A dissertação objetiva registrar e analisar as experiências e singularidades vividas por seis mulheres capoeiristas, com foco analítico no potencial educativo da Capoeira Angola na vida das mesmas. Coloca-se no contexto do tempo presente, tendo como recorte temporal a iniciação dessas mulheres na Capoeira, entre 1986 e 2016, destacando suas passagens em práticas da arte na espacialidade da cidade de Porto Alegre. Trata da Capoeira Angola enquanto campo formativo e educacional, interseccionando aspectos dessa prática cultural com questões de gênero e de pertencimento étnico racial. A pesquisa está inserida no campo da História da Educação e traz uma abordagem qualitativa amparada pela metodologia da História Oral, através do uso da entrevista compreensiva. A escrita destaca como as seis mulheres pensam e vivem a presença feminina no espaço da Capoeira Angola, evidenciando a experiência de cada uma e a compreensão da diferença que se produz no tornar-se mulher praticando e ensinando a arte da Capoeira. Compreende a Capoeira Angola como espaço de múltiplas aprendizagens, tensões e resistências, destacando temas como: tornar-se mulher, reconhecer ancestralidades, ética, equidade nas relações étnico-raciais e de gênero, vínculos com a religiosidade e solidariedade. Utiliza autoras (es) como ARAÚJO (2016) LOURO (1997), PERROT (1998), CHAUI (2011) CERTEAU (2012), SCOTT (1992; 2015) ERRANTE (2000) OLIVEIRA (2012), LAROSSA (2002; 2016). Analisa-se as mudanças ocorridas na vida das capoeiristas, com base em suas experiências vividas na Capoeira, utilizando-se a metáfora - da “pequena” para a “grande roda” (ARAÚJO, 2015) – a roda da vida. / The dissertation aims to record and analyze the experiences and singularities experienced by six women capoeiristas, with an analytical focus on the educational potential of Capoeira Angola in their lives. It is placed in the context of the present time, taking as a temporal cut the initiation of these women in Capoeira, between 1986 and 2016, highlighting their passages in art practices in the city of Porto Alegre. It treats Capoeira Angola as a formative and educational field, intersecting aspects of this cultural practice with issues of gender and ethnicity. The research is inserted in the field of History of Education and brings a qualitative approach supported by Oral History methodology through the use of comprehensive interview. The writing emphasizes how the six women think and live the feminine presence in the space of Capoeira Angola, evidencing the experience of each one and the understanding of the difference that occurs in becoming a woman practicing and teaching the art of Capoeira. Understanding Capoeira Angola as a space of multiple learning, tensions and resistance, highlighting themes such as: becoming a woman, recognizing ancestry, ethics, equity in ethnic-racial relations and gender, ties to religiosity and solidarity. It uses authors such as ARAÚJO (2016) LOURO (1997), PERROT (1998), CHAUI (2011) CERTEAU (2012), SCOTT (1992; 2015) ERRANTE (2000) OLIVEIRA (2012), LAROSSA (2002; 2016) . We analyze the changes in the life of capoeiristas, based on their experiences in Capoeira, using the metaphor - from "small" to "big wheel" (ARAÚJO, 2015) - the wheel of life.

