Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1996. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-84). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--Harding University Graduate School of Religion, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 124-133).

Thesis (M.A.)--Rowan University, 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Undergraduate honors paper--Mount Holyoke College, 2007. Dept. of Philosophy. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 113-115).

In rapidly urbanising Sub-Saharan African contexts, not much is known about the economic vulnerability of elderly people and its consequences. Dominant international institutions have indicated that the economic situation of elderly people in developing countries is precarious, especially where high levels of poverty and minimal social safety nets are the norm. As a consequence, the impact of economic vulnerability can be quite punishing on disadvantaged households with an ageing elderly person. Yet, the case of urban elderly Nigerians has thus far remained largely unresearched. This thesis represents a quantitative investigation of economic vulnerability amongst urban elderly Nigerians and its health-related consequences, examined through a consumption allocation welfare measure. It draws on economic, gerontological, and sociological perspectives to undertake this task. The key drivers of economic vulnerability and resulting consequences are likely to be complex and varied. Urban Elderly Nigerians may be economically vulnerable because they possess certain pre-disposing characteristics. This study is concerned with investigating these associated determinants of economic vulnerability amongst urban elderly Nigerians using a recent nationally representative household survey—the Nigerian General Household Panel Survey (NGHPS), which was collected by the National Bureau of Statistics in 2010. The first part of the study examines the determinants of economic vulnerability, through the use of a consumption allocation model. The findings of this study reveal that the age of the household head, household size, household structure, and regional location, are key determinants of economic vulnerability amongst urban elderly households in Nigeria. As a consequence, does economic vulnerability (represented by consumption allocation) influence health status and spending amongst elderly Nigerian households? I extracted useful data from the NGHPS to address this pertinent question. This is the second part of the study. The findings suggest that economic vulnerability is strongly related to health status and health spending. This thesis highlights key methodological challenges in using a secondary data source to study economic vulnerability amongst elderly people in a developing country context. The study also offers some policy options to tackle economic vulnerability among elderly households in urban Nigeria, and its health-related consequences.

This is an interdisciplinary PhD research project, spanning the ESRC Centre for Population Change and the Centre for Research on Ageing. Using British Household Panel Survey data, the thesis aims to prove that undertaking a residential move changes the supportive capacity of one’s social network in later life. The study first investigates the determinants of moving home in later life. It then conceptualises and constructs the social networks of older people in the UK, considering key attributes such as network size, frequency, proximity and functions and examines the effects of moving home on these measures. The analysis finds that the incidence of residential mobility is associated with, amongst other things, becoming widowed and experiencing a negative change in health or financial circumstance. Furthermore older people are likely to experience disruption to the supportive capacity of their companionship and community networks following a move. This research has important implications for policy as any damaging effects on an older person’s informal support network may have consequences for their health outcomes and in turn lead to an increased dependence on formal health and social care services at the places to which they move.

No description available.

This research explores the perceptions young Saudi women in Jeddah have of their lives. It seeks to uncover the role and different degrees that obedience and rebellion feature in the everyday lives of the young Saudi women in Jeddah. The subjects of the research were young Saudi women aged 16-21, all living in Jeddah at the time of the study and studying at either high school or university. The study employed a qualitative methodology to identify the extent of obedience and rebellion and their manifestations in the young women’s daily lives. The research relied on in-depth semi-structured interviews as the principal data collection method. By analysing the data derived from this process, I sought to explore the range, subtleties and continuum of rebellion and obedience in terms of three major themes: Hijab, gender relations, and young women’s private spaces. The study found that the participants associated Hijab with high social and religious values and had great respect for it. The conceptualization and practice of wearing Hijab, was associated with freedom and access to ‘the public sphere’ for many participants. In contrast, the study found that Qiwama (Guardianship), a religious Islamic concept that regulates family life, was much less respected by the participants, at least in its traditionalist incarnation that prevails in Saudi Arabia. The traditional Qiwama, per the findings, is a patriarchal structure that results in the reproduction of the social reality that marginalizes women, relegating them to follower status. The female participants rejected this as an incorrect interpretation of religious text. A majority of participants also pointed out that the definition of rebellion differs from one generation to the next. In fact, the participants noted that the actions of young Saudi women that are often classified as rebellious are actually demands for personal rights and an attempt to remove some of the restrictions they face in a subtle way that does not directly clash with family, religion and state policy. This study is important because it represents the unique contribution of giving a voice to young Saudi women to narrate their experiences and explore their ways of subtly negotiating with or conforming to social realities and by so doing enables the examination of the connections between obedience, rebellion, or subtle negotiation.

This thesis investigates how relationality is imagined, managed and performed by twenty-seven UK-based couples during their wedding and civil partnership rituals. The methodology involves a case study approach with eleven of the couples, who were followed through the planning of their ritual, retrospective interviews with sixteen couples and a photograph project with eight of these couples. Diversity in the sample in terms of age, gender and class allows these factors to be explored along with differences of sexuality between the couples. Commitment rituals put relationality into sharp focus as they demand practices of inclusion and exclusion. Each chapter of analysis (The Decision to Marry, Wedding Work and The Big Day) highlights how tradition and relationality are particularly significant to an understanding of the fateful moments that commitment rituals represent. The perceived expectations of family members and friends are implicated in the performance of traditional symbols, while these symbols also provide a recognised form for these relationships to take. The Discussion chapter builds upon these ideas in drawing the key themes, of imagining, managing and performing that run through each chapter, together in outlining a typology of strategies. This typology challenges a central idea of the reflexive modernisation thesis, as asserted particularly by Giddens (1991, 1992, 1994, 2002), that reflexivity involves the disembedding of individuals from their relational networks. In this way the research builds upon theorisations of relationality and embeddedness, particularly those developed by Smart (2007a) and Bottero (2010). The intersubjective nature of reflexivity is emphasised with the introduction of the terms ‘reflexive coupledom’ and ‘relational reflexivity’ alongside ‘individual reflexivity’. ‘Strategies of tradition’ is also included in the typology to emphasise how meaningconstitutive tradition continues to shape ritual action. These concepts aim to be of use in future exploration of these rituals as well as in relation to other areas of personal life.