Thesis: Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, 2016 / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 209-228). / Caring for Star-Children: Autism, Families, and Ethics in Contemporary China studies the emergence and development of family caregiving for autistic children after 1982, when autism was first diagnosed separately in two cities in China. Based on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork at municipal specialist hospitals, community child-health clinics, autism rehabilitation centers, and homes of families with autistic children across six provinces, this study explores how social stratification and the turn towards self-governance not only made autism as an epistemic object, but has intersected with that category to create new forms of inequality. In the absence of thorough and consistent state initiatives, moral economies around the child's potential have sprung up. / Such moral economies lead actors such as medical professionals, philanthropic and educational organizations, and elite parent-activists to prioritize the young autistic child's potential, and to urge parents to become behavioral therapists for their own children. Parents are urged to let go of the normative societal expectation of recompense in the form of elderly care. I argue in this dissertation that the directives around these moral economies fail to take into account the local and gendered inequities that both produce, and constrain, parental diagnostic and therapeutic choices for their autistic children. Autism's spread as a diagnostic category has paralleled other spatial and economic disparities across the country. / The economic reforms which began in 1978 and the devolution of many public functions to the purview of local governments have led to dramatic regional disparities with respect to economic opportunity and, the availability and quality of healthcare, education and social services. Where professional and parental elites in cities such as Beijing refer to autistic children through the valorized term "children of the stars" (a phrase chosen so as to reduce stigma), and are able to provide children in these locations with prompt diagnoses and early therapy, to date many healthcare workers and families responsible for nurturing children in less developed regions of China have not even heard of such a diagnostic category. Many families from rural or otherwise resource-scarce locations in China are not able to obtain a timely diagnosis, much less access therapy for their children. / In managing care in landscapes of great disparity, families are turned into diagnostic and therapeutic internal migrants, as they travel across China in search of the appropriate doctors and therapy. I argue in this thesis that the post-socialist emphasis on choice, rather than care, in fact serves to legitimize neglect of the autistic adult and mother of the child. Autism advocacy rights which fail to take into account local forms of stratification thus serve to broaden the burden of care upon families. / by Emily Xi Lin. / Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS) / Ph.D.inHistory,Anthropology,andScience,TechnologyandSociety(HASTS) Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society

Thesis: Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, 2019 / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 155-169). / This ethnography tracks a diverse set of scientific practices that have developed new technologies for the conservation of artworks and cultural heritage. I examine how scientists in physics, chemistry, and biology have intervened in the restoration of artifacts ranging from faded abstract expressionist paintings to the crumbling clay terraces of an archaeological site. Reporting on archival research, interviews, and participant-observation, I juxtapose three case studies in the U.S. and Italy-two in which physics (Cambridge, MA) and chemistry (Florence) are conscripted into the realm of high modem art, and another in which biological knowledge (Milan) informs the preservation of artistic tradition and craft heritage. / In analyzing interventions in digital projection technology (light), nanotechnology (colloids), and biotechnology (microbes), I argue that scientists today transform artifacts of culture into instances of technoscientific nature through what I call the "technoscientific re-enchantment of art." Aura, philosopher Walter Benjamin once wrote, is the ineffable and singular charisma that confirms an artwork as "the original." He added that technological reproducibility through film and photography strips art of its ritualistic authority, liberating it of the fetish of authenticity. To the contrary, I find, technology today is enlisted as a mode of authenticity's material production. Art's aura, in the age of technoscientific reenchantment, does not disappear but rather, is re-valued through analogy-analogies made through the discursive and material practices that liken light to paint, the colloidal substance of the human body to that of artworks, and microbes to patina. / Laboratory scientists, I show, are recasting the materials of art and heritage to make the terms of their recovery amenable to technoscientific mediation. In so doing, scientists contribute to enduring ethical debates within art history and heritage preservation-debates about how to interpret an artist's intent and an object's pristineness or historicity. Finally, I explore a fourth field site, the Vatican Museums, as a framing device for understanding the stakes in contemporary conservation practice. Drawing on the anthropology of art and heritage, science and technology studies, and art history, I explore the multiple, ever-changing claims of technoscientific expertise over matters of the materiality, aesthetics, and history of artifacts. / Grace Kim. / Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS) / Ph.D.inHistory,Anthropology,andScience,TechnologyandSociety(HASTS) Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society

Title: Doping as a problem of current society Goals of the thesis: Main goal of this thesis is to find other options how to increase sportsman's efficiency and performance, not just by using doping. Our next goal is to find out how athletes and experts perceive alternative options and what their opinion about doping is. Methodology: Qualitative research, interview by instruction, informal interview, interview with expert, thinking aloud Results: Results of quantitative research are interpreted in the practical part of thesis by using editing procedures method. Key words: doping, society, sports, performance, self-supporting instruments

No description available.

