No description available.

M.A. / The aim of organizations working with street children is to reunite the children with their families and communities. Previous research pertaining to street children has focused on the causes and extent of the street child phenomenon, life on the streets, programmes for street children, and host communities (localities where children sleep on the streets). The focus of this study is on source communities (neighbourhoods where the children’s families are located). The attitudes of source communities towards children who are returning to their families is indicative of the level of support these children are likely to experience within the community. The aim of this study has been to explore the attitudes of role-players within a source community towards former street children. The role-player groups identified for the study were educators, neighbours, youth groups, church groups, peers and spaza shop owners. These role-players were perceived as the ones that the children were likely to interact with directly. Focus group discussions were held with educators, neighbours, youth group representatives, church group representatives and peers. Individual interviews were held with spaza shop owners for logistical reasons. For the purpose of this study the concept “attitudes” was understood as having both cognitive and affective components. The study took place in Refilwe, a satellite of Cullinan. The conclusions drawn from this study were as follows: 1. Attitudes towards former street children seem to be based on participants’ perceptions of children living on the streets. 2. Lack of accurate information about street children contributed to the rejection and labelling of the children. 3. There was a widespread assumption that street children inevitably become involved in crime. 4. Fears were expressed that children returning from the street would influence other children in the community negatively. 5. There was ambivalence about whether or not the child could be trusted once he returned home. 6. Participants believed that it was important for the child to return home. 7. Several role-players were identified as being responsible for the child’s well-being and his reintegration into the community. 8. The return of former street children was perceived as an additional burden on an already under-resourced community. 9. Participants perceived a need for programmes to prepare the child, the family and the community. The following recommendations were made: 1. A survey of the attitudes of other source communities would be useful in identifying common themes. 2. Organizations working with street children need to organize awareness campaigns in order to educate source communities about street children. 3. It is important to involve the community in the preparation for the children’s return home 4. Community development programmes are needed in Refilwe. Employment opportunities and additional resources would increase the community’s capacity to care for vulnerable groups. 5. A full-time social service office needs to be established in Refilwe. The focus group discussions unleashed the raising of a range of social issues. The seriousness of these issues warranted the inclusion of a chapter on additional findings. / Ms. H.F. Ellis

Magister Artium - MA / This research explored cultural perceptions of HIV & AIDS with students at the University of the Western Cape and attempted to understand how these perceptions of the disease reinforce stigma and stigmatising attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS. This study investigated HIV/AIDS stigma as a social phenomenon and analysed the socio-cultural and historical roots of HIV/AIDS stigma. / South Africa

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, racism, in the form of white supremacy, shaped relations between whites and Chinese British Columbians. In resisting and accommodating to white supremacy, the Chinese were active participants, along with the members of the dominant society, in shaping these relations. White supremacy was consequently a dynamic system, one whose many parts were continually in flux, and whose central constructs—notions of "race" and British Columbia as "a White Man's province"—were largely political in nature. The thesis argues that white supremacy, as both ideology and organization, was deeply imbedded in British Columbia society. Exclusion based on "race" was incorporated into government institutions as they were remade at Confederation in an effort to enhance the power of white male property-owners. By the early twentieth century, ideological constructs of "the Chinaman" and "the Oriental" were used as foils in the creation of identities as "whites" and as "Canadians." The official public school curriculum transmitted these notions, while schools themselves organized supremacy in practice by imposing racial segregation on many Chinese students. In reaction, the Chinese created their own institutions and ideologies. While these institutions often had continuities with the culture of South China, the place of origin of most B.C. Chinese, they were primarily adaptations to the conditions of British Columbia, including the realities of racism. Chinese language schools played an especially important role in helping to create a Chinese merchant public separate from the dominant society. This public was at once the consequence of exclusion and the greatest community resource in resisting white supremacy. The study concludes by questioning the workability of contemporary anti-racist strategies which treat racism as a marginal phenomenon, or as merely a set of mistaken ideas. Instead, it suggests that such strategies must recognize that racism is one of the major structures of Canadian society. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

