Intergenerational solidarity and reciprocity are fundamental building blocks of any society. At the same time, socio-generational groups constantly struggle for influence and authority. In Sub-Saharan Africa, disproportionately male, gerontocratic and patrimonial systems governing economic, social and political life lend a special explosiveness to the social cleavage of generation. This dissertation draws on the concept of the generational contract to explore whether Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war (1991-2001) – labelled a ‘revolt of youth’ – catalysed changes in the power-asymmetries between age groups. Based on fieldwork conducted between 2007 and 2010, I argue that youth in post-war Sierra Leone question fundamental norms of intergenerational relations and challenge local governance structures demanding changes to the generational contract. Amidst a strong continuity of gerontocratic dominance and counter-strategies from elders, youth draw on organisational forms and a local rights discourse to create spaces for contestation and negotiation. These openings hold potential for long-term rearrangements of societal relations in the medium to long-term future.

The aim of this study was to detect and describe the trends in shape variability of proximal and distal human tibia related to sex, age, social status and time period. The variability of its shape and form was analysed first in an early medieval sample, then in two modern populations, an early 20th century sample and the contemporary Czech population. Finally, data from the whole studied time span were analysed. The initial raw data were acquired by optical scanning and computed tomography (CT) scanning of the lower limbs; the three-dimensional bone surfaces of the contemporary tibias were segmented from the clinical CT scan sequences. Geometric morphometrics and multivariate statistical methods were applied to study the variations in shape and form quantitatively. Proximal and distal tibias were evaluated independently, and the potential influence of sex, age at death and time period were investigated. In the early medieval population, we also explored the relationship between tibial morphology and presumed social status derived from the respective grave location within the settlement. Because traditional morphometric analysis revealed statistically significant sex differences in the parameters of both tibial extremities (e.g., Steyn and Işcan, 1997; Šlaus et al., 2013), we thus assumed the...

The thesis deals with the changes of the Chinese garden during the Ming dynasty. It examines the changes in decoration, function and conception of private, literati gardens. It tracks the transformation of the Ming garden from a production land into a precious piece of art. In search of the causes of these changes, the thesis emphasizes the pre-conditioning of the garden's shape by its economic and social functions.

The intention of this study is to approximate the attitude to children born out of marriage and their mothers in the years 1750-1849. The nominal excerpts from parish registers were used to find numbers of births and proportion of illegitimate children at the manor of Škvorec, the area located at the eastern border of Prague. The proportion of children born out of marriage is compared with contemporaneous regulations that could influence attitudes and behavior of contemporary society. The study also investigates the social status of born children, their fathers and godfathers. The results show that the position of unmarried mothers and their children has improved in the followed period. The results suggest that many unmarried mothers already lived with their partners in the companienate marriage in that time.

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This report is submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of masters by coursework and research report in the faculty of humanities in the university of Witwatersrand / This thesis explores the different ways that identities are negotiated and renegotiated in different spaces. It intends to unearth the contradictions, tensions and complexities that occur as a result of racialised subjectivities. This study unpacks the socially constructed term "Coconut" and challenges the existing dominant discourses that speak of "Coconuts" as inauthentic Black people who have lost touch with their heritage.What it means to be Black today in South Africa is being contested and there is resistance towards binary and rigid understandings and conceptualizations of blackness. In the intersection of race and class, class is often the silent signifier of distinction and difference post-apartheid but proves to be significant in understanding the different nuanced lived experiences of the Black subject. This thesis is specifically interested in how the inability to comprehend or communicate in an African language further complicates and adds another layer of complexity to not only the lived experiences of Black monolinguals proficient in English only, but also to their personal sense of self. Being a "Coconut" is experienced in conflicted and precarious ways. On the one hand it is experienced with alienation and rejection and in other contexts, it holds significant value and serves as social cultural capital necessary for maneuvering social, political and economic spaces. Key words: Identity, Coconut, Blackness, Class, Cultural capital, Monolinguals, Language, Accent, Racial subjectivity / GR2017

This study aims to show who the most common participants of the debates in the Swedish press are, when it comes to gender, social status and the subjects that are debated. To investigate this, a quantitative content analysis was used, counting and analysing all the debate articles from ten swedish newspapers between 1st April 2018 and 31st May 2018. There were 723 articles included in our study, and debate articles that were replies to other debates and those which were less than 1500 digits were excluded. The articles were analysed according to their length, which newspaper they came from, what gender the debator had, what the subject of the debate was, the actuality of the debate and the debators social status. The result of the study shows that men are more frequently appearing in the debates than women, and the most common debator in the Swedish press is a politician that debates politics and political proposals. It also shows that men and women tend to debate different subjects, as men are more frequent debators in subjects like trade and industry, international affairs and immigration, and women are more frequent when it comes to healthcare, education and environmental issues.

