The influence technology has on human subjectivity has been the occupation of philosophy for some time. Recent technological advance has re-motivated the speculation on subjectivity where a bodily dimension of subjectivity becomes necessary to understand the complexities of subjectivity as it is formulated in contemporary society. In this thesis subjectivity has been schematized according to its states relative to the body to demonstrate how technology and its mythologies influences and define individual subjectivity and the larger constructive factors that shape that subjectivity. Various examples are used to show the contemporary postmodern response to technological subjective imposition as subjectivity both negotiates and responds to the four orders of subjectivity: dormant, active, material, and terminal. As shall be demonstrated, each subjective form is constituted by a series of technologies and mythologies that form a reciprocal and continuous pattern illustrated by individual, cultural, bodily, and communicative models.

This thesis takes the DNA molecule and its circulation between scientific researchers as an object of analysis. The study's objective was to investigate the techno-social mechanisms through which certain individual's genetic materials are imputed with research value. Two cases, representing two contrasting kinds of circulation practices, are presented. In the first, DNA samples from families diagnosed with hereditary disorders, which allow researchers a shot at the all-or-nothing game of finding genes, are a protected resource. In the second, the DNA reference panel of the CEPH (Centre d'Etude du Polymorphisme Humain), made up of samples from large multi-generation families, is a widely distributed public resource. The CEPH panel was originally intended for use in genome mapping, but more recently has acted as a technology that aids in the innovation of new techniques and theories. It is argued that the difference in utility (limited or flexible) between these two types of DNA (privately or publicly held) is not found in any inherent property of the samples themselves but rather derives from the extent of the molecule's network of circulation.

Over the past decade, the theoretical basis for composition research and pedagogy has expanded. A social perspective on writing has been added to the cognitive view which dominated composition studies throughout the 1970s and early 80s. This social perspective has radically altered conceptions of the writing process. Whereas cognitive theory placed a creative and isolated individual at the centre of the writing act, social theory locates the writer in community, and shifts much of the control of discourse from the individual to the group. / This research takes the form of a case study of social workers attached to Quebec's Youth Court system. The specific focus within that setting is the preparation of reports about adolescents in trouble with the law. Data were collected through "think-aloud" protocols and interviews, including discourse-based interviews. The study offers a detailed description of the complex and dynamic relationship between the individual writer and the community, and provides a new perspective on the concept of "audience" and the notion of genre as social action.

The following thesis reports on an investigation of the attitudes of allophone children and their teachers towards different French accents. Using the matched guise technique, a total of 108 children in grades 4, 5 and 6 (5 groups) evaluated samples of French spoken with a standard accent, a standard Quebec accent, an informal Quebec accent and a foreign accent. The pupils evaluated the accents based on eight criteria related to linguistic, professional and personal characteristics. Secondly, sub-groups from each class participated in a post-experimental discussion about the accents they had heard. The children's teachers were also interviewed privately, in order to give their opinions about the accents, and share their vision of an oral model for these allophone children attending French language schools in Montreal. Findings suggest a strong preference for standard accents, which is confirmed by the analysis of the post-experimental discussions.

In this conceptual inquiry, I argue how and why homework contributes to inequality. Homework contributes to inequality systemically, as schools continue to rely heavily on it. Homework continues to contribute to inequality discursively and psychologically, as parents and educators encourage homework without fully realizing the consequences of homework for those students who have difficulty completing school tasks at home. The inequalities maintained by homework often persist unnoticed. This persistence is an example of a broader persistence of sociological problems even as technological advances are made. This imbalance in the two domains of society and technology is due partly to the differences in the nature of the knowledge content. Therefore, educators and policy makers must be vigilant against tendencies to be blind to possibilities for improvement. One such improvement is a ban on mandatory homework, which implies more school responsibility to enable student achievement in the school.

