There has been a growing interest in eating disorders among Singaporean medical professionals since the 1990s, and the Singaporean public is also starting to become aware of the risks of these conditions. This ethnographic research on eating disorders in Singapore, conducted in 2001, however, found that the majority of the informants with these conditions have struggled with a lack of understanding from others. This thesis aims to increase understanding by bringing these under-represented sufferers' voices to the forefront. This thesis focuses on the immense fear and guilt about gaining weight that are shared by these individuals. Unlike medical science, which usually considers such fear and guilt to be pathological, this thesis looks at these emotions as cultural by using the anthropological theory of feelings as well as the theory of the body politic. By illustrating how thinness has become an ideal image for Singaporean women in the past twenty years, cultural components of these feelings become readable to those without eating disorders. This thesis recommends two ways to increase understanding of the informants' inner struggles. First, medical science should consider culture a possible cause of eating disorders, since the exclusion of culture from the etiology legitimizes a lack of understanding on the part of those without eating disorders. Secondly, instead of asserting that appearance is unimportant, those without eating disorders should acknowledge that appearance plays an important role in human lives across every culture. Furthermore, they need to understand that while society superficially encourages people to accept themselves as they are, it stigmatizes fatness more forcefully. Lastly, they need to consider that the dieting industry often exploits medical science to justify its image of the ideal female body. / Graduation date: 2003

This is a phenomenological research study of the lived experience of women student mentors at one community college located in an urban setting on the West Coast. The study participants were women students who served as mentors to other women at the community college who are participants in a returning women's program. The researcher interacted with the study participants over a nine-month time period. Interviews were held with the six mentor participants prior to their mentoring experience, during the time of the mentoring experience, and at the end of the mentoring experience. The data for this study consist of interviews, observation, and field notes. The mentoring program coordinator was also interviewed to provide for triangulation of data. Six themes emerged from the interviews with the participants and subsequent analysis of the data: Reflecting on past experience, wanting to help, setting and maintaining boundaries, experiencing strong emotions, relational support from other women, and mentoring as a reciprocal relationship. The resulting implication for practice recommendations from this study for community college administrators and student service professionals designing or implementing mentoring programs are: provide training for mentors, provide ongoing support for mentors, offer an orientation for the mentees on responsibilities and expectations, design the mentoring program to provide a full academic year for the mentor-mentee pair to meet, provide benefit and rewards for serving as a mentor, and ensure adequate staffing of the program. Recommendations for further research on student mentoring are provided. They include additional research in the areas of women as student mentors, men as student mentors, comparison of the experiences of male and female mentors, retention studies on students who serve as mentors, college credit and training for mentors, mentoring programs across individual college campuses, and a statewide view of mentoring programs on college campuses. / Graduation date: 2006

This study aims to identify conceptions of the body, as well as "rational" treatment among primary care practitioners (PCPs) and emergency medicine practitioners (EMPs) dealing with managed care plans. I conducted ethnographic study throughout 1996, and interviewed six PCPs and four EMPs. In the course of my interviews, I discovered that EMPs' and PCPs' perceived meaning and power in regards to treatment of their patients has been increasingly resituated by the power of scientific discourse as utilized by technocrats (such as consumer, provider, and insurance organizations who formulate managed care plans). Technocrats have developed scientific measurements to monitor physicians' performances, quantifiably or scientifically. Technocrats conceptualize ideal treatment as a cost effective care. They guide PCPs to supervise ideal treatment of the managed care delivery networks, providing care without referring patients to specialists and administrating to hospitals. Consequently, PCPs' power to pursue the newly conceptualized ideal treatment influences other arenas of specialty, such as EMPs. On the other hand, EMPs develop preferred treatment which is formulated through their medical school education and clinical experiences. The preferred treatment is associated with time because EMPs have to treat acute conditions of their patients within a limited amount of time. However, EMPs sometimes cannot complete their preferred treatment because they have to send their patient back to the patients' contracted PCPs in order to save health care expenditure. Technocrats implemented the engineering concept of quality control, and the concept is incorporated into the principle of managed care plans, and preventive medicine. As a result, the managed care plan networks become like production lines of large manufacturing factories, and PCPs work as laborers to maintain the bodies of enrollees in healthy conditions. / Graduation date: 1998