A mulher tem sido vítima de violência por parte de seu companheiro e se sabe que esta repercute em sua saúde. Ao realizar práticas de enfermagem em comunidades detectou-se o fenômeno de violência assim como uma atitude de submissão e abnegação da mulher. Estas situações motivaram a presente investigação. Os objetivos deste estudo foram: 1-descrever o perfil da mulher que procura atendimento no CENAVI por sofrer violência de seu parceiro íntimo e 2- identificar a violência física, psicológica e social entre estas mulheres e sua relação com sua auto-estima. Foram entrevistadas 300 mulheres, vítimas de violência, que procuraram o CENAVI-Centro de Atenção a Vítimas de Violência Intra-familiar, de novembro de 2003 a abril de 2004. Utilizou-se 2 instrumentos para a coleta de dados: o QIVM- Questionário para a Identificação da violência na Mulher e a Escala de Auto-estima de Janis e Field. O projeto foi aprovado pelo Comitê da Bioética em Celaya/México. A coleta de dados foi realizada no CENAVI- México, com o Consentimento Livre e Esclarecido das mulheres. As entrevistas duraram entre 25 a 30 minutos O perfil sócio-demográfico indica uma amostra de 300 mulheres entre 16 a 65 anos, sendo 66% casadas e 75% assinalou estar com o mesmo parceiro. A escolaridade esteve distribuída em todos os níveis e 88% são católicas. Para identificar a freqüência dos três tipos de violência, assim como o nível da auto-estima, adotou-se como regra geral a mediana, estabelecendo que os valores abaixo desta, representam a presença da violência e baixos níveis de auto-estima. Calculou-se os valores teóricos e os valores observados dos tipos de violência, assim como da auto-estima. Utilizou-se o Teste de Spearman para determinar a existência e relação entre as variáveis (violência física, psicológica e social e auto-estima) e os resultados indicam que existe correlação. Utilizou-se a análise de regressão multivariada entre as variáveis do estudo. A partir dos resultados destas análises comparou-se o tempo de convivência, com os 3 tipos de violência. Comparou-se os valores teóricos com os valores observados para identificar a existência de alguma relação entre a auto-estima da mulher maltratada e a violência sofrida por pessoas de sua convivência (mãe da mulher maltratada e pai do parceiro como um homem que agride). Os dados indicam que ao maior tempo de convivência com o parceiro corresponde a maior violência sofrida pela mulher, ou seja, que a violência tende a aumentar com o tempo de convivência. Além disso, os resultados obtidos das questões "sua mãe é (foi) maltratada por seu pai? e "o pai de seu parceiro é (foi) um homem agressor?, mostraram que há maior violência registrada nestas questões relacionadas com mais baixos níveis de auto-estima. Verificou-se que nas famílias mexicanas existe violência, segundo a literatura assim como nos resultados do presente estudo; entretanto, as mulheres preferem omitir o que acontece para manter a integridade da família, tão valorizada socialmente. As ações de enfermagem podem ocorrer nos três níveis de atenção para ajudar a mulher, vítima de violência. Recomenda-se que a enfermeira realize trabalhos interdisciplinares e através da inter-relação terapêutica ofereça os cuidados que ajudem a mulher, vítima de violência. / Women have been victims of violence by their partner, with acknowledged repercussions on their health. The realization of nursing practices in communities revealed the violence phenomenon, as well as the women’s attitude of submission and abnegation. These situations served as a motive to carry out this research. This study aimed to: 1-describe the profile of women seeking care at CENAVI-Intrafamily Violence Victim Care Center, who suffer violence from their intimate partner and 2-identify the physical, psychological and social violence against these women and its relation with their self-esteem. We interviewed 300 women who were victims of violence and turned to CENAVI between November 2003 and April 2004. 2 instruments were used for data collection: the QIVM- Questionnaire for the Identification of Violence in Women and Janis and Field Self-Esteem Scale. The project was approved by the Bioethics Committee in Celaya/Mexico. Data were collected at CENAVI- Mexico with the women’s free and informed consent. Interviews took between 25 and 30 minutes. The sociodemographic profile discloses a sample of 300 women between 16 and 65 years, 66% of whom were married. 75% marked that they were with the same partner. There were women from all educational levels and 88% were catholic. We adopted the mean value as a general rule to identify the frequency of the three kinds of violence and the level of self-esteem, with values below mean value representing the presence of violence and low levels of self-esteem, and calculated the theoretical and observed values of violence types and self-esteem. Spearman’s test was used to determine the existence and relation between the variables (physical, psychological and social violence and self-esteem) and the results indicate their correlation. We used multivariate regression analysis of the study variables. On the basis of the results of these analyses, we compared how long these women had lived together with their partners with the 3 kinds of violence. The theoretical values were compared with the observed values in order to identify whether the mistreated women’s self-esteem is somehow related to violence suffered by somebody they live with (mistreated woman’s mother and partner’s father as a mistreating man). Data point out that the longer the women live together with their partner, the greater the violence they suffer. Moreover, the results for the questions "is (was) your mother mistreated by your father?” and "is (was) the father of your partner an aggressor?”, revealed that greater violence is registered in these questions, related to lower levels of self-esteem. We observed the existence of violence in these Mexican families, according to literature as well as the study results; however, the women prefer to omit what happens to maintain family integrity, which is highly valued by society. Nursing actions can occur at the three care levels. We recommend that nurses work in an interdisciplinary way and, through the therapeutic interrelation, offer the care that helps women who are victims of violence.

