The democratic deficit in the U.S. becomes strikingly evident as statistics show that only half of the population actually votes in elections. Seeing that many who do not participate in the electoral processes are also generally members of socially marginalized groups then this is an increasing social issue. The effects of this become deepening socio-economic inequalities, greater marginalization and a weakened democracy. This study argues that social workers can contribute to solve this democratic deficit by using social work to reach and include socially marginalized groups in the democratic process of electoral participation. Focusing specifically on San Francisco and the greater Bay Area, I have used qualitative method to interview representatives from non-profit organizations that provide different kind of social service and academic professors from the disciplines of Social Work and Political Science in order to investigate how social work can include marginalized non-voting groups in the electoral process. The result is analyzed together with a theoretical framework built from research on democracy, welfare research, empowerment theory and theories on community practice. The findings show that social work has an important role in creating belonging among these marginalized groups and to bring them into the political process by using social mobilizing and advocacy social work with an empowerment perspective.

The aim of this research is to examine the role of practice in collaboration between designers and African craft producers in order to develop a different methodology for future exchanges that can be more sustainable and equitable. It looks to determine how craft and design practices can act as tools for communication and exchange, to examine how to foster meaningful collaboration when the relationship of those involved is inequitable and to develop a co-creation methodology for practice, capitalising on the differing skills, experiences and cultures of those involved. The research explores collaboration through making with two Cape Town based, craft businesses - Imiso Ceramics and Kunye - investigating the interactions that occur between the collaborators. A critical contextual review reveals the majority of such partnerships are instigated from the top down with an emphasis on product development. This study proposes that the focus is shifted to one that is human-centred, where the process of collaboration between the people involved is foregrounded. By strengthening the collaborative relationships and giving all participants an equal voice, the process becomes more productive, with product development an inherent result. Using a practice based, participatory design methodology, the work draws on the African notion of ubuntu, which speaks of people's interconnectedness. Applying the cross-disciplinary practices of all three collaborators, products are developed, provoking a dialogue that challenges the designer's role in the developing world. The research culminates in an exhibition of the journey, conversations, issues and outcomes that occurred throughout. The exhibition provides an opportunity to provoke a conversation with the stakeholders, listening to their experiences and gaining their feedback on the work presented. Practical exercises for participatory design in future cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary contexts are presented.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD (Post-School Studies) / This study is located in engineering education at a South African university of technology, and is theorised using relational ontologies such as critical posthumanism, feminist new materialism and non-representational theory. It explores the potential of a digital storytelling intervention in an undergraduate geomatics diploma programme. Geomatics qualifications in South Africa are critiqued for their embedded humanism and subtle anthropocentrism despite attempts at post-apartheid curricular reform. Additionally, these qualifications are focused on technical content, and heavily influenced by Western knowledges.

This study addresses the green bond market, a young and upcoming market that has received increasing attention in recent years. Academic literature in the field is limited, therefore theaim of this study is to identify investors’ main barriers and motives behind green bondinvestments. In order to examine Swedish fund companies’ requirements to invest in greenbonds, questionnaire responses were linked to interviews. The overall result shows the importance of financial incentives in investment decisions. In terms of market barriers, the low return of green bonds was the main reason that investments were restrained. It has been stated that green bonds are issued at a premium due to an additional reporting related administrative cost for the issuers. Another defined limit was the concern for issuers not fulfilling their 'green' obligation. The main motive behind green bond investments was to invest in a sustainable environment followed by the possibility to gain a combined financial and environmental return. In addition to the financial attributes, investors find a utility function in the green bonds that account for the premium price that these investors seem to accept. Furthermore, social norms are shown to influence the investment decision to a lesser extent.