Survey research plays a significant role in the way psychologists investigate key relationships which impact human behaviours—and which inform us about undercurrents of a population. Samples are generally taken with the primary function of being able to make inferences which can be generalised to the target population—however, historically the field has consistently relied on small and niche datasets which are not truly representative of the general population. As a consequence, there is an abundance of published research which lacks ecological validity. The alternative approach is to collect larger amounts of data—this approach is extremely costly and in most instances impractical for the researcher. I have termed this conundrum, the cost-insight trade-off, which has traditionally exasperated psychologists. To address this dilemma, I conducted three studies using two alternative methods. Study 1 investigated the relationship between social status and international friendships at a micro and macro level. The building social status hypothesis states that higher social status individuals would reach out more to people and have more international friendships than their poorer counterparts. In contrast, the restrictive social status hypothesis states the higher social status individuals would be reclusive and have fewer international friendships than their poorer counterparts. Findings at both the micro (N = 857; U.S. participants) and macro levels (approximately 50 billion friendships across 187 countries) were in alignment with the restrictive social status hypothesis. Investigating this relationship at this large a scope would not have been possible without utilising Facebook Data—furthermore, for most research projects collecting data at this scale is both too costly and impractical. Study 2 aims to address the limitation of study 1. In this light, a new alternative method, the Survey Forecasting Method, is introduced and used to demonstrate creative capability of combining the latest technology, machine learning techniques and big data (i.e. Twitter). The findings were proof positive that a data collection of only 1,000 participants (at minimum) can be transformed into the power of having a dataset of several hundred thousand participants. In other words, the findings suggest that it is possible to efficiently and effectively forecast scores for potentially millions of people, without them having to complete a single survey. This is a significant step towards developing an alternative survey method; however, the method has only been applied to the Big Five & NEO-IPIP personality traits. Study 3 provides further evidence for the Survey Forecasting Method as a viable alternative to traditional sampling methods. The study examined the relationship between entrepreneurs’ self-efficacy, fear of failure, and well-being at two levels: (a) self-report and forecasted individual level, and (b) forecasted state level (across all 50 U.S. states). Findings show there are differences between each level which provides insights into effects and potential mechanisms which would not potentially be found using traditional “silo’d” methods. The primary aim of this thesis is to provide a viable alternative method to conducting survey research—which allows the researcher to gain deeper insights into the population at less cost and time. Furthermore, this alternative method addresses poor data representativeness. Limitations are addressed and future directions to improve its capability and robustness as a viable survey research methodology are provided.

本研究主要目的是基於Blau和Duncan的社會地位取得模型，來探討原住民教育與職業的關係，除了原住民父親教育、父親職業、教育程度、初職和目前職業成就等五個獎項外，尚加上社會歧視、工作動機和工作認知等三個變項。 　　本研究的資料是來自謝高橋（民82）所做的「台灣地區山胞就業與失業問題之調查研究」，依本研究的主要幾項從此項調查中摘取相關資料作為分析基礎。研究中所使用的統計方法包括聯列表，單因子變異量分析，皮爾森積差相關和多元迴歸分析等。 　　本研究主要的研究結果如下： 　　一、原住民家庭背景、社會歧視、工作動機，工作認知、教育程度及職業成就的分佈情形 　　　（一）原住民的家庭出身以其父親的教有和職業為指標。可以看出隨著教育的普及，其父親的教有程度較雖較前略有提升，不識字的人數大幅減少．但大部分集中在國小階段；其父親的職業多半以從事農、漁業為主，但人數隨著時間漸漸減少，而體力工及非技術工卻呈現U字形的增加。 　　　（二）原住民所感受的社會歧視，並沒有隨著時間而減少。 　　　（三）工作動機已漸漸由家庭需要轉為為求自己發展。 　　　（四）工作認知逐漸降低，不易掌握市場就業資訊。 　　　（五）原住民的教育程度略有提昇，但仍集中在低學歷階段。 　　　（六）原住民所從事的工作多半位居整個台灣職業結構的下層，職業成就偏低。 　　二、將教育程度、初職及目前職業轉換成等距尺度，進行單因子變異數分析及事後比較。結果發現原住民的教育程度、初職聲望及目前職業聲望有隨著社會經濟的發展而提升的趨勢，但是從平均數來看，在年輕一輩的原住民中（15-30歲間），教育平均程度為2.43，根據本研究的編碼方式，差不多相當於國中階段；初職平均聲望為32.06，差不多相當於受雇買賣人員；目前職業平均聲望為33.64，差不多相當於技藝及有關工作人員。由此可知，原住民教育程度，初職聲望及目前職業聲望雖較前提高，但是也是集中在低學歷、工業生產有關工作上。 　　三、原住民在教有取得的過程中，以父親教有的影響最大，但隨著社會經濟的發展，而有下降的趨勢。 　　四、原住民在取得初職地位的過程中，以教有程度的影響最大，但隨著杜會經濟的發展，而有下降的趨勢。 　　五、原住民在取得目前職業成就的過程中，以初職地位的影響最大，但隨著社會經濟的發展，而有下降的趨勢。 　　六、原住民接受高中以上教育，較能提高職業聲望，但隨著社會經濟的發展。而有下降的趨勢。 　　本研究根據上述研究結果加以討論，並提供若干建議以供政府有關單位及後續研究之參考。

Political liberalization and increased public costs have placed new demands on the Swedish public sector. Two ways of meeting these novel requirements have been to corporatize and privatize organizations. With these two organizational changes, however, comes a risk of increased insecurity and higher demands on employees; the ability to handle these changes is likely dependent on their social status within an organization. The general aim of the thesis is to contribute to the understanding of how corporatization and privatization might affect employees’ work climate, work attitudes and ill-health. Special importance is placed on whether outcomes may differ depending on the employees’ social status in the form of hierarchic level and gender. Questionnaire data from Swedish acute care hospitals were used in three empirical studies. Study I showed that physicians at corporatized and privatized hospitals reported more positive experiences of their work climate compared with physicians at a public administration hospital. Study II showed that privatization had more negative ramifications for a middle hierarchic level (i.e., registered nurses) who reported deterioration of work attitudes, while there were no major consequences for employees at high (physicians) or low (assistant nurses) hierarchic levels. Study III found that although the work situation for women and men physicians were somewhat comparable (i.e., the same occupation, the same organization), all of the differences that remained between the genders were to the detriment of women. The results of this thesis suggest that corporatizations and privatizations do not necessarily imply negative consequence for employees. However, the consequences appear to differ between groups with different social status. Employees whose immediate work situation is affected but who do not have sufficient resources to handle the requirements associated with an organizational change may perceive the most negative consequences. / At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Manuscript.