In the Province of the Western Cape in South Africa, gangsterism continues to be associated with issues of violence, crime and localised conflicts, affecting residents on the Cape Flats in particular. Although the country's legal framework promotes human rights and despite ongoing interventions by law enforcement, the effectiveness of government responses is still debated by politicians as well as the general public. Using Carol Bacchi's ‘What's the Problem Represented to Be' (2009) approach to policy analysis, the aim of this dissertation is to deconstruct the Western Cape's political problematisation and representation of the ‘problem' by analysing the Western Cape Provincial Policy response to the National Anti-Gangsterism Strategy. From a social constructivist angle, this dissertation presumes policy as prescriptive guidelines that dictate action. Further, the aim is to discover how the problem is understood and represented and thus analyse which discourses and material responses are generated and which are not. The findings confirm that there is a discrepancy between what is articulated in policy and what actually happens on the ground, i.e. between discourse and practice. Moreover, it will be argued that sustained anti-gang intervention demand that structural obstacles and inequality in lieu of the spill over from the Apartheid era are addressed. Taking notice of these aspects, the minor dissertation concludes that it is critical to figure out how best to transform conflict conditions in areas with high levels of gang violence with the view to allowing both youth groups and individuals to exert agency and become empowered in pursuit of individual and community resilience.

Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) advocates that well-functioning ecosystems are critical for building resilience and supporting society's adaptation to the adverse impacts of climate change. The National Department of Environmental Affairs, Fisheries and Forestry in South Africa has decided to mainstream EbA into its climate response actions, developing a strategy and set of guidelines to steer implementation. However, little work has been done to grasp different actors' perspectives and understandings of EbA, its implementation and how to link EbA to existing related projects and programmes that focus on natural resource management and ecological restoration. This research presents findings from a qualitative study in the Western Cape that sought to investigate what EbA means ‘on the ground' and how it can be actioned. The objectives for this research were to 1) unpack how government actors in the Western Cape relate to, understand and give meaning to EbA in their specific and existing work contexts and how they relate EbA to other concepts such as green infrastructure, restoration and various forms of natural resource management (NRM); 2) explore the concerns and challenges encountered and what support is needed to implement EbA within each actor's sector; and 3) interpret what the findings mean for future conceptualization, and promotion of EbA mainstreaming in the Western Cape. Semi-structured interviews with 19 government officials and participant observation at EbA related events in South Africa were the main methods used in the research. Findings suggest that despite some conceptual confusion related to EbA, EbA can be ‘grounded based on the three spheres EbA explicitly builds on; namely biodiversity and ecosystem conservation, climate change adaptation and socio-economic benefits. That said, the study also found that practitioners might struggle to successfully address climate change as one of the critical areas of EbA, due to the difficulties of integrating climate change science and projections into projects. In addition, three challenges were identified that relate to funding availability, silo mentality and the mismatch between short-term objectives and decision making in government, and the need for long-term thinking and planning. Increased climate change understanding together with effective demonstration and the use of applicable language that relates to what the different actors are already doing can help improve EbA uptake and mainstreaming, as well as address the challenges related to conceptual confusion, funding, silo mentality and short-term thinking.

Rape myths have several negative effects on society, and can affect those who come into contact with victims of sexual assault on a professional level. One group of professionals that assist victims are general medical practitioners and in a country like South Africa, that has a high rate of rape, it is not uncommon for general medical practitioners to find themselves assisting victims. Previous research has suggested that professionals who assist victims such as police officers and lawyers are susceptible to rape myth acceptance. In South Africa, research suggests that medical health professionals can have negative views of victims, depending on a number of factors such as the victim's behaviour and alcohol consumption. Presenting data collected using the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (IRMAS) from a sample of 44 general medical practitioners in South Africa, it was found that the participants had low levels of rape myth acceptance. The findings indicated that not only were rape myths not strong influences within the sample, myths that related to the concept of ‘real rape' were the least likely to be supported. Furthermore, additional questions in the survey revealed that general medical practitioners are not well-equipped to provide care to victims of sexual assault and more effort is needed with regards to service provision.