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Virtual reality has existed for many years, dating back to the 1940s but becoming popular on a larger scale in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It has been largely regarded as something of a plaything or hobby and, in general, as something that is on a lower echelon when compared to physical reality. In recent years, however, as our society becomes more interconnected via the Internet and as highly interactive web services, such as Facebook, Second Life, and Twitter, play a larger role in individualsʼ lives, a reexamination of the status of virtual reality becomes necessary. ! This study employs the work of a major twentieth century critic, Kenneth Burke, and from his conception of dramatism to demonstrate that 1) virtual reality, for many, is a significant reality that can often lead to the formation of meaningful relationships between individuals and 2) the significance of this reality is born out of users dramatizing their online experiences. Through heuristics and dramatistic analysis, I examine how the users of Facebook dramatize their actions and collectively contribute to the formation of a controlling narrative that can be seen across all of virtual reality. Further, the findings of this thesis provide a heuristic foundation for future research into virtual reality. / The problem -- Literature review -- Method -- The controlling drama of Facebook as a virtual reality -- Conclusions, limitations and heuristic propositions. / Department of Telecommunications

This thesis has examined the effects of socioeconomic status and linguistic development upon responses to Dwight Dean's Alienation Scale - an accepted social science research instrument.No significant correlations were found to exist between socioeconomic status and linguistic development and/or responses to the scale.A significant negative correlation was found to exist between linguistic development and responses to two out of three revised alienation subscales derived from the Dear, Scale.The thesis suggests that researchers must be wary of accepting current and future research instruments merely on the basis of reliability data. It also suggests that researchers must seek further understanding of the relationship between linguistic development and responses to social science research instruments.

This research concerns itself with the development of a theory in the grounded tradition to account for the social construction of an identity as musician by music education students in Canadian universities. The principal data gathering techniques were semi- and unstructured interviews and participant observation, first at the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Music, University of Western Ontario with further periods of interviewing at the University of Alberta and the University of British Columbia. The pilot study was conducted at Memorial University of Newfoundland where the author was, at the time of writing, an Associate Professor and Co-ordinator of Music Education in the Faculty of Education. Data collection and analysis were completed simultaneously and the interviewing became more focused on emerging categories and their properties, particularly concerning the construction of identity. The core categories discussed concern the apparent sense of isolation and the development of a symbolic community in the music school, as suggested by Cohen (1985). Further core analytic categories include the music education students' perceptions of Others as outsiders to their own insider symbolic community, and the students' perception of social action, including the notion of deviancy, which contributes to their construction of this symbolic closed community. An examination of models of social action is undertaken. The notion of making points as suggested by Goffman (1967) provides a beginning model for the identification and accumulation of status points which students appear to use in the process of identity construction and validation. Further discussion examines the nature of the music education sub-group as a stigmatized group. The nature of the category musician is examined and substantial comparison and contrasting with the position presented by Kingsbury (1984) is undertaken. The analytical categories of talent and music as in-group constructs are examined. Finally the processes of Self-Other negotiation on are explored and a theory is developed to account for the construction and maintenance of musician identity. The emerging theory borrows extensively from those analyses of the roots of social interaction recognised in the labelling tradition which are concerned with the construction of identity in negotiation with Others, and most specifically draws upon the notion of societal reaction. The research is guided by those theories and methodologies generated by symbolic interactionism developed by writers such as Blumer, Meltzer and Denzin and follows the traditions of sociological research in educational settings by such writers as Baksh, Martin and Stebbins in Canada, and Hargreaves, Woods, Ball, Hammersley and Lacey in the U.K.

This thesis attempts to survey the function of clothing adornment practices as a form social communication. It is shown that clothing enables the formation and distinction of social groups. The ways in which clothing becomes symbolic for a group and the way in which this system is challenged and/or destroyed are also examined. A distinction between fashion and antifashion is made to enable a repositioning of the Western system of dress into a wider context of meaning. Assumptions on the nature of appearance as related to the concept of truth are examined. Chapter One looks at the various and contradictory myths of body ideals, challenging the opposition of nature and culture. Chapter Two examines the uniform and applies its characteristics to all forms of dress. Chapter Three provides a brief summary of the history of sumptuary laws and how they operate in the social world. Throughout this work, common sense assumptions and privileged reading of particular theoretical frameworks are challenged. Theory itself is subject to fashion, allowing for a comparison to be made between human adornment and the methodologies that attempt to define its practices.