This is a study of the social adaptation of native Indian people in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia and the methodological implications for future research in this area. It was accomplished by reviewing the roots of the problem in history, exploring the reserve system, defining the problem as it now exists in Vancouver and outlining some programmes designed to facilitate this adaptation (in particular the Vancouver Indian Centre). In addition, it is an interview survey of the opinions of Indians and experts in Indian Affairs with respect to their perception of Indian problems and their suggestions for solution. The significance of this study is twofold. First of all, it illustrates that agencies which sponsor research may have a tendency to see its value only in pragmatic returns rather than in the contributions such research may make to generally improved understanding as a basis for sound planning. Secondly, it adds to our fund of knowledge of the urban Indian population and indicates possible future areas of research. The method consisted of highly unstructured interviews with the persons noted above. Whereas the content of the interviews with experts related primarily to the need for research, the areas of possible research, and the suggested solutions, those with Indian people focussed on specific topics such as reserves, types of schools, use of the native language, integration and amalgamation. It was suggested by officials and persons who have a great deal of contact with Indians that these were topics to which the Indian was particularly sensitive and that they were therefore not appropriate content for exploration after limited contact with subjects. We concluded that this is not necessarily true. These limited contacts with Indians who have come to the city also indicated that Indians are forsaking the reserves to seek opportunity and improved status in the urban community. In the process they are making valiant efforts to adjust to the white culture. This presupposes native strengths which should be recognized as a positive basis upon which to build welfare services. Because of the exploratory nature of this study, many of these strengths will have to be more positively identified, verified and correlated by future research. The main conclusion is that action-research in several specific areas would meet the needs and expectations of the Indians, the experts in Indian Affairs and the urban-White population. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

Housing was considered a public good rather than a marketable commodity at the early stage in the development of most socialist countries. Governments in those countries assumed full responsibility for urban housing finance, construction, allocation, management, maintenance and rehabilitation. A policy of low official rents and high subsidies was adopted as the method to ensure that all urban residents would have access to the state built housing stock. Success in solving the housing problem was to be a showpiece for the socialist countries. However, after approximately forty years of development of the socialist housing economy, many urban residents in countries such as China and Hungary still face severe housing problems. The governments in these two countries have initiated a variety of new efforts in recent years in an attempt to improve the living conditions of their urban residents. In spite of this, many urban housing problems persist and some are even becoming worse. In view of this situation, both governments have introduced new housing policies which recognize certain aspects of housing as a commodity within the socialist economy. A major aim of these new policies is to encourage individual financial participation in residential construction. This approach, commonly referred to as the policy of housing commercialization, is considered by government to be a feasible approach to resolving the tenacious urban housing problem and an effective means to significantly improve living conditions for all urban residents. By undertaking a comparative study of China's and Hungary's urban housing policies, housing delivery systems and housing problems, this research endeavours to describe and assess the rationale and other associated factors behind this housing policy transformation in both China and Hungary. In addition, this research examines the lessons of Hungary's housing policy reform and concludes with a set of policy recommendations for China's future urban housing efforts. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Using anomie theory, in this paper it is argued that the new generation migrant workers (NGMWs) in China are not only receptors under structures, but also a reactive force towards those structures. However, anomie theory has faced theoretical ambiguities, controversies and misunderstandings. It also lacks the power to explain micro-to-macro relationships. For these reasons, anomie theory is first clarified and refined in this study based on its classical roots. It is then further developed by introducing the concept of social momentum to mend its theoretical lacuna. It is argued that anomie naturally reflects structural discoordination at the macro level, and that deviance and normlessness, although typically seen as indicators of anomie, are only its symptomatic presentations. Furthermore, social momentum, determined by the quantity, solidarity and modes of adaption, reveals the capacity of a social category to influence structural relationships. This study demonstrates that China entered a comparatively anomic age after its economic reform. The NGMWs can be considered as a potential antithesis to anomie in China, as implied by certain qualities of their uniqueness indicated in earlier studies. The NGMWs’ social momentum is analysed according to a field study carried out by the author in 2015 in Shanghai and the 2011 Chinese Social Survey (CSS 2011). The data from the survey and study are used to discuss whether the NGMWs will help to remedy anomie. The findings show that (1) the NGMWs’ social momentum is strong but segmental and fragile due to the primary level solidarity of them, i.e., they lack a strong identity, and (2) the directions of their social momentum can be narrowed to two undetermined modes. The NGMWs tend to aggravate the symptoms of anomie, as they are weakly attached to cultural norms. However, they have an uncertain and not yet fully formed effect on the essence of anomie.