The success of NIKE, Inc. is deemed miracle by professionals on both Wall Street and Madison Avenue. Research done in the past tends to credit the growth of NIKE, Inc. to its marketing strategies. By placing the achievement of the company in the postmodern context, this study analyzes the cultural factors which contribute to the company's achievement. A brief yet well-documented history of NIKE, Inc. is provided. The nature and function of NIKE, Inc.'s athlete endorsements and contemporary sport are analyzed in a cultural context. The cultural significance of three representative NIKE advertisements, and the globalization of NIKE, Inc. are also scrutinized. A literature review provides theoretical guidelines to the understanding of the relationship between the business achievement of NIKE, Inc. and the postmodern reality we are living in today. Interviews with 38 key informants and questionnaire surveys show that NIKE, Inc. is a dream factory which uses the American Dream as a selling point to expand its market both within the United States and overseas. Therefore, the success of NIKE, Inc. should be viewed more as a cultural phenomenon than as a business achievement. / Graduation date: 1995 / Best scan available for figures. Original is a black and white photocopy.

A blog webring is a self-organized online network that bloggers can join based on its thematic description. Drawing upon the theory of homophily in interpersonal communication, this paper examines webring themes and explores how they may be related to the salient characteristics in human identity to which people pay more attention in online communication. Research results suggest that blogs in a webring with a mixed theme or a theme based on acquired status are associated with a higher level of conversationality, with more embedded webring-bounded hyperlinks and more member comments. Bloggers from webrings of these two types of themes reportedly have a closer social relationship with other members. They are also more positive about the likelihood of getting social support from within their webrings. In general, people are not constrained by the limited interactivity offered by blogs; many of them employ not only other online, but also offline means of communication for interactions. As webring members, people believe that much more social support is available than they originally anticipated, and the specific types of social support that are perceived to be available are not determined by how easily they may be delivered online. This study overall supports the view that meaningful social relationships are developed and maintained on the Internet, which is essentially an extension of people’s daily lives. It also underscores the necessity that contextual specificity be privileged in future research on people’s online communication. / text

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

Securitisation theory has made significant contributions to security studies. However, the theory is not without theoretical and empirical shortcomings. Notably, a lack of operationalisation and differentiation has led to a binary classification of results as either ‘securitised or not’. In addition, the presence of Euro-centric assumptions has weakened the theory’s applicability in non-Western contexts. This thesis develops a new framework featuring a typology with eight branches of securitisation. The thesis then uses that framework to study HIV/AIDS securitisation in two Asian countries: China and India. The process of HIV/AIDS securitisation in both countries is illustrated chronologically. Following the international HIV/AIDS securitisation obtained in 2000, the study shows that HIV/AIDS has been fully securitised by both national governments since 2004. However, the Chinese government addressed HIV/AIDS through a stand-alone programme, whereas India’s national HIV/AIDS programme was integrated into its primary health care system. Six cities were included in the detailed empirical analysis: Beijing, Shanghai, and Kunming in China, and New Delhi, Mumbai, and Imphal in India. Semi-structured interviews were conducted amongst 62 individuals working in HIV/AIDS-related non-governmental organisations, and 10 officials working in government agencies. Chinese respondents were receptive to framing the threat and handling of HIV/AIDS, yet many grassroots organizations lacked opportunities to participate in the national HIV/AIDS programme. In contrast, such groups were strongly involved in national HIV/AIDS interventions; however, Indian government efforts in fully securitising HIV/AIDS were largely faded out. The thesis therefore responds to the major theoretical and empirical shortcomings identified by security scholars. The thesis also advances the existing knowledge of security studies in general, and HIV/AIDS securitisation processes in the non-Western world in particular. / published_or_final_version / Humanities and Social Sciences / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

