The aim of this thesis is to study what role the Swedish school meal has as a public meal in Swedish culture. An additional aim is to study the meal patterns of children, including the school meal. An ethnological questionnaire with 192 informants was used to study people’s perceptions and memories of the school meal. The school meal was seen as part of the Swedish welfare state, but also as a second-class meal, which did not live up to the ideal, which was a meal with the same values as a meal served at home. Observations in school canteens (25 hours), interviews with the school meal staff (six informants) and focus group interviews with children in grade 4-5 (seven groups with a total of 52 children) were carried out at three schools in central Sweden. Firstly, the data was analysed as to how the teachers interacted with the children in relation to the pedagogic meal. The teachers took on three different roles:  “the sociable teacher role”, “the educating teacher role” and “the evasive teacher role”. Secondly, the children’s understanding of food and meals in the school meal context was analysed. The results showed that the children used ideas from the adult world among their peers in the school meal situation. This included the implementation of institutional commensality, the telling of stories about food and the classification of foods in dichotomies. A questionnaire covering the meal patterns of the children and intake of some snack foods was also distributed to the children attending grade 4-5 at the three schools and their parents. Matched pairs (n=147) were analysed for agreement. Most children had a regular meal pattern, and there was general agreement between child and parent reports, except for sweets and chocolate. The expectations on the school meal are high. At the same time, there appears to be a social construction depicting the school meal in a negative way. In order to come to terms with the negative public view of the school meal, the social construction of the school meal needs to be addressed.

There is a growing evidence-base in the epidemiological literature that demonstrates significant associations between people’s living circumstances – including their place of residence – and their health-related practices and outcomes (Leslie, 2005; Karpati, Bassett, & McCord, 2006; Monden, Van Lenthe, & Mackenbach, 2006; Parkes & Kearns, 2006; Cummins, Curtis, Diez-Roux, & Macintyre, 2007; Turrell, Kavanagh, Draper, & Subramanian, 2007). However, these findings raise questions about the ways in which living places, such as households and neighbourhoods, figure in the pathways connecting people and health (Frolich, Potvin, Chabot, & Corin, 2002; Giles-Corti, 2006; Brown et al, 2006; Diez Roux, 2007). This thesis addressed these questions via a mixed methods investigation of the patterns and processes connecting people, place, and their propensity to be physically active. Specifically, the research in this thesis examines a group of lower-socioeconomic residents who had recently relocated from poorer suburbs to a new urban village with a range of health-related resources. Importantly, the study contrasts their historical relationship with physical activity with their reactions to, and everyday practices in, a new urban setting designed to encourage pedestrian mobility and autonomy. The study applies a phenomenological approach to understanding living contexts based on Berger and Luckman’s (1966) conceptual framework in The Social Construction of Reality. This framework enables a questioning of the concept of context itself, and a treatment of it beyond environmental factors to the processes via which experiences and interactions are made meaningful. This approach makes reference to people’s histories, habituations, and dispositions in an exploration between social contexts and human behaviour. This framework for thinking about context is used to generate an empirical focus on the ways in which this residential group interacts with various living contexts over time to create a particular construction of physical activity in their lives. A methodological approach suited to this thinking was found in Charmaz’s (1996; 2001; 2006) adoption of a social constructionist approach to grounded theory. This approach enabled a focus on people’s own constructions and versions of their experiences through a rigorous inductive method, which provided a systematic strategy for identifying patterns in the data. The findings of the study point to factors such as ‘childhood abuse and neglect’, ‘early homelessness’, ‘fear and mistrust’, ‘staying indoors and keeping to yourself’, ‘conflict and violence’, and ‘feeling fat and ugly’ as contributors to an ongoing core category of ‘identity management’, which mediates the relationship between participants’ living contexts and their physical activity levels. It identifies barriers at the individual, neighbourhood, and broader ecological levels that prevent this residential group from being more physically active, and which contribute to the ways in which they think about, or conceptualise, this health-related behaviour in relationship to their identity and sense of place – both geographic and societal. The challenges of living well and staying active in poorer neighbourhoods and in places where poverty is concentrated were highlighted in detail by participants. Participants’ reactions to the new urban neighbourhood, and the depth of their engagement with the resources present, are revealed in the context of their previous life-experiences with both living places and physical activity. Moreover, an understanding of context as participants’ psychological constructions of various social and living situations based on prior experience, attitudes, and beliefs was formulated with implications for how the relationship between socioeconomic contextual effects on health are studied in the future. More detailed findings are presented in three published papers with implications for health promotion, urban design, and health inequalities research. This thesis makes a substantive, conceptual, and methodological contribution to future research efforts interested in how physical activity is conceptualised and constructed within lower socioeconomic living contexts, and why this is. The data that was collected and analysed for this PhD generates knowledge about the psychosocial processes and mechanisms behind the patterns observed in epidemiological research regarding socioeconomic health inequalities. Further, it highlights the ways in which lower socioeconomic living contexts tend to shape dispositions, attitudes, and lifestyles, ultimately resulting in worse health and life chances for those who occupy them.

