Western society highly values work, and is structured in such a way that people have to be involved in the paid labour force to live. Forms of work that are unpaid are often not recognized as “real” or “meaningful”. Consequently, populations that are not involved in the paid labour force can often be conceptualized as unproductive, which is often the case when discussing retired seniors in Canada. Despite the wide-spread social expectations that older people should be retired and the public programs that enable their retirement, ideals about the makeup of meaningful social roles have not changed very much, and so are applied to this population in a similar manner as to their younger counterparts. In other words, people are not generally seen as socially productive or as having meaningful social roles if they are not active in the paid labour force. For this reason, many sociologists have come to characterize older people as being a “roleless” population. If not characterized as roleless, “retired” in itself has also been classified as a role for elderly people, but the social function of a retired person has not been clearly defined either. Because of this, this Master’s thesis endeavoured to learn more about the work-related roles and identities of retired seniors. Through discussions with seniors about the different work activities they have been involved in throughout their lives, the social expectations projected onto them, and how they conceive their own roles and identities, this study unravels classic definitions of work, leisure, and retirement.

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En este artículo analizo uno de los productos de cultura popular latinoamericano más conocidos del mundo, la telenovela, y la función social que cumple en la reafirmación de una identidad ideal. Dicha identidad ideal(izada) genera y retroalimenta el estereotipo acerca de las sociedades latinoamericanas que se incrementa con la exposición de la telenovela a los medios digitales. Así vemos cómo la trama de la telenovela latinoamericana se glocaliza de diversas maneras mientras que el valor de la categoría étnica subsiste en la ilusión de una globalización “democrática” que en realidad es hegemónica. La telenovela que se globa y glocaliza en el mundo, como ocurre en el “sitcom” norteamericano, sirve de trampolín y pretexto para el afianzamiento de estereotipos sobre los otros —en cuestión de género y etnia— basados en el discurso patriarcal que todavía dicta las características ideales de la mujer local y global.

Collaboration is an important yet difficult skill for learners in the 21st century. Recent research has examined how supports, such as group scripts and roles, can help learners collaborate effectively. However, little is known about the perceptions learners have of these supports when provided to them. The purpose of this study was to examine (a) learner’s choices and reasonings for role choices and (b) the impact of group roles. Participants included 111 undergraduate students in a learning strategies for university success course. During the course, students completed two required collaborative tasks, including pre-task planning and a post-task reflection. Students made choices regarding roles in individual and group planning sessions and explained their reasoning for making those choices. Students frequently chose roles relating to strategic task enactment, motivation, and concept/domain knowledge in their individual and group planning sessions with their primary reasons being focused on “self” knowledge, or information about themselves, such as strengths or weaknesses. These findings suggest learners may believe these are important roles for collaboration. The reliance on “self” knowledge for making decisions may be attributed to the fact these groups were collaborating for the first and second times and may not have a plethora of group information to utilize. Contributions of this study to theory, research, and practice will be discussed. / Graduate

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The general purpose of this thesis was to explore the different roles enacted by entrepreneurs when developing their firm in the market. In their daily attempts to develop their firm, entrepreneurs “wear many different hats” because they are involved in multiple situations which require their interaction with different networks of social relationships (i.e. customers, employees, suppliers, investors). Through this research, we attempt to make three related and distinct contributions: (1) identification and definition of different roles enacted by entrepreneurs within their firm; (2) development of a measurement scale for the different roles entrepreneurs enact within their firm; and (3) proposal of a model explaining the relationship between entrepreneurs’ roles, Entrepreneurial Orientation, and firm performance. The thesis is presented in the form of three related papers. Paper 1 focuses on the qualitative study of the self-reported perceptions, behaviors, and attitudes that entrepreneurs relate to their efforts of developing their firm in the market. Through in-depth interviews and following thematic analysis methodology, we identified and analyzed patterns within the qualitative data. Conceptualizing the entrepreneurial firm as a proximate social structure that represents a context in which the entrepreneur establishes close relationships and thus enacts role identities, we identify and define seven different sets of behaviors or roles. In addition, we propose a conceptual framework to explain the entrepreneurs’ agency within their firm. Based on the previously identified and defined roles, in Paper 2 we develop the measurement scale for the entrepreneurs’ roles. The items generated from the literature review and the in-depth interviews were evaluated for content validity by a group of serial entrepreneurs. A pilot test was then conducted with a network of international entrepreneurs (N=55), followed by a pre-test using an online panel of U.S. entrepreneurs (N=157) who were owners and managers of a running business that had paid salaries to the owner(s) for more than two years. Finally, the main study (N=202) was conducted utilizing the same sampling frame as the pre-test. After Confirmatory Factor Analysis and measure validation, we propose a seven-construct measurement model for the roles that entrepreneurs enact within their developing firm. In Paper 3, following the development of the measurement scale, we explore the links between the roles enacted by entrepreneurs, Entrepreneurial Orientation, and firm performance. Understanding Entrepreneurial Orientation as a way in which entrepreneurs behave when creating and developing their firm, we propose a model in which Entrepreneurial Orientation mediates the relationship between entrepreneurs’ enacted roles and the performance of their firm. Our findings suggest that Entrepreneurial Orientation mediates the relationship between at least five roles enacted by entrepreneurs and firm performance. The influence of several of the enacted roles of entrepreneurs on Entrepreneurial Orientation suggests that the entrepreneur’s agency, facilitated through the use of roles, needs to be taken into account as an antecedent in a model of entrepreneurial strategic orientation and firm performance.

