Thesis (MA)--University of Montana, 2010. / Contents viewed on July 18, 2010. Title from author supplied metadata. Includes bibliographical references.

The problem of this research may be stated as a study of the relationship between successful weight reduction on the part of people involved in a group program, and the two variables of ego strength and social participation.

Orientador: Luís Antonio Francisco de Souza / Banca: José Luís Guimarães / Banca: Lídia Viana Possas / Resumo: A presente dissertação busca em seus objetivos compreender as representações sociais do corpo, com ênfase na construção do corpo obeso através das práticas corretivas que visam agir sobre o controle do peso. A pesquisa pretende observar as práticas, os discursos e os métodos de normalização do corpo na instituição dos "Vigilantes do Peso" (VP), entidade voltada à correção dos hábitos alimentares considerados irregulares. Ao mesmo tempo, a pesquisa pretende compreender a maneira com que os obesos representam seu corpo e como justificam a sua adesão às práticas do VP. A reflexão baseia-se nas leituras de Michel Foucault sobre disciplina e norma, bem como sobre bio-política. O que está em jogo no debate são as diferentes maneiras de como, na modernidade, o corpo passou a ser objeto de intervenção de poderes e de investimento subjetivo. A pesquisa pretende adicionalmente descrever e analisar as práticas cotidianas dos usurários do VP. Para tanto, foram realizadas observações diretas dessas práticas com o intuito de descrever as confissões realizadas durante as reuniões da instituição. Os VP representam um novo tipo de instituição na modernidade tardia. Em sua prática corretiva, apontam para processos mais sutis de institucionalização da norma. A dissertação, por último, pode contribuir para a compreensão dos temas relacionados ao corpo e à obesidade no âmbito das Ciências Sociais. / Abstract: The present work seeks in its objectives to understand the social representations of body, stressing the correctives practices that underlies the weight control and the construction of the overweight body. The research intends to observe the practices, the speeches and the methods of normalization of the body within the "Weight Watchers" (VP), entity devoted above all to the correction of alimentary habits considered not regular. At the same time, the research intends to understand the way in which somebody with overweight represents its body and justifies its adhesion to the practices of weight control. The purpose is to discuss these problems using the Michel Foucault's thought on discipline, normalization and bio-politics. The main concern is to grasp the different ways in late modernity the body became object of powers interventions and subjective investment. The research also intends to describe and to analyze the VP daily practices. To accomplish that, will be made direct observations of VP daily practices and the confessions emerged within the VP meetings as well. VP is a type of institution that encompasses the emergency of new modernity configuration in the body corrections practices. The dissertation intends lastly to understand the studies related to body and obesity, in the knowledge realm of Social Sciences. / Mestre

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed month day, year). Includes bibliographical references.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:23:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-05-20Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:09:58Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 magalhaes_br_me_mar.pdf: 664405 bytes, checksum: 09530e55da0e0523d49efff4b7008fcd (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / A presente dissertação busca em seus objetivos compreender as representações sociais do corpo, com ênfase na construção do corpo obeso através das práticas corretivas que visam agir sobre o controle do peso. A pesquisa pretende observar as práticas, os discursos e os métodos de normalização do corpo na instituição dos “Vigilantes do Peso” (VP), entidade voltada à correção dos hábitos alimentares considerados irregulares. Ao mesmo tempo, a pesquisa pretende compreender a maneira com que os obesos representam seu corpo e como justificam a sua adesão às práticas do VP. A reflexão baseia-se nas leituras de Michel Foucault sobre disciplina e norma, bem como sobre bio-política. O que está em jogo no debate são as diferentes maneiras de como, na modernidade, o corpo passou a ser objeto de intervenção de poderes e de investimento subjetivo. A pesquisa pretende adicionalmente descrever e analisar as práticas cotidianas dos usurários do VP. Para tanto, foram realizadas observações diretas dessas práticas com o intuito de descrever as confissões realizadas durante as reuniões da instituição. Os VP representam um novo tipo de instituição na modernidade tardia. Em sua prática corretiva, apontam para processos mais sutis de institucionalização da norma. A dissertação, por último, pode contribuir para a compreensão dos temas relacionados ao corpo e à obesidade no âmbito das Ciências Sociais. / The present work seeks in its objectives to understand the social representations of body, stressing the correctives practices that underlies the weight control and the construction of the overweight body. The research intends to observe the practices, the speeches and the methods of normalization of the body within the “Weight Watchers” (VP), entity devoted above all to the correction of alimentary habits considered not regular. At the same time, the research intends to understand the way in which somebody with overweight represents its body and justifies its adhesion to the practices of weight control. The purpose is to discuss these problems using the Michel Foucault’s thought on discipline, normalization and bio-politics. The main concern is to grasp the different ways in late modernity the body became object of powers interventions and subjective investment. The research also intends to describe and to analyze the VP daily practices. To accomplish that, will be made direct observations of VP daily practices and the confessions emerged within the VP meetings as well. VP is a type of institution that encompasses the emergency of new modernity configuration in the body corrections practices. The dissertation intends lastly to understand the studies related to body and obesity, in the knowledge realm of Social Sciences.