Thesis (M.A.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Anthropology, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (MA (Counselling Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2003. / Includes bibliography.

This research focuses on the influence of institutions on entrepreneurship among Kuwaiti youth. It aims to capture the role played by institutions on youth entrepreneurship at the backdrop of a dampening ‘spirit’ for it. This research is currently very important due to various economic and geo-political factors leading to an economic downturn, which has led to the need for entrepreneurial ventures. It reviews and consolidates concepts and factors purported to facilitate and increase entrepreneurship for the benefit of the society and economy of Kuwait. This research uses a social constructionist approach to make sense of how institutions influence Kuwaiti youth in their quest to become entrepreneurs. It exposes institutional endorsement and legitimacy from formal and informal institutions. It shows the use of regulative, normative and cognitive dimensions and influences on entrepreneurial intentions and actions. This research shows how institutions interact with Kuwaiti youth and what role they play in the formulation of intentions and actions concerning entrepreneurship. A number of key formal and informal institutions have come to the fore that influence one another (in)directly as living entities, and likewise influence the youth (in)directly. The research contribution also shows that young people have to approach some key institutions and in return their desire to become entrepreneurs is strengthened or weakened depending on how institutions respond and what role they are willing to play in their lives.

Magister Social Work -MSW / Heroin usage is on the increase in the Western Cape province of South Africa owing to globalization and to increased access to the drug in this province. The goal of this study is to explore the experiences of coloured heroin users in the Metro South area of Cape Town, which stretches from Simons Town and Muizenberg to Retreat, Lavender Hill, Grassy Park, Parkwood and Wynberg. These individuals have been found to congregate in the Wynberg CBD. The overarching theoretical framework for the purpose of this research is social constructionism and symbolic interactionism, using a qualitative means of inquiry. Snowball sampling was used to recruit prospective participants and data was collected by means of in-depth interviews, with a semi structures interviewing schedule. The questions informed the subsequent themes and categories that arise from the data collection process. Snowball sampling was employed in this case, a non-probability sample, in which participants were recruited via key informants. The sample distribution included 13 participants, 10 of which were heroin users (5 female, 5 male) and the remaining 3 were key informants which contributed to triangulation of the data.

Magister Social Work -MSW / Heroin usage is on the increase in the Western Cape province of South Africa owing to globalization and to increased access to the drug in this province. The goal of this study is to explore the experiences of coloured heroin users in the Metro South area of Cape Town, which stretches from Simons Town and Muizenberg to Retreat, Lavender Hill, Grassy Park, Parkwood and Wynberg. These individuals have been found to congregate in the Wynberg CBD. The overarching theoretical framework for the purpose of this research is social constructionism and symbolic interactionism, using a qualitative means of inquiry. Snowball sampling was used to recruit prospective participants and data was collected by means of in-depth interviews, with a semi structures interviewing schedule. The questions informed the subsequent themes and categories that arise from the data collection process.