There is a rationale for investigating the impact of racism and discrimination on adolescents and young adults in the United States. Racist or discriminatory experiences within educational settings, as well as in their communities, place Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) students in a precarious position. This study examined potential factors related to high frequency of exposure to school-based racial and ethnic microaggressions, including: teacher cultural competence, school disciplinary structures, everyday discrimination, the race-related stress potentially associated with these experiences for BIPOC adolescents and young people, as well as mental health impacts. Through an online social media campaign, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) ages 18-25 were surveyed (N = 287), recalling experiences in high school and society with racism, microaggressions, and discrimination. The study sought to identify predictors of school-based racial and ethnic microaggressions. While controlling for social desirability, findings showed how having experienced a higher frequency of school-based racial and ethnic microaggressions while in high school was significantly predicted by various factors, such as: (1) older age; (2) darker skin; (3) lower education; (4) less teacher cultural competence; (5) more discrimination; (6) less fair discipline; (7) greater race-related stress; (8) better mental health during the past year; and (9) higher drop-out rates or consideration of dropping out due to racism. Additionally, participants experienced moderate levels of depression, anxiety, and trauma in the past year due to race. The study provides future researchers with a set of measures for examining what BIPOC students endure in school settings, along with the frequency and impact of such encounters with racism, microaggressions, and discrimination. This research is especially useful for the fields of counseling and education, given implications for meeting the needs of BIPOC adolescents while they are in high school, in order to address their experiences with racism, microaggressions, and discrimination—and to prevent drop-out from high school. The needs of BIPOC young adults also need to be addressed, given evidence of an impact for young adults beyond their high school years from school-based racial and ethnic microaggressions—which are compounded by exposure to societal-wide racism, microaggressions, and discrimination.

Building on prior work on status-based rejection sensitivity, I propose a social-cognitive model of criminal-status-based rejection sensitivity (RS-criminal record) to account for differences in how people perceive and respond to threats of rejection based on their criminal histories. Study 1 develops a measure of criminal-status-based rejection sensitivity, defined as a tendency to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and negatively react to rejection based on one’s criminal status. Study 2 tests the predictions of the RS-criminal record model that anxious expectations of criminal-status-based rejection are associated with heightened perceptions of criminal-status-based rejection threat and responding to criminal-status-based stressors through self-silencing and anger. Together, Studies 1 and 2 show that RS-criminal record is distinct from general interpersonal rejection sensitivity (RS-personal), race-based rejection sensitivity (RS-race), and other relevant stigma constructs. Study 3 tests the predictions of the RS-criminal record model experimentally, establishing evidence of the negative effects of criminal record disclosure, RS-criminal record, and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on interpersonal effectiveness in an interview (as assessed by an interaction partner and outside observers) and subsequent affective states. The three studies also test the prediction, based on the dynamics of our model and evidence from focus groups, that higher levels of RS-criminal record should predict greater PTSD symptom severity. Together, these studies provide evidence of the utility of RS-criminal record to illuminate the psychological and structural pathways through which stigma can undermine the task of social integration after being released from prison.

With unique historical, political, and social perceptions, the experiences of refugees, and later, their children, contribute to a more complex narrative of remembrance, citizenship, and belonging in the United States. Often framed as creating a disconnect between generations, intergenerational trauma may be addressed by surfacing different forms of affective and embodied remembrance. Recognizing the unique identities and subjectivities that the second-generation, Southeast Asian American (SEAA) population embodies (and the implications that those have for how the U.S. perceives and produces itself), this project engages narrative inquiry and participatory visual methodologies to explore how the children of Southeast Asian (SEA) refugees make meaning of their family histories and themselves through negotiating generational memories. This project shows that SEAA young people are actively engaging with the legacies of their families and communities as they move through the world. Through a series of individual interviews, participant creations, a whole group sharing circle, and a group co-created artifact, my analysis shows the ways that SEAA continually look inward and turn outward, seeking to understand, build, and re-member as they negotiate generational memories. As SEAA move toward continuity through a deep recognition and, ultimately, acceptance of rupture, they engage in healing practices. Drawing from the ways that a feminist refugee epistemology asserts the refugee as knower and centers their rich, complicated daily experiences and the ways that healing justice centers the transformation of institutions and relationships to facilitate individual and collective healing, this project offers continued opportunities to theorize the connections between historical understandings and how young people with legacies of displacement see themselves as actors in relation to those around them.