A socially sustainable transport system has to make sure that opportunities are accessible to all. The social dimension is important as transport-related barriers can contribute to social injustice. A well-functioning transport system should promote greater equity by linking people and places together. The discussion in this thesis revolves around the main concept of individual mobility. It refers to the ease with which an individual can move from one place to another to access opportunities. The main research objective of the thesis is to investigate the factors affecting individual mobility of three selected transport-disadvantaged groups, namely children, working mothers and the elderly. The thesis presents three in-depth case studies within a framework of time geography. Each study highlights the individual mobility problems confronted by the selected transport-disadvantaged group. The first case study is a detailed investigation of children’s mobility to access educational opportunities. The next chapter examines gendered mobility of working mothers and their counterparts. Finally, a walkability study is carried out to evaluate how the walking environment affects outdoor mobility of the aging population. This research employs a suite of methods in evaluating individual mobility. Children’s access to educational opportunities is examined through the computation of the size of potential path area and the number of weighted opportunities reachable within given space-time constraints. To move on, multilevel analysis is carried out to compare the daily activity spaces of married couples. Finally, a walkability assessment is conducted to evaluate factors affecting older people’s access to health-care facilities. These approaches build up to a comprehensive and holistic view to explore the issue of socially sustainable transport. By providing a more focused picture on the transport problems faced by groups which run the risks of being excluded in the mainstream transport development, this study has the potential to provide a new and comprehensive outlook in the theme of social sustainability in transport research. This thesis brings the social, spatial and temporal dimensions together in planning for a socially sustainable transport system. The results of each case study provide advice and develop initiatives to work towards a more inclusive, equitable and sustainable society. The findings from the chapter on children show that place disadvantage is an important issue to be addressed. For working mothers, the household responsibility hypothesis is evident, despite the compact city environment. The final chapter shows that active transport can benefit elderly citizens in a multitude of ways. More walkability assessments surrounding health-care and other opportunities should be looked into and audited. From the findings, the research concludes that the needs of these groups are not thoroughly addressed in Hong Kong, and related geographical research is also limited in the field. The urge to address the preferences and needs of these groups are of strategic importance. Recommendations for future research include an improved understanding of the needs among an expanded range of stakeholders and depending on the locations in where they live. / published_or_final_version / Geography / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Social decision making is a complex process of selecting an optimal option with the most desirable outcome in the interpersonal context. Because of the involvement of human interactions, social decision making usually demands heavily on the affective neural system. Within the system mood plays a vital role in the social interaction. In this connection, given the fact that depression is characterized as a stable state of low mood, researches have begun focusing on exploring the relationship between depression and social decision making. As yet, research on how the depression influence social decision has been scarce. Moreover, the neural basis underpinning the relationships between depressed mood and altered social interactions is undertermined. This thesis contains two studies conducted to extend the understanding of the behavioural presentation and the neural underpinnings of people with depression when they were involved in a social decision making process. Study one examined altered ability of decision making in the context of social interaction among patients with major depressive disorders (MDD). A modified trust game (social interactive context) was adopted to measure the behavioural differences between 50 female patients with MDD and 49 healthy matched controls. Relatively to the controls, the MDD patients made less frequently and smaller ratio of deceptive decisions when the repayment proportion was high and when the risk was low. They also made less frequently benevolent responses than healthy participants when the repayment proportion was low and medium. These findings indicate that the MDD patients tended to be risk avoidant and fail to adjust their responses even when the risk was low. Study two examined the neural correlates associated with social decision making in people with MDD. They performed on a modified trust game while their brain activities during risky decision making (high vs. low) and choices of behavior (benevolence vs. deception) were monitored by a 3T MRI scanner. Fifteen MDD patients and 15 healthy controls participated in this study. The behavioural patterns of both groups were very comparable to that of study one. Findings revealed that, compared with low risk condition, MDD patients exhibited hyperresponsivity to high risk in the insula, a key brain in decision making. Attenuated differentiated activity in the caudate nucleus, and exaggerated differentiated activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex when displaying deception was observed in the clinical subjects. Healthy participants, on the other hand, exhibited increased activity in the interaction between risk and choice in the middle frontal lobe. These findings indicate that the impaired reward processing, as well as the inflexible adaptation of behaviors to external conditions, is affected by the depressed mood. These neural dysfunctions subserve the altered social decision making in MDD patients. From the observations that MDD patient’s social decision making is altered both in the behavioural pattern and in neural activity, mood is demonstrated to affect social decision making processes and risk is associated with depression. Our findings provide neural evidence of social decision making in MDD patients, which will shed light on the interaction between mood and social cognition, and further extend our insight about possible mechanisms explaining the relationship of depressed moods and the presented social deficits in people with MDD. This knowledge will facilitate future development of cost-effective interventions for people with affective disorders. / published_or_final_version / Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy