It is known that the educational and social development of all children and young people are affected by the quality of communication within the family and by participation in social life and in activities outwith school. Although deaf children tend to under-achieve educationally and to experience marginalisation within mainstream groups, relatively little research has been located within family and out-of-school domains. This thesis interrogates data which were collected as part of a national questionnaire-based survey of parents of deaf children in Scotland. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of responses to closed and open questions illuminate parental perspectives on the extent to which deafness-related issues influenced: the quality of communication between their deaf children and family members; levels of friendships with both deaf and hearing peers; the amount and nature of their children’s participation in cultural and structured social activities; and parental facilitation of their adolescent deaf children’s independence. Although the majority of respondents indicated no, or minimal, disadvantages, a sizeable minority reported specific linguistic and social barriers which influenced key relationships and, in the case of activities, precipitated marginalising experiences. Whilst some clear patterns are revealed, such as a correlation with level of hearing loss and, in terms of parent/child quality of communication, with the hearing status of parents, there was a persistent level of unexplained diversity among those experiencing linguistic barriers. Limitations to the data restrict the generalisability of findings, although these have import in themselves. In addition, new knowledge is derived from the application of symbolic capital as a heuristic lens. Evidence of the diversity of family communication and ‘visitorship’ experiences are viewed in the context of linguistic access strategy choices emanating from the complexity of each deaf child’s habitus. Indications of differences between children of deaf and hearing parents, in terms of the balance of linguistic benefits and disadvantages, are considered in the context of social and cultural capital which is accumulated through access to alternative deaf and hearing networks. It is posited that, in order for deaf children to be enabled to realise their highly individual linguistic potential, and to optimise their accumulation of cultural and social capital, there is a need to address the imbalance within the linguistic spectrum of assessments and resources provided by specialist educational services. It is further argued that this should be within the context of a positive conceptualisation of deafness, and a holistic approach to assessment and service provision.

The ingrained economic, political, and cultural structures in society create difficulties for people to change consumption habits because they have existed in society for a long time where individuals’ social networks affect consumption. The purpose of this research has been to highlight and analyze the effect of the connection between social network and consumption and to reflect on how one's social network affects consumption habits. A quantitative survey using the 2018 Living Costs and Food Survey dataset with 5000 respondents was conducted for this reason. Social cost was used as a measure to highlight the effect it has on consumption. The result highlighted that material products acted as symbolic capital that the respondents consumed to strengthen their social ties that existed within their social networks.

As externships evolved from their vocational education roots into the university setting, both the course purposes and the expectations of student changed toward deeper learning. While the students’ responsibility for gaining knowledge has increased, teaching methods designed by educators to prepare students for more critically evaluated outcomes has not evolved at the same pace. Educators still grapple over how educational design can combine the structured teacher-centered learning strategy used in university classrooms with the learner-centered approach students typically utilize in for-profit culinary workplaces. This dissertation is about culinary externships in the urban environment. The study examined the roles, reasoning, and behavior of culinary externship stakeholders: student externs, externship sites via their externship supervisors, and educators who facilitate externships under the academic rules and guidelines of both culinary bachelor programs and the rigor demanded by higher education. Further, the study explored what factors encouraged and empowered students to acquire durable knowledge from their externship experiences and the forms of social capital they use to invest in their experience, as well as the conditions that failed to secure durable knowledge from the externship. The findings indicate that each stakeholder approaches an externship from their own working perspectives. Further, the ability of students to socialize, utilize agency to achieve their personal ends, bear the sole weight of evaluation, and acquire practical work experience prior to the externship yielded the best outcomes. Additional questions are posed and answered within the study.

Stimulated by the economic theories of Richard Florida (2005), the City of Tampa established the Office of Creative Industries (OCI) to oversee efforts to strengthen the presence and visibility of "the arts." This thesis presents ethnographic research focused on practices, and perspectives among members of the OCI's service population. From July 2006 to July 2007, I conducted fieldwork among a diverse group of stakeholders possessing a unique connection to the aims of the OCI. The central problem addressed in this research looks at the degree to which cultural change occurs from participatory, grass-roots initiatives, rather than ones emanating from "the top" based on the economic concerns derived from largely quantitative approaches. The experiences and perspectives presented in this thesis provide a rich qualitative picture of cultural production in Tampa. While exploratory in nature, this research reveals some key considerations for city governments concerning cultural policy. This thesis concludes with discussion of theoretical and methodological implications of findings and calls for practice oriented approaches within urban development settings.

