Women, body and eating : a social representational study in British and Tobagonian cultural contexts

In this thesis I explore women's engagement with body, weight and eating from a socio-cultural perspective. I discuss the limitations of current research on body dissatisfaction and propose that women's negative appraisal of their body needs to be understood as an active engagement with their social context. Research that focuses on the interaction of ethnic/cultural differences and body dissatisfaction seeks to clarify the interrelationship between femininity, gender and culture and suggests that women's dissatisfaction with their body is linked to levels of global Westernisation. My criticism of this research is that it conceptualises culture and social knowledge in a simplistic way. I propose social representations theory and the principles of dialogicality as an alternative research paradigm and argue that such an approach can overcome the dichotomy of individual and social, inner and outer. In order to explore the interaction of the subjective with the social in relation to the negative and positive appraisal of the body an interview study was conducted in two distinct cultural contexts. In depth interviews were conducted with 14 women in the UK and 12 women in Tobago, WI. The thema recognition/disrespect was used as an interpretative frame. The results show that the meanings that were assigned to the body interlinked with socially enacted representations of self, other and femininity. While the thema recognition/disrespect could be seen to be problematised through contradictory conditions of worth in the UK, it was the notion of 'disrespect' in interrelation with representations of others that was foregrounded in women's reflections in Tobago. In both research locations women negotiated constraining or contradictory demands of femininity and 're-presented' themselves through the construction of alternative identities

Destined to Fail? Why Do UN Integrated Missions Under-Perform?

UN integrated missions are frequently perceived as under-performing. This causes widespread frustration amongst UN staff, potentially wastes resources of UN member states, and arguably means that the international community is failing in its commitments to safeguard international peace and security. Using an analytical framework adapted from inter-organisational relations theory consisting of power dependency, resource dependency, environmental constraints and organisational learning, this thesis answers the question: why do UN integrated missions under-perform? The research examines two integrated mission case studies in depth, in Kosovo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A combination of research methods was used, including literature review, fieldwork, semi-structured interviews, observation, and document analysis. The research finds that there are political and administrative reasons why integrated missions under-perform. It also finds that there is limited organisational learning within the UN system which further prevents the improvement of integrated mission performance. Whilst staff in the integrated missions studied learn operational lessons and are able to make small-scale changes, wider, more fundamental change in how the UN carries out integrated missions does not occur. The obstacles lie in the role of UN member state interests overriding concern for quality of integrated mission performance, as well as in the administrative procedures of UN functioning. The UN is therefore institutionally prevented from implementing the lessons of its integrated mission experience. Integrated missions are not destined to fail but are instead destined only ever to under-perform

Reddit news fandoms as digital news literacies: structuring the evaluation of information sources in a challenging information ecosystem

Journalism is in crisis. There is consensus that this crisis is driven by four principal factors -- the overcrowded media sphere, the failing funding model of news, declining trust in media, and growing partisanship among news audiences -- yet there is little agreement about how to correct the course, but journalism's relationship to its audience is at the heart of the solution (Nelson, 2021). Digital environments, such as social media site Reddit, offer a unique opportunity to explore the relationship between journalism and its audience as these environments also complicate that relationship. Reddit offers a visible look at the discursive labor of journalists and their audience as they apply their news literacies to work for journalism as critics, boundary makers, and fans. This discourse analysis explores the meaning making work of journalists and news audiences engaging in Ask Me Anything (A.M.A.) discussions on Reddit's World News board. Findings indicate that the hyperliterate news fans on World News generate surprisingly traditional boundaries around journalism that rely heavily on normative expectations of journalism. This study complicates notions of how cultural capital is gained and expressed online and furthers knowledge and understanding of news fandoms and news literacies in action.Includes bibliographical references

Legitimizing liberal militarism: politics, law and war in the Arms Trade Treaty

Post-Cold War efforts to knit together human rights and international humanitarian law in pursuit of tougher arms transfer control reached their apogee in the UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). In contrast to dominant accounts based on human security norms, I argue that a key effect of the ATT is to legitimise liberal forms of militarism. During negotiations, the US and UK governments justified their arms export practices in terms of morality, responsibility and legitimacy. And more broadly their arms transfer practices are explained away by reference to national regulatory regimes that exceed the standards set out in the ATT. Arms transfers to Egypt and intra-western transfers illustrate the way these justifications and regimes serve to shield US-UK weapons transfers and use from scrutiny and accountability. Rather than signalling the victory of human security, the ATT is better understood as facilitating the mobilisation of legitimacy for contemporary liberal forms of war-fighting and war-preparation

Redefining Attention (and Revamping the Legal Profession?) for the Digital Generation