This thesis is situated across the fields of contemporary political philosophy, critical theory and feminist/gender studies. It argues that the notion of an ‘ana-aesthetic’ is required in order to provide a fuller sense of the conceptual nuances regarding pornography. The ‘ana-aesthetic’ is suggested as the ground and surface economy for this ‘unsayable something’ that is so much a part of the everyday common senses of contemporary life and art. Distinct from the ‘anti-aesthetic’, the ‘ana-aesthetic’ utilises a discursive methodology, and in sidestepping the usual moral entanglements found in attempts to analyse sexually explicit and often misogynistic pornographies, this thesis shows how the ‘ana-aesthetic’ surface of ‘the pornographical’ generates a mimetic and bodily ethics. ‘The pornographical’ is discussed in terms of its techne of comic humour, as a way of creating substance without lapsing into abyssal logics of lack; and the manner in which sexual meaning of fantasy is pleasurable, forming compressed data. The comic is suggested as something found, a cultural ‘ready-made’ gesture, of pleasure, produced through an economic expenditure of ideational mimetics (upon cathexis). This thesis suggests that through the comic, ‘the pornographical’ creates mimetic economies of witnessing. ‘The pornographical’ occupies a strange cultural position in its relationship to both the body and to technology. It is this relationship that gives ‘the pornographical’ its paradoxical ‘ana-linguistic’/’a-radical’ (without a ‘root’) structure, that generates a way of thinking that is related to and also embodies and mediates the body, without positing sexuality as an essentialism.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences / Department of Communication

This research explores the decision making processes of individuals and groups engaged in child protection practice within social services departments in the UK. The emphasis of the research was to consider how the application of psychological theories and concepts might allow a descriptive and interpretative evaluation of decision processes in child protection practice. The research sought to elaborate upon much of previous social work literature in that it focused upon the processes of decision making rather than the outcomes for participants. Similarly it sought to elaborate upon literature in decision theory in that it focused upon real world, ongoing and naturalistic decision situations. The theoretical framework used in the research was an integrated model of decision making under conditions of risk proposed by Whyte (1989,1991). This model outlines circumstances under which individuals and groups may take decisions in the directions of risk or caution. The methodological approach was grounded in the principles of qualitative research. Drawing upon Forster (1994) and Yin (1989) documentary analysis was applied to case studies. The research considered documents in relation to two categories of child protection cases. Initially those where children who were already known to child protection practitioners had died, namely, child death inquiry reports. Ongoing cases within a local authority child protection department, where the outcomes and decision making were considered to be positive, were then analysed. The interpretation from the first stage of the research suggested that all the concepts outlined in Whyte's model could have explanatory value and that the deaths of children could be a consequence of the ways in which decisions are framed and which leave children in situations of risk. The second stage involved the analysis of documents in relation to eight ongoing cases within a local authority. The number of group meetings held in the eight cases was 38 and in 71% of these the operation of the certainty effect in the direction of risk was evident. In the remaining 39% there was evidence that the certainty effect operated in the direction of caution. Within the documents there was some evidence of group polarisation and groupthink. Resources were committed and escalated consistently in order to ensure the effectiveness of initial plans of action despite evidence that these were unsuccessful in terms of the overall well being of the children. The decisions were shown to be bounded by the 'objective' principles of the Children Act 1989 and Working Together (1991). However themes that emerged from the analysis of the cases suggest that there is a 'subjective' influence on decision processes. Evident within the analysis was a shared fundamental belief in keeping children with their mothers. Both these objective and subjective influences suggest that almost inevitably decision making in child protection practice will be driven in directions that result in courses of action that involve potential and actual risks for children. The findings emphasise how an explicit recognition of the multifaceted nature of decision making can assist in more reflective practice. The ways in which national and local policy impacts upon decision processes, at the level of the individual and groups, need to be monitored in order that the needs of children in situations that involve risk remain paramount.