Dentro da proposta de estruturação da política nacional de saúde as contribuições da integralidade na produção de serviços e ações de saúde de qualidade, resolutivos e satisfatórios ainda têm gerado grandes desafios. Assim, acreditando que a orientação de novas maneiras de entender e de produzir saúde, norteadas pela integralidade emergem de sentidos produzidos sobre esse termo, em contextos relacionais e dialógicos específicos, esse estudo teve por objetivo descrever os sentidos de integralidade produzidos com os trabalhadores de equipes de Saúde da Família (SF), relativos ao cotidiano de suas práticas de atenção à saúde, em uma cidade mineira. Utilizamos o discurso Construcionismo Social como uma ferramenta metodológica para produzirmos e analisarmos as informações. Essa produção ocorreu por meio de registros de diário de campo e três encontros grupais, áudio graváveis. Seguidamente as informações foram transcritas, editadas e analisadas, produzindo duas tematizações, com dois subtemas cada: 1) Quando os participantes recorrem ao discurso vinculado às práticas dos trabalhadores: Pressupõe em o trabalhador se integrar com a vida, às necessidades do paciente lá fora, que não são somente biológicas, para atendê-lo como um todo... integralmente - integralidade: apreensão ampliada dos trabalhadores em relação às pessoas atendidas, enquanto sujeitos integrados e influenciados por diferentes dimensões, contextualizadas ao longo de suas vidas; Trabalhadores e usuários não devem ter uma visão só curativa, só pontual para a doença que o paciente sofre e achar que é o remédio que faz o milagre - integralidade: capacidade dos trabalhadores de escutar e apreender de forma ampliada as necessidades apresentadas pelos usuários e das melhores maneiras possíveis de respondê-las. 2) Quando os participantes recorrem ao discurso associado à organização dos serviços saúde. Esse desdobrou-se em: Colocar o usuário do lado de dentro do serviço, considerando-o enquanto sujeito de necessidades, para organizar serviços de forma a ver suas necessidades e inseri-las dentro das prioridades de atenção dos trabalhadores - integralidade: capacidade dos trabalhadores, gestores e usuários, conjuntamente apreenderem as necessidades da população, elaborarem e implementarem respostas; Envolver todos os serviços de saúde e outros pontos de serviços na comunidade para dar segmento, continuidade no tratamento - integralidade: caracterizada pela articulação entre os vários serviços em uma rede para garantir o acesso às necessidades demandadas pelo usuário. Essas conversações produzidos foram suficientes ora para gerar autoanálise e reflexões das práticas vigentes, visando desconstruir aspectos de um projeto tradicional, vinculado ao homem fragmentado, ora para gerar primeiras aproximações do sentido da integralidade, enquanto uma postura de articulação de diversos tipos de tecnologias para responder às necessidades de várias naturezas dos usuários. / Inside the proposal of structurization of the National Health policy, the contributions for integrality in the production of services and actions for quality health, decisive and satisfactory has still generated great challenges. Believing, thus, that the orientation of new forms of understanding and producing health, led by the integrality arise from the senses produced about this term, in specific relational and dialogical contexts, this study had the objective of describing the integrality senses produced with the health workers of Health Family teams, concerning the everyday practices concerning health, in a town in Minas Gerais. The discourse Social Constructionism was used as a methodological tool to produce and analyze the information. This production occurred through registers in a field diary and three group meetings, recording audio. Following that the data were transcribed, edited, and analyzed, under the focus of two themes, with two sub-themes each: 1) when the participants use the discourse linked to worker practices: It is supposed that the worker integrate with life, the necessities out there, which are not only biological to assist him/her totally ... integrally - integrality produced as wide comprehension of workers concerning the people assisted, while subjects integrated and influenced by different dimensions, contextualized along their lives; workers and users should not have a curative vision, straight to the disease, that the patient suffers and thinks that the medicine brings the miracle - integrality referred to as a worker\'s capacity of listening and comprehending widely the necessity presented by users and the best ways possible to answer them. 2) When the participants use the discourse together with the organization of the health services. This one was divided in: Putting the user within a service, considering him while subject of necessities, to organize services in such a way that he/she can see his/her necessities and insert them in the attention priorities of workers - integrality treated as the worker\'s capacity, administrators and users, together they comprehend the population needs, elaborate, and organize answers; to involve all health services and other service points in the community to give segment, continuity in the treatment - integrality characterized by the articulation among the various services in a net to assure the access to the answers demanded by the user. These dialogues produced were sufficient either to generate selfassessment and reflections on the current practices, aiming to destroy aspects of a traditional project, or to generate the first approaches concerning integrality, while it is an articulation posture of several kinds of technologies to answer the needs of several aspects of the users.