The following thesis aims to examine the social media use of the Weight Watchers, during a limited amount of time. The interest of losing weight seems to increase every year, after Christmas and New Years celebrations. This year, the Weight Watchers have been very active in advertising themselves during this period of time. In a time where a large portion of the world’s population is overweight or obese, health and healthy lifestyles are becoming more important, and the Weight Watchers could potentially be one small part in the solution for this problem. Through a multimodal critical discourse analysis, six social media posts have been analysed to see how the Weight Watchers are communicating with their followers and to examine whether or not the Weight Watchers are communicating any sort of ideology to their followers.

De nombreux naturalistes amateurs battent la campagne et entreprennent parfois de véritables expéditions afin d’inventorier les différentes entités du monde naturel. Ils le font par passion, sur leur temps de loisir, et souvent en étroite collaboration avec des institutions académiques, en particulier les muséums d’histoire naturelle. Face à la crise d’extinction qui touche la biodiversité, cette collaboration entre amateurs et professionnels se renouvelle à travers notamment ce qui est appelé en France les sciences participatives. Cette thèse documente ce phénomène avec pour objectif de comprendre ce que les observatoires participatifs de la biodiversité transforment dans la pratique des naturalistes amateurs. Afin de mieux représenter la diversité des observateurs et des dispositifs, nous avons choisi de nous pencher sur le cas des amateurs de papillons peu étudiés jusque-là lorsqu’ils s’impliquent dans des atlas ou des suivis de biodiversité. A travers des méthodes ethnographiques privilégiant la longue durée de l’enquête et la description des pratiques en situation, notre travail accorde un soin particulier à documenter l’irruption du numérique dans la circulation des connaissances entre pairs, la diversification des régimes d’attention dans les expériences d’observation, et la multiplication des manières d’alerter la société sur les dangers qui menacent la biodiversité. En soulignant le lien entre les composantes communautaires, expérientielles, et politiques de l’activité des naturalistes amateurs, cette thèse défend l’idée qu’il y a un continuum entre le mouvement des corps et la formation des valeurs : l’engagement des naturalistes amateurs apparaît ainsi comme processuel et multiforme. Le plaisir de l’observation et la nécessité de témoigner s’y conjuguent, avec des attachements aux espèces rencontrées et aux espaces parcourus qui génèrent dans certains contextes des temps plus militants de décloisonnement des savoirs. / Many amateur naturalists comb the countryside and sometimes undertake full-size expeditions to inventory the different entities of the natural world. They do it by passion, on their leisure time, and often in close collaboration with academic institutions, especially museums of natural history. Faced with the extinction crisis affecting biodiversity, this collaboration between amateurs and professionals is being renewed through what is called citizen sciences (participatory sciences in France). This thesis documents this phenomenon with the aim of understanding how participatory observatories of biodiversity transform the practice of amateur naturalists. In order to better represent the diversity of observers and schemes, we chose to focus on butterfly watchers little studied so far when they get involved in biodiversity atlases or monitoring schemes. Through ethnographic methods favoring long-term investigation and description of situated practices, our work paid a particular attention to document the irruption of digital technologies in the circulation of knowledge among peers, the diversification of attention regimes in observation experiences, and the multiplication of ways to alert society on the dangers that threat biodiversity. By highlighting the link between the community, the experiential and the political components of amateur naturalists’ activities, this thesis defends the idea that there is a continuum between the movement of bodies and the formation of values : the engagement of amateur naturalists thus appears as processual and multifaceted. The pleasure to observe and the need to testify intertwine, with attachments to encountered species and to visited areas which generate in some contexts activist attitudes reducing the partition of knowledges.