Master of Science / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Anthony Jurich / Gender is a constructing concept around which the traditionally structured marriage was formed. An undercurrent of traditional thought still influences how women make their decisions around pursuing a career and caring for their children. Their relationships with their husbands, in part influences both their decision-making and experience of their roles. This was a qualitative multiple care study describing women's decision-making around and their experiences of these roles. Themes found in the participant's narratives related to finances, intentional decision-making, and the fluidity of child-care and work roles. Final reflections during the child launching phase of life showed that role congruency was important for the participants and that they were currently satisfied with their situations.

Magister Artium - MA / Dawes (2011) claims that there are more than 5.2 million children who were in both institutional and foster care in South Africa by 2011, which was increasing by 6.2% every year due to the HIV epidemic and high levels of poverty affecting the community. In the light of the large number of children in foster care, this study investigates the family-like roles displayed by caregivers and experienced by children within three selected Children's homes in Cape Town, South Africa. In this study, the term "family-like roles" was used interchangeably with "family values" displayed or instilled by caregivers within the children's home. Relatively a number of studies in child care have advocated for the benefit of family-like roles in children’s homes. The study established the importance of family-like roles, and it is evident that children's homes with a large group of children often prevent the creation of a nurturing environment with the characteristics of a family. The study employed interviews and observations to collect data, which were analysed according to the research questions by making codes and themes. The study involved the caregivers, children and managers of the three selected children's homes from Khayelitsha Township, Sothern and Northern suburbs of Cape Town. Furthermore, data were examined from both structural functionalism and eco cultural perspective, which helped to understand that caregivers display or instill the family values in a formal rather than in an informal way. This is because of the structure and functioning of the institutions of care, which makes the caregivers not to act naturally when taking care or displaying the family-like roles for vulnerable children to experience. Despite the negative declarations made in various scholars' studies about children’s homes, this study confirms the opinion of the caregivers that if the children living in the children's homes are shown respect, love, care, trust and kind treatment, they are able to extend these values to other people around them. Yet, this is not realised should the houses-units/cluster or cottages be overcrowded. In addition, the family-like roles displayed by caregivers in these particular children's homes may lead the children to develop a certain kind of phobia. This is a situation where the vulnerable children may develop a total fear and anxiety of certain social conditions in the communities

The problem of the present study was to determine the relationships between peer- and self-evaluations on a social roles measurement and the relationships between these evaluations and sociometric rankings.

Memoria para optar al título de Socióloga / En la última década, la sociedad chilena ha sido testigo de la creciente visibilización de la transgeneridad. Esto ha suscitado disputas sociales en torno al reconocimiento de la identidad de género de personas trans. Las comunidades educativas no han quedado exentas de estos debates, pues se han enfrentado a la visibilización de estudiantes trans al interior de establecimientos escolares. En este contexto se enmarca la presente investigación, la cual tiene por objetivo describir las experiencias de actores cis y trans de comunidades educativas, ante la visibilización de estudiantes trans, al año 2017. Los resultados abordaron a) las respuestas institucionales de las comunidades educativas cisgénero, específicamente de las autoridades escolares, b) las relaciones sociales que se establecieron entre estudiante trans y actores cisgénero de la comunidad educativa, c) las consecuencias emocionales, académicas y sociales de les actores de las comunidades educativas, producto de la visibilización de la transgeneridad, y d) las implicancias de los regímenes sociales dominantes de sexo-género y generación en la construcción de la transgeneridad en niñez y juventudes. La estrategia metodológica fue cualitativa, la producción de información fue a partir de entrevistas no estructuradas y grupo focal; y la técnica de análisis fue análisis de contenido. La muestra se compuso por a) estudiantes trans; b) apoderades de niñes y jóvenes trans escolares; y c) personas pertenecientes a cuerpos docentes de establecimientos educacionales con estudiante(s) trans