This study explores the experiences of young people who have been 'looked after' during the transitional period in which they leave 'care', moving on to live independently. The emphasis is on making visible the way in which young people are active in their lives; interacting with, rather than submitting to the social environment they operate within. Drawing upon life course theory (Elder,1997) taking an interactional biographical approach (Runyan, 1982); historical time and place are considered, particularly in relation to the social timing of life events. Of paramount importance is the notion of 'linked lives' where developmental pathways and life course trajectories are seen to be located within past transitions. Drawing upon feminist empiricist and feminist postmodernist thinking, a multi-methods approach to data collection is used. Initially, aggregate data for the 150 young people, eligible to receive leaving care services within the Local Authority, was made available for analysis. Structured interviews with 38 young people were completed. Fourteen young people, aged 16-18 when the research commenced, were included in the biographical phase of the research. In this phase, in-depth information about their unique life experiences was documented over a period of 12-18 months. It was found, in line with previous research, that care leavers experienced a much earlier transition to independent living, continual accommodation moves and high levels of unemployment (60-70%). The Leaving Care Scheme's risk assessment showed the largest proportion of young people categorised as 'high risk (44%). However, leaving care provision was not accessed by 35% of those young people eligible to receive services. The 'stories' told in depth reveal the way in which past experiences and past transitions can be seen to shape and direct life course trajectories; progressing the view that outcome evaluation is limited in utility when not viewed as part of an integrated whole. An ideological account of independence had consequentiality in terms of 'social timing' also operating as a barrier which distanced young people from leaving care services. There is considerable evidence in the research of young people as active agents. Such 'agency was always located within personal and situational contexts where differing levels of personaVinterpersonal action and compliance can be observed. The findings suggest that outcome evaluations are of limited use, and a focus on studies which accommodate life as a continuum, a series of 'linked states' where beginnings and endings are not so clearly defined would offer more informative representations of young people's 'post-care' lives. Leaving care policy makers and practitioners should reflect upon the consequentiality of the ideology with which they engage; aiming to foster more comprehensively a favourable social environment but one where young people are not seen exclusively as submitting to social conditions.

This thesis details an empirical exploration of disabled peoples’ lived experiences of sexual and intimate life. Disabled people are predominantly desexualised and degendered and within ableist cultures; they are also, as Brown (1994: 125) states, assigned paradoxical social categories of ‘asexual, oversexed, innocents, or perverts’. Thus, this thesis begins from the position that disabled peoples’ access to and experiences of sexual life occur in the context of these dominant ableist constructions of disabled sexualities, and that the reclamation or formation of a sexual self requires resistance to, or strategic management and negotiation of such constructions. The research methodology worked to the central tenets of consultation, accessibility, empowerment and relevance. A Research Advisory Group made up of local disabled people was established, the purpose of which was to guide the research process, offer expert knowledge, and ensure that the research was accessible, engaging and empowering for the individuals who took part. Through a thematic analysis of the sexual stories told by twenty-five disabled people (and one non-disabled partner), in their own words and on their own terms, this thesis details the complex and variegated relationships between disability, impairment, sexuality, and gender. Findings show that heteronormative discourse had very complicated and contradictory implications for disabled men and women, but also empowered disabled men relative to disabled women. Moreover, analysis has illustrated the ‘complex invisible “work” performed by disabled people’ (Church et al 2007: 1) through participants regularly taking on the roles of teacher, negotiator, manager, mediator, performer, educator, and resistor within a variety of spaces in their sexual and intimate lives. While this work was evidence of sexual agency, the majority of participants’ labours were rooted in the oppressive and inherent inequalities of ableist culture. Furthermore, the majority of participants experienced extensive psycho-emotional disablism – ‘the socially engendered undermining of psychoemotional wellbeing’ (Thomas, 1999: 60) – as routine within their sexual and intimate lives.