<p>The main aim of the study is to generate increased knowledge about young people’s leisure time sporting habits in a contextual perspective. The intention is to highlight the circumstances in which young people pursue and participate in different activities, with a particular focus on sport in terms of one’s own life circumstances. An essential point of departure of the study is regarding sport as an important pedagogic environment of norms and values.</p><p>The perspective of the study is mainly cultural-sociological. In the analyses, Pierre Bourdieu’s key concepts habitus and capital have been used as research tools together with gender. The data on which the thesis is based is collected from young people from school year 9 living in four different milieus and comes from three different collections, conducted in 1996, 2002 and 2007. In each data collection about 1200-1500 pupils replied to a questionnaire.</p><p>Sport occupies a central position in young people’s life on the recreational field. The results show that sport culture can best be understood in the local perspective. Young people’s sporting habit development can be said to be a result of a complex interplay between personal preferences, the home environment, local traditions, what is on offer, living conditions and the prevailing laws of gender and status.</p><p>For the group of teenagers as a whole the proportion of members, as well as those who pursue personal sports, increases with higher educational capital and higher economic capital. When it comes to organised sport outside the sports club milieu no such connection can be determined.</p><p>The thesis has shown that sport is not accessible for all and opportunities for participation are curtailed for large groups of young people in our society. This is especially true for sport organised in sport clubs, i.e. sport mainly supported by public funds.</p>

<p>This doctoral thesis examines how modernisation affects and is affected by existing local culture and identity. It is about the relation between the social and mental barriers experienced, expressed and manifested in the social culture of local community, and modernisation’s dynamic powers over time. The thesis deals with different time periods from the 1800’s until today with regard to expressions and consequences of modernity. People during the societal transformation of Sweden in the 19th and 20th centuries are culturally depicted from a micro-perspective.</p><p>An overall perspective for the analysis of modernity uses the concepts of basal and variable modernity, borrowed from the historian of ideas Sven-Eric Liedman. The perspective makes possible the separation between on the one hand the structural modernisation within the fields of economy, technology and natural sciences, and on the other hand the cultural modernity manifested in conceptions of the world, politics, existential viewpoints, aesthetic expressions and social culture. Within the first-mentioned fields, where basal modernity dominates, a uniform and cumulative developmental pattern emerges as well as an almost self-propelled continuity toward the next innovation or stage of development. Within the latter fields, however, a non-uniform pattern emerges, where modernisation is constantly the object of alternative interpretations and attitudes. This variable modernity is characterised by a cultural struggle between conflicting ideologies and strategies in relation to ongoing modernisation. Different individuals and groups position themselves between acceptance and resistance, progressiveness and the critique of civilisation, the preservation of traditions and the will to change. In this course of events new affinities and identifications, but also new dissociations and antagonisms are created in local social contexts. Modernity leads both to the obliteration of boundaries and to the emergence of new social and mental boundaries. This process can also lead to existing geographical borders being charged with a new ideological content so their importance is revitalised.</p>

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The main aim of the study is to generate increased knowledge about young people’s leisure time sporting habits in a contextual perspective. The intention is to highlight the circumstances in which young people pursue and participate in different activities, with a particular focus on sport in terms of one’s own life circumstances. An essential point of departure of the study is regarding sport as an important pedagogic environment of norms and values. The perspective of the study is mainly cultural-sociological. In the analyses, Pierre Bourdieu’s key concepts habitus and capital have been used as research tools together with gender. The data on which the thesis is based is collected from young people from school year 9 living in four different milieus and comes from three different collections, conducted in 1996, 2002 and 2007. In each data collection about 1200-1500 pupils replied to a questionnaire. Sport occupies a central position in young people’s life on the recreational field. The results show that sport culture can best be understood in the local perspective. Young people’s sporting habit development can be said to be a result of a complex interplay between personal preferences, the home environment, local traditions, what is on offer, living conditions and the prevailing laws of gender and status. For the group of teenagers as a whole the proportion of members, as well as those who pursue personal sports, increases with higher educational capital and higher economic capital. When it comes to organised sport outside the sports club milieu no such connection can be determined. The thesis has shown that sport is not accessible for all and opportunities for participation are curtailed for large groups of young people in our society. This is especially true for sport organised in sport clubs, i.e. sport mainly supported by public funds.

World Social Forum, and the worldwide appearance of regional, national and local Social Forums (SF), is an important part of the movement for global justice. The aim of this thesis is to explore how the SF as a global phenomenon is interpreted and staged locally in Sweden. Central questions are: What local meanings are given to the SF phenomenon when it is introduced and organized in a local context? What relations are created between the various actors in this organizational process in terms of coalitions and power relations? How do the SFs relate to the Swedish institutionalized popular adult education? These questions are explored in the four articles on which this thesis rests. Ethnographic field studies of local organizational processes constitute the empirical basis of theoretically informed hermeneutic interpretations. A neo-gramscian perspective is used to analyze the SF as a potentially counter-hegemonic popular education phenomenon. This perspective has been complemented by mainly two theoretical concepts, that is, framing and symbolic capital. Results demonstrate how the emergence of SFs in Sweden is characterized by a widespread desire among various activists and organizations to build coalitions. In the establishment of SFs the institutionalized popular adult education play both the role of a source of economic and material resources and of being a link between various organizations. However, in the wide and formally open organizational process, specific distinctions and hierarchies arise that might neutralize the SF’s ideological impact and its potential for counter-hegemonic coalition construction. Finally, a Swedish academic debate on the concept of “folkbildning” (popular adult education) is addressed. It is argued that there is a need to widen the scope of this debate to more frequently focus on global (popular) educational phenomena (such as the social forums) in research on “folkbildning”, and not only pay attention to “typical” national or Nordic institutions and traditions.

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