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-03T12:21:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTACAO FINAL.pdf: 844004 bytes, checksum: 8d3fa4b2650339ece711921dd082e593 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-03-09 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The composite work knows as I Enoch compound of five books reached much importance for Second Temple s Judaism(s) as well as for the Christianism(s) of first four centuries. For this intention in this research was test the contribution of Myth of Watchers (I Enoch 6-11) for the imaginary of demoniac in the synoptics, especially while impure spirit. To reach this object firstly we show the impact of Myth of Watchers in both Enochic and Judaic tradition, for ahead analyze its contribution for the imaginary of demoniac. After this, we present the presence of themes and ideas of this myth in some texts of New Testament. Proved this presence of the myth in Christian s communities, we analyze the characteristics and symbolic expressions that to paint the demoniac picture in the synoptics, asking for the relations that with daemons of the Judaic traditions. With the collection of images about demoniac of these traditions in the Second Temple period and its nearby relation with the Myth of Watchers, we conclude with the hypothesis that demoniac while calling of impure spirit bear marks and echoes of development of the Myth of Watchers in the Enoch traditions and in apocalyptic. Possibly we can to state that the images and ideas raised for reads of this myth was present in imaginary of the Christian s communities where the synoptics raised especially in the idea of daemons. Thus the influence of the Myth of Watchers doesn t resume itself at the literary utilitarism but is in environment of imaginary appropriate in manner very much dynamic and hidden. / A obra compósita conhecida como I Enoque, formada por cinco livros, logrou muita importância para os Judaísmos do segundo templo, como também para os Cristianismos dos primeiros quatro séculos. Por isso, a intenção dessa pesquisa foi testar a contribuição do Mito dos Vigilantes (I Enoque 6-11) para o imaginário do demoníaco nos sinóticos, em especial enquanto espírito imundo. Para esse intento, primeiramente apresentamos as influencias do Mito dos Vigilantes na tradição enoquita e judaica em geral, para depois analisarmos suas contribuições para o imaginário do demoníaco. Depois, mostramos a presença de temas e idéias desse mito em alguns textos neotestamentários. Comprovada a presença do mito nas comunidades cristãs, analisamos as características e expressões simbólicas que pintam o quadro demonológico nos sinóticos, perguntando pela possível relação com os demônios das tradições judaicas. Com o acúmulo de imagens dos seres malignos dessas tradições no período do segundo templo, e a sua próxima relação com o Mito dos Vigilantes, concluímos ser possível a hipótese de que o demoníaco ao ser chamado de espírito impuro trás indícios e ecos do desenvolvimento, nas tradições de Enoque e na apocalíptica, do Mito dos Vigilantes. Possivelmente, podemos afirmar que as imagens e idéias geradas pelas releituras desse mito permeavam o imaginário das comunidades cristãs que geraram os sinóticos, em especial na concepção dos demônios. Assim, a influência do Mito dos Vigilantes não se resume a utilização literária, mas está no âmbito do imaginário, apropriado de maneira muito mais sutil e dinâmica.

No description available.

Berge Meere und Giganten (BMG) by Alfred Döblin is a fictional account of future events in which humanity brings about the ruin of western civilization by its own technological hubris. Although BMG has been examined considerably for its literary merit in light of the Döblin corpus, few scholars have identified Döblin's work as an apocalyptic text especially after the Judeo-Christian tradition. The apocalyptic nature of BMG implies a profound religious experience on the part of the author, which in my view offers at least one plausible explanation for Döblin's repeated fixation with BMG. In my thesis, I explicate the apocalyptic themes of BMG by considering the intertextuality of the apocryphal Book of the Watchers, the canonical Book of Revelation from the New Testament with some of its connections to Babylonian mythology, and finally the function of the author as a conduit of the literary tradition of apocalypticism. Ultimately, I demonstrate that BMG draws heavily from these apocalyptic texts and is consistent with the Judeo-Christian apocalyptic tradition, which utilizes the descriptions of macroscopic catastrophes in human history as a metaphor of spiritual transformation.