with special services, from a care taker/service user’s perspective. The study was conducted with qualitative method, and the collection of empirical evidence was through interviews. Respondents and users in the study have a mild intellectual disabilities.   The previous research and the theoretical starting point that the study had been in is; service user perspective, change models, social identity and Antonovsky's (2009) theories of SOC, sense of coherence.   The service users in the study describes a chaotic time with mental pressure during the change process, which can be comparable with traumatic crisis. They experienced fear and felt that the change was difficult to understand. The users describe a lack of knowledge of the upcoming changes. They felt they were unable to interpret and organize the communicative information that they had received. They identified that decisions were taken over their heads and had the feeling that they were without influence during the whole process. All respondents described different physical symptoms as consequents of the procurement. The service users express a low degree of comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness in the whole process and experience fear and the decisions seems inexplicable and nonsensical. They describe the future business transition as a burden and an unfortunate circumstance they wish to get undone. They feel themselves not to be involved in the upcoming change, and describes that they are outside the center of act and therefor choose to focus on the staffs decision whether they will stay or quit their posts. They blame themselves when members of the staff decide to quit and they feel themselves to be eliminated by the staff.   The social context of the users turned out to contain sparse networks and property staff emerged as a significant and important part of their lives. The study demonstrates the need to develop working methods that capture the user’s questions and concerns in order to better prepare them for upcoming changes. The study shows that users end up in a complex and very exposed situation and are marginalized in the process of a public competitive procurement.

Contesting international strategies for combatting child labour that derive from modern, Western conceptions of childhood, several developing country organizations have embraced the principle of child protagonism by declaring that working children can become the leading agents in struggles to advance their interests when they are mentored in forming their own independent organizations. This thesis first explores how an African NGO, informed by its urban animation experiences, developed its own specific discourse of child protagonism and employed it as the basis for establishing an African working children’s organization designed to provide compensatory literacy and skills training and to empower members to improve their own and other children’s working conditions. The thesis considers this foundational child protagonism discourse in light of data collected in Senegal by means of participant observation and interviews in grassroots groups and associations of working children, as well as in the offices of both the local NGO and its international NGO donor. Fieldwork revealed limitations of the specific child protagonism practice pursued over the past two decades. Specifically, redirecting resources from direct pedagogical accompaniment of grassroots working child groups towards bureaucratic capacity building for the “autonomization” of higher hierarchical levels of the organization, as well as towards international meetings, has resulted in the organization’s diminished impact for vulnerable groups in Dakar, particularly migrant girl domestic workers. Deepening implication with international donors has forced shifts in the priorities of the local NGO and the working children’s organization it facilitates, yet the two have been largely successful in buffering donor probes precisely into the ground level effectiveness of their child protagonism strategy. No previous independent research has sought to confront the discourse of child protagonism with a comprehensive examination of a working children’s organization’s practice, from its most local processes to its international dimensions and donor relations.

Musical ekphrasis was occurring in the twentieth century in different centers around the world, Cuba: Andalusia, Spain; and Harlem, New York, simultaneously. The writers at the heart of this movement used poetry about music as a means to celebrate the cultures of the marginalized people in their lands, los negros, los gitanos, and African-Americans. The purpose of this study is to define musical ekphrasis and identify it in the works of Nicolás Guillén, Federico García Lorca, and Langston Hughes. Also explored are the common characteristics in ekphrastic poetry by the three poets and the common themes found in their ekphrastic poetry, as well as common influences. Each author is considered in the context of his surroundings and his respective culture, and how that influenced his musical tastes as well as his writing style.

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Under urban neoliberal policies, housing has become a vehicle for wealth accumulation, detached from its social function, leading to a shortage of adequate and affordable housing. The lack of adequate housing is perceived as an issue of availability. This prevailing perspective dismisses the systematic character of the housing issue and fails to take into account greater questions about power, inequality, and justice in capitalist societies. The purpose of this case study of Malmö is to problematize the access to housing for marginalized groups in the broader frame of the political and economic structures of Sweden’s housing market. The research adopts a qualitative case study design based on 22 semi-structured interviews. The findings answer the research question how is access to the housing market in Malmö limited for marginalized groups? and will be placed within the framework of The Radical Right to Housing and the context of Sweden’s political-economy. Based on the results this research argues that despite limited accessibility mostly shows in economic disadvantage for the marginalized groups, it is caused by Sweden’s social, political and economic structures. Highlighting that housing is a political-economic problem, deeply embedded within class structures, gender, age, ethnicity and other power dimensions. In the broader context of demanding a radical right to housing, the results show that it requires a transformation of Sweden’s political-economic structures. Regarding a decommodification of housing, a transformation of capitalism and transformative changes in state action concerning immigration, education, and active gender equality policies. Thereby, housing could serve as a tool to create more equality in cities by addressing and fighting the structures of class society, gender, age, ethnicity and other power dimensions.

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No description available.

<p>Community participation has been identified as a key facilitator of community health among marginalized populations in international health statements. However, knowledge gaps in the community participation literature regarding marginalized populations has been attributed to the lack of consistent definitions of community participation, ambiguity about the features of community participation initiatives (e.g., methods and strategies) that are appropriate for marginalized populations, and limitations of existing community participation frameworks in specifying the ways and means in which different marginalized populations might effectively participate, as well as in recognizing that community participation is highly contextual and situational. All of these factors have made it difficult to draw broader conclusions about the impact of participation methods and strategies for marginalized populations from evaluations of participation initiatives.</p> <p>The overall purpose of this thesis is to better understand how to involve marginalized populations in the planning and decision-making for local health services. First, a critical interpretive synthesis (CIS) was conducted to better understand the role of community development principles used in community participation initiatives with marginalized populations and the factors contributing to the influence of the principles in enabling the participation of these populations. Second, an in-depth comparative case study of four community participation initiatives in Ontario Community Health Centres (CHCs)—which are primary health care organizations serving 74 high-risk communities throughout the Province of Ontario—was conducted to identify the core features of participation initiatives with marginalized populations, and reflect on the particular challenges of engaging marginalized populations. Third, four focus groups were held at four Ontario CHCs to examine the role of frameworks as mechanisms for translating knowledge about community participation practice with marginalized populations. Overall, this thesis broadens our understanding of community participation with marginalized populations in the context of local health services planning and decision making. Specifically, this thesis contributes a theoretical basis for future research and provides practical knowledge for planning and evaluating community participation initiatives with marginalized populations.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)