This thesis explores the difficulties of talking about cancer. Conversational interviews with 17 people diagnosed with cancer are analysed from the perspective of discursive psychology which treats accounts and the description of events as discourse practices and categories. Cancer is considered a mysterious and frightening disease associated with myths and taboos. It is a sensitive topic and talking about it can be a delicate and difficult thing to do for all concerned. If a person with cancer (PWC) is not seen or heard to be 'being positive' or 'adopting a fighting spirit, they could be left with a sense of blame, guilt or failure. It is proposed that not only do they have to contend with managing to live with a life threatening illness but the metaphorical descriptions attributed to cancer, the 'heroic model' and its accompanying discourses and expectations construct the ill person as being morally accountable. Narrative themes of discovery, diagnosis, doctors and delay, social relationships, the indignities of treatment and talk of death and dying are analysed. The analysis reveals some of the problems and interactional difficulties that participants have to manage, and it considers some of the dilemmas and problems produced in cancer narratives and how discursive Practices, such as laughter, are displayed. It considers the way participants discursively construct notions such asdoing being responsible, 'complaining and blaming' and 'doing being positive' and it reveals how participants' concerns of identity and moral accountability are rhetorically accomplished and managed. The findings of this thesis emphasise how PWC work to maintain the identity of someone who is bearing their illness 'patiently", without complaining and are seen to be a 'good patient'. The analysis reveals that participants construct their identity as someone who is being positive and that they not only have to manage the interactional problems that their illness poses for others and their inadequacies to cope with people with cancer, but additionally they have to manage the moral restrictions on not being able to admit that they are not coping. It is suggested that an increased awareness of the psychological burdens and interactional difficulties people with cancer report in their accounts can contribute to a better understanding of what and how people with cancer manage these additional burdens in their social lives.

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / Due to the history of Apartheid in South Africa, cross-racial adoption is a fairly recent practice which was only legalised when the law was amended in 1991 so that prospective parents were allowed to adopt a child from a different race to them. As the consequences of the past linger, the most common form of cross-racial adoption is White parents adopting Black children. Studies on cross-racial adoption have been extensively conducted internationally, but research in South Africa is sparse. In this research study an explorative case study of a cross-racially adopted young adult was conducted in order to explore and describe the formation of his identity. The study adopted a Social Constructionist approach to knowledge and transcripts from the interviews with the participant were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). IPA allows for a detailed exploration of the personal lived experience of a research participant and focuses on understanding how people construct their experiences and make meaning. Identity Process Theory (IPT) which is consistent with a social constructionist epistemology, was the theoretical framework used, through which the findings in this study were integrated. Findings indicated that the participant of the case study had challenges forming a coherent self-identity and that his adoption status and ethnicity played an important role in his identity development. Furthermore, findings showed that the social context both promoted and impeded his search for identity. Promotion of identity formation was always associated with a clearer understanding and sensitivity of people regarding the plight of the participant as a cross-racial adoptee. With the knowledge gained, it is hoped that families and psychological and welfare professionals will become better informed and better equipped in so far as empathy, sensitivity and best practice relating to the support for cross-racial adoptees are concerned.