The thesis titled "Health and social situation of people living in the excluded locality "Stalingrad", arose because nowadays they are socially excluded localities increasingly viewfinder researchers, scholars and not least the media. Residents of socially excluded localities get from their neighbors in most cases verbal abuse and an overall disinterest. Locations also receive various nicknames, such as "house of horror" or "gypsy ghetto". The theoretical part of the thesis describes and explains the basic concepts and phenomena that are the subject of the thesis. Such concepts and phenomena are eg. social exclusion and its effects on the lives of individuals affected, or causes of socially excluded localities and what people are at risk of social exclusion. Furthermore, the theoretical part describes the health situation of people living in socially excluded locality in general. There are presented the basic concepts that bind to a medical situation such as quality of life and determinants that affect health and condition. In the last part of the theoretical background is given governs employment and economic situation of the socially excluded locality, focusing on unemployment, work accidents and the impact of unemployment on health. The main aim of this thesis was to describe what health and social situation of people living in the excluded locality "Stalingrad" and the sub-objective was to determine what relationships are residents of the excluded localities "Stalingrad" with their neighbors who live near the site. Have been established two research questions were: VO1: What is the history of people living in the excluded locality "Stalingrad" in the health and social context? VO2: There is a relationship between social and health situation of people living in the Czech excluded locality "Stalingrad"? In the research part of the work is characterized by the research group, which consisted of two informants from socially excluded locality "Stalingrad" and three neighbors who live near that site. For data acquisition, qualitative and strategy to be exact, narrative interviews. Before beginning the interview informants were familiar to the interview and its course, and were satisfied that the talks are completely anonymous and will be used only for the purposes of this thesis. It was determined topic of conversation for people living in excluded locality "Stalingrad" I set the question "Tell me about your life in "Stalingrad" from the time you've moved up until now.". For people living close to the site was established topic question "Tell me about your relationship with the neighbors of "Stalingrad". Interviews were transcribed verbatim and then analyzed using open coding and axial coding. In the discussion of the information obtained is compared with the available literature and research. The results are that the health situation of these people of "Stalingrad" is hampered mainly because of the physically demanding work (work in the forest, in a construction company, car service). Health situation of the signed occupational injuries suffered by the informant and his friend. These injuries are undoubtedly permanently signed on the quality of life of these people. A potential threat to the health status of the moisture that gets into the homes destroyed because of the structure of the garage. The social situation is such that informant have due to high spending three jobs that have yet demanding working hours. Social situation affects the fact that residents of "Stalingrad" must commute to work, and that it must invest a larger sum of money to refurbishment of dwellings. In the past, there were some conflicts and problems with the adoption of the residents of "Stalingrad" in the village community. In the conclusion of thesis is mentioned possible use of this work. The work may be assisted by social workers or Roma coordinators in solving health and social situation of people living in the surveyed area.

Enseigner l’agroécologie signifie intégrer autant que possible la pluralité, la complexité et l’instabilité de savoirs controversés entre plusieurs approches de l’agroécologie. Nous appréhendons cet enseignement dans le cadre de la didactique des Questions Socialement Vives. Nous abordons l’agroécologie par ses questionnements : quels sont les problèmes prioritaires à résoudre ? Quels espace et temporalité apparaissent pertinents pour la construction d’agroécosystèmes ? Comment prendre en considération les dimensions écologique, sociale et humaine et quelles pratiques cohérentes y adosser ? Apprendre l’agroécologie revient entre autres à vivre des changements dans ses positionnements sur les différentes approches agroécologiques et à dessiner sa propre trajectoire. Nous essayons de répondre à ces questions en proposant une représentation schématique des différentes approches de l’agroécologie. Nous analysons les discours de six apprenants ayant suivi un module d’agroécologie inclus dans une formation agricole à l’aide d’un cadre d’analyse de l’argumentation adapté au contexte des controverses. Nous présentons la diversité des trajectoires de changements de positionnements sur les différentes approches agroécologiques, la complexification de l’argumentation qui s’est déployée et l’évolution desprojets d’installation. Nous en déduisons des effets du module d’agroécologie. Nous retenons l’intérêt d’une diversité didactique, la pluralité des profils des apprenants, des formateurs, des approches de l’agroécologie et de leurs controverses, des acteurs visités, sans exclure les nécessaires apports disciplinaires notamment sur la conservation des sols correspondant à un besoin d’apprentissage des apprenants. / Teaching agroecology mean integrating as much as possible the plurality, complexity and instability of controversial knowledge between several approaches of agroecology. We apprehend this teaching in the context of the didactics of Socially Acute Questions. We address agroecology through its questions: what are the priority problems to be solved? what space and temporality seem relevant to the construction of agroecosystems ? how to take into account the ecological, social and human dimensions and what consistent practices to back it up? Learning about agro-ecology means, among other things, changing its positioning on different agro-ecological approaches and drawing its own trajectory.We try to answer these questions proposing a schematic representation of the different approaches of agroecology. We analyze the discourse of six learners who have followed an agro-ecology module included in agricultural training using a framework of analysis of the argument adapted to the context of the controversies. We present the diversity of the trajectories of changes of position on the different agro-ecological approaches, the complexification of the argumentation that has been deployed and the evolution of installation projects. We deduce some effects of the agroecology module. We retain the interest of a didactic diversity, plurality of profiles of learners, trainers, approaches of agroecology and of their controversies, visited actors, without excluding the necessary contributions of the disciplinary contents, oriented in particular on the conservation of the soil corresponding to a learning need of the learners.