Voluntary childlessness (VC) is a growing phenomenon in the 21st Century in western societies with the Office of National Statistics (ONS) in 2013 showing that one-fifth of women are childless at the age of 45. Sociological literature highlights how VC is a complex, multifaceted phenomenon and is often difficult to define. However, since its inception, psychoanalysis has made an inextricable link between femininity and motherhood thus psychoanalytic theory views motherhood as normative and it is often seen as a developmental stage. This thesis explores how psychoanalytic practitioners understand, conceptualise and respond to VC in the clinical setting. Four psychoanalytical practitioners were interviewed and three main themes arose as a result of the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) of the data collected. The first finding highlighted the biopsychosocial pressures that the participants felt their patients experienced. Some participants spoke of the professional pressure they experienced from within the psychoanalytic field as a result of the theory that links motherhood and femininity. The second finding highlighted the ethical dilemmas faced by some patients with regards to whether to become a mother, such as a VC choice might be the result of difficult childhoods, immaturity, or because their mental health issues precluded them from motherhood or they feared motherhood might induce mental illness. The final finding highlighted that working with childless patients was both complex and conflictual. The practitioners discussed both their personal professional responses to childlessness in general. This research is important for highlighting how psychoanalytical practitioners are influenced by the competing discourses in society surrounding motherhood. Finally, the thesis critically evaluates the research, makes suggestions for future enquiries and reflects on the clinical implications of the findings.

The social scientific debate over consumption is of increasing concern to commentators addressing the cultural implications of socio-economic change. All too often, however, the individual meanings that consumers have for the goods they consume have been neglected by these commentators, notably in favour of abstract discussions of the role of consumption in the emergence of a 'postmodern' culture. Arguing that consumption provides the sociologist with an invaluable means of addressing questions concerning the relationship between structure and agency, this thesis attempts to move beyond the limited conception of a fragmented self, picking and choosing his or her identity from the menu of life, to begin to establish an empirical grounding for the relationship between consumption and identity amongst young people. Data were collected from a triangulated three-stage research process, in the form of a series of focus group interviews, informed by Personal Construct Psychology, a participant observation study in a sports shop, and a Consumer Meanings Questionnaire. Arguing that young people's identities are largely constructed in peer group settings, the evidence presented suggests that consumption provides an everyday cultural framework, within which young consumers negotiate some semblance of everyday stability in a 'risk' society. In this sense, young people appear to pursue a dual task. First, they are intent upon forming group-based identities. Second, they attempt to construct a sense of individuality in this context. Hence, it is argued that whilst young people choose consumer goods according to peer group meanings, they tend to see their own choices as 'individual' and those of their peers as being determined by media and marketing-created desires. As such, whilst it would be misleading to see young people as dupes of the capitalist system, neither are they free agents. Teenagers construct their identities partially through the framework that consumption provides, but not with products of their own choosing. Far from being whimsical consumers in this context, I argue that essentially, young people are modernists, adapting to the rational constraints upon their everyday lives and changing the character of their consumption patterns accordingly. The situated realities of so-called postmodern forms of consumption can therefore only be understood, it is argued, through innovative triangulated research methods which address consumer meanings in routine everyday settings and which, in turn, consider the theoretical implications of such meanings, for both an understanding of the ideological impact of consumerism and it's relationship to debates concerning structure and agency.

The purpose of this study was to explore ways in which gender, ethnicity and the interaction of gender and ethnicity impact reports of conflict for interethnic couples. This study focuses on differences in reports of conflict by examining topics of conflict including: division of household labor, children, financial management, leisure, sex, love and affection, religion, drinking, other women or men, and in-laws. Data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS- B) were used to examine the roles that gender, ethnicity and their interaction play in marital conflict within interethnic couples. The results indicated significant gender differences with men reporting more conflict about chores, money, affection, leisure, and other women and men. Significant ethnic differences were reported about sex, money, chores and affection. Findings indicate unique interactions between gender and ethnicity suggesting greater conflict about chores in Minority wife/White husband pairings and greater conflict about sex in White wife/Minority husband pairings.