Writing musicological studies always entails writing about the history of musicology itself. Our Festschrift aims in the first place to develop knowledge on a wide range of musical topics and to stimulate scientific discourse. It is also meant as a contribution to the tradition of honouring prominent academics by means of a celebratory publication – a long-established practice in German-speaking countries, and one which has become widespread internationally. Thus, it is our intention to dedicate the present volume to a scholar, lecturer and intellectual whose lifetime’s work has had a major impact on the consolidation of modern musicology at the Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa: Mário Vieira de Carvalho. A Festschrift usually reflects the dedicatee’s scholarly fields and research interests. Our Essays on Music, Meaning and Society encompass some core issues in areas of research close to Mário Vieira de Carvalho’s own. His work has consistently explored the relations between musical phenomena and their social environment. For Mário Vieira de Carvalho music and society cannot be viewed as separate realms: they belong together and interact in multiple ways. It follows from this that musicology must devise ever more refined approaches to the interrelation of social and musical processes and practices. The chapter Social Existence Determines Human Consciousness: Interdependencies between Music, Society, and Technology addresses precisely those questions. The implications of Mário Vieira de Carvalho’s work for music analysis, criticism and aesthetics are manifold. Differentiations in musical reception or musical behaviour respond to differentiations in musical structure, which in turn reflect the musical intentions of the composer – a view developed by Mário Vieira de Carvalho since the time of his encounter with Christian Kaden as a former doctoral supervisor, and brought to fruition in his well-known studies on the music of Fernando Lopes-Graça, among other composers. Interrelations between composition, performance and reception are outlined in our chapters Analysing Music and Musicians: Text – Performance – Context and The Meaning of Meaning: Music, Discourse, and Silence.

This dissertation explores how domestic workers within the Cape Town area access childcare. From this exploration, the argument that the state should provide childcare to mothers as a redress measure under s9(2) is developed. This argument is drawn from the proposition that universal access to childcare has the potential to reduce gender inequality by removing the care burden that women bear. By providing universal access to childcare, and thereby removing or reducing the care burden, women are better empowered to access income earning activity. This qualitative enquiry utilises a literature review and one-on-one interviews as modes of data collection. Eight interviews were conducted on the experiences of domestic workers. A feminist methodology was adopted in the collection and analysis of the data, which led to the finding that greater state intervention is needed into the lives of domestic workers so that they may realise substantive equality. This Constitutionally based legal analysis is used as a means of understanding social transformation through the experiences of the participant group.

This essay deals with complexities regarding indigenous peoples’ rights to land and natural resources in the context of mineral extraction. A large share of the world’s indigenous population lives in environmentally sensitive areas. These regions are often rich in mineral resources and hence attractive to extractive industries. The international indigenous rights regime particularly focuses on land rights. These rights are based on assumptions of an ethno-territorial relationship between indigenous groups’ cultural identity and social well being. Their traditional land and livelihoods are considered to reflect these values. Permitting mineral extraction in indigenous areas causes significant impact on the traditional livelihood, which in turn can jeopardize the development of indigenous groups. In recent years, Sweden has been internationally criticized for not respecting the international rights given to the Sami population as an indigenous people. The critique specifically draws attention to Swedish legislation regarding mineral extraction. Consequently, this essay aims to explore whether and to which extent the current international rights regimes considers the right for the Sami population to prevent mining establishments in their traditional territories. Furthermore, it aims to draw some primary lines of how the international indigenous rights regime may contribute to a more effective environmental protection in these areas. The main findings show that the international indigenous regime and universal human rights interpreted in an indigenous context contribute to a positive devolvement regarding the protection of indigenous land rights. The study finds evidence that the international right to property in the light of a material understanding of the right to not be discriminated could obstruct the possibilities to expropriate these lands. This could lead to a stronger protection of indigenous values and livelihood conditions, as well as a strengthening of environmental values in the territory. The study also emphasizes that the international law phrases requirements on states to ensure that indigenous groups are given the right to a free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) when their rights are being threatened by externally triggered activities in their territory, for instance mining ventures. However, this study finds that FPIC is not yet legally binding for Sweden. Still, this essay highlights that the principle of FPIC should be considered as a guideline for all states that aim at protecting indigenous rights in accordance with pertinent human rights. Moreover, the study finds that there is a link between indigenous rights and environmental law. This connection is expressed in how a consultation process that fulfills the requirements of FPIC shows potential to endorse both social and ecological aspects of a sustainable development. The study encourages further research in this field. Finally, the essay urges legislators to act to promote collective land rights in order to prevent irreparable damage on Sami culture and collective development.