This diploma thesis with the title ?Non-Romani inhabitants of socially excluded ?Romani? localities is divided into two parts: the theoretical and the empiric parts. The theoretical part of the diploma thesis deals mainly with defining the terms of social exclusion and socially excluded locality. At the same time, it describes the phenomenon of the poverty, underclass and white trash culture and ethnicity. The research part deals with the description of the actual research methodology, interpretation and the presentation of the research investigation results. The aim of the diploma thesis is to describe the perception of life in a socially excluded ?Romani? locality, by non-Romani inhabitants. With respect to the aim of the diploma thesis I chose the qualitative research strategy. The qualitative investigation was conducted by the method of questioning. The questioning technique was a semi-structured interview consisting of open questions. The target set consists of twelve respondents living in three excluded localities in the territory of the town of České Budějovice, who do not consider themselves, on the basis of self-identification, as members of the Romani ethnic group. The results of my research investigation shows what leads non-Romani inhabitants up to living in socially excluded localities, if they feel safely there and how they perceive coexistence with Romani ethnic group.

Thesis (MTech (Design))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2008 / This thesis argues that the story of hemp is one of mistaken identity and focuses on the potential of hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) in a social and economic context. It also asserts how hemp with the application of appropriate technologies can be developed nationally 'new' material, with reference to examples from abroad. The current proliferation of raw material shortages means that designers have a social responsibility to seek new ways to source and process materials for a sustainable future. Designers are the "future creators" and should prescribe materials that are not only healthy in the cycle of production, but also ensure an afterlife (recycling). The methodology employed is a combination of qualitative (such as interviews) and quantitative methods (such as statistical analysis). Life Cycle Analysis is used to study the ecological impact of substituting hemp for current materials and processes. The study interrogates the historic significance of hemp in various societies across the world with particular focus on Europe, Japan, the United States of America, Ireland and Australia. Such information is analysed within the realities of the South African context. A vast amount of information on hemp has been published but practical information is hard to obtain in South Africa necessitating a search for definite answers abroad, mainly in Europe where there is a strong development in this field. After researching the production of the hemp raw materials and the manufacture of viable hemp products abroad, lessons could be assessed for application to the local market. The findings endorse the view that hemp is a sustainable zero-waste material; the whole plant can be used when harvested, which makes it an ideal material on which to base an eco-design system. Hemp can be processed by utilizing either high technology equipment or by the use of locally available equipment and manual labour. It can be converted into a multi-diverse range of viable products such as paper, thatching, building material and ceiling panels. The main reason for the isolation of hemp in South Africa is the mistaken assumption that it is a drug and outlawed by our legislation. Since hemp (Cannabis sativa L) is perceived as a vilified cousin of marihuana it has lead to a blanket ban on both plants. This is certainly not warranted as hemp produces an extremely low value of the controversial hallucinogenic tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)properties which is negligible.

The problem of new religious movements is quite a current topic. Therefore, I have decided to write my thesis about this subject. The theoretical part contains the definitions of the basic terms, the characteristics of new religious movements, their catagories and characteristics of their victims, the context of new religious movements and the law, as well as the connection of religious groups and socially-pathologic phenomena. Each of the phenomena is attached to concrete examples of the social groups involved. Both qualitative and quantitative research was employed in the practical part. The methods that have been used to obtain this information were a survey and and interview, as well as the anaylsis of the data and content. One of the files for the survey was collected in the Klatovy Region, while the other was gathered from the people of the Ceske Budejovice Region. Thus, the acquired data were compared in order to reach the aim of the work. The two aims were set based upon the secondary data and one hypothesis was declared for each. The first aim, which was `to find out the public opinion on the problems of new religious movement{\crq}, was connected with the hypothesis `although the public is not sufficiently informed about the religious cults in the region, they are perceived as negative{\crq}. The other aim was to map the socially-pathological phenomena connected with the activity of the movements in these particular regions. Regarding that research, which was qualitative, the hypothesis was declared on the ground of the acquired data. Hypothesis No. 1 was verified. Based on an interview with local policemen, the other hypothesis was set: Although information about the socially-pathological phenomena connected with the activity of the movements reached the public, the Police of the Czech Republic do not have evidence of any crime of that character in the given regions. A booklet was put together, based upon the acquired information, giving the overall information about new religious movements, their characteristics and possible risks. In my opinion, the aim of my thesis was met. The research showed that the public awareness of new religious cults is rather low and the information is mostly distorted. The results of my work may serve as further insight into this problem and, threby it may become a stimulus to raise the state of awareness in this sphere.

abstract: In contemporary U.S. culture, dance is often confined to the young and the trained, isolated on stages and in dance studios, and viewed as entertainment that is disconnected from "real life." Socially engaged dance practices re-connect dance to society in meaningful ways. By connecting individuals to their own bodies, to each other, to ideas, and to social, civic, and educational institutions, socially engaged dance practices use movement, the body, and the tools of participatory art, which contributes to the development of a democratic society, while catalyzing social change, and building healthy communities. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.F.A. Dance 2013