With computers, text messages, Facebook, cell phones, smartphones, tablets, iPods, and other information and communication technologies (“ICTs”) constantly competing for our attention, we live in an age of perpetual distraction. Educators have long speculated that constant exposure to ICTs is eroding our ability to stay focused, and recent research supports these speculations. This raises particularly troubling implications for the practice of law, in which being able to pay sustained attention to the task at hand is crucial. Research also indicates that the brains of today’s young people, the “Digital Generation,” may function differently than the brains of their elders because the Digital Generation have grown up immersed in digital technology. This suggests that the techniques today’s legal professionals might use to cultivate attention in the face of technological distraction could prove to be inappropriate for future generations of lawyers. When the Digital Generation are both the attorneys and the clients, it may be the practice of law — rather than the lawyers — that needs to change. This paper explores the science of attention and explains why attention is important. Next, it introduces the Digital Generation and their relationship with digital technology. It then examines the connection between ICT exposure and attention and reviews several suggestions that others have made about how legal professionals should respond to the challenges ICTs pose to focused attention. This paper then takes the conversation in a new direction: It predicts ways in which the legal profession, rather than the legal professionals, will necessarily have to adapt to technology in the future. Finally, it offers thoughts about how the legal profession should view its relationship with technology going forward

The making of people living with HIV and AIDS: Identities, illness and social organisation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

This dissertation examines specific issues surrounding the experience of living with HIV and AIDS in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It focuses on the process of identity formation in relation to local forms of social organization within the context of the AIDS epidemic since the mid-1980s. These processes are closely associated with factors, such as sexuality, gender and illness. Based on a historical and ethnographic perspective, fieldwork was mostly carried out in the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro. To investigate the social world of AIDS, I visited AIDS non-governmental organizations (NGOs), gay activist groups, and clinical settings involved with AIDS treatments and care. As a case-study, I conducted ethnographic research in the Grupo Pela Vidda-Rio, the leading AIDS NGO in the State of Rio de Janeiro. The thesis is composed of nine chapters. The first and second chapters give an introduction to the main research topics, aims, fieldwork, selected methodologies and a critical overview of the studies on sexuality, identity and AIDS in Brazil. Chapter three discusses the discursive practices and the cultural representations produced by the Brazilian news media, which contributed to popularize dominant cultural conceptions of the epidemic, particularly a stigmatizing identity: the "aidetico". Chapter four articulates the idea of the AIDS epidemic as a health crisis, which emerged alongside other moral and social problems. I focus on the role of Brazilian AIDS public policy and health structures in the social reproduction and incorporation of sexual and clinical identities, namely, "seropositive" and "seronegative" identities. Chapter five deals with the different forms of civil mobilization and social organization that constitute the social world of AIDS in Rio de Janeiro in relation to national and global levels. The local influence of global discourses on "solidarity" is analysed in its links to particular models of identity construction, especially discourses on the cultural meanings of "people living with HIV and AIDS". Chapter six is an ethnographic case-study of the Grupo Pela Vidda-Rio, its activities, composition, ideological aims and historical changes. As a final step to understand the broad determinacy of processes of identity formation, chapters seven and eight give an ethnographic analysis of how a range of identities (gender, sexual, and clinical ones) can be socially and culturally performed in the specific social setting of Grupo Pela Vidda. The complex logic of sociability and the power of social hierarchies in the definition and incorporation of identities are largely discussed in these two chapters. My main contribution, therefore, is to give a better understanding of the constitutive tension between broad processes and specific contexts of identity formation. This tension is fueled by different organizational and ideological models at work within the particular social world of AIDS in Rio de Janeiro

The Impact of the Internationalisation of Higher Education on Scientists’ Multimodal Communication: A case study from Catalonia

Les universitats de tot el món són instades a participar en el procés d' ‘internacionalització’ com a distintiu de qualitat i com a reclam per atraure estudiants. Aquest estudi aborda aquesta qüestió des del context de les institucions catalanes d’educació superior, que afronten el dilema de donar suport a la/les llengua/gües local/s i, alhora, abraçar el multilingüisme i, sobretot, l’anglès. L'objectiu principal d'aquest estudi és examinar l'impacte de la internacionalització de l'educació superior en la comunicació diària dels científics. Les dades etnogràfiques s’han recopilat al llarg d’un període d’11 mesos d’observació de dos grups de recerca (RGs) multinacionals amb seu en una universitat catalana, i s’han contrastat amb dades extretes d’un RG amb seu a Alemanya i amb idees inspirades en les pràctiques del RG de la pròpia investigadora. De l'objectiu empíric n’ha derivat un objectiu teòric, que consisteix a dissenyar i provar un marc teòric adequat per estudiar el fenomen proposat de manera integral. Aquest estudi té l’objectiu de contribuir a la limitada literatura que descriu aquelles pràctiques comunicatives "informals" i inèdites dels científics, així com a la literatura sobre la internacionalització de l’ensenyament superior. A nivell pràctic, aquest treball pretén contribuir a la millora de les polítiques d’internacionalització de les institucions d’ensenyament superior de Catalunya, d’Europa i potencialment d’altres contextos arreu del món.Las universidades de todo el mundo son instadas a participar en el proceso de ‘internacionalización’ como distintivo de calidad y como reclamo para atraer estudiantes. Este estudio aborda esta cuestión desde el contexto de las instituciones catalanas de educación superior, que afrontan el dilema de apoyar la/s lengua/s local/es y, a la vez, abrazar el multilingüismo y, sobre todo, el inglés. El objetivo principal de este estudio es examinar el impacto de la internacionalización de la educación superior en la comunicación diaria de los científicos. Los datos etnográficos se han recopilado a lo largo de un período de 11 meses de observación de dos grupos de investigación (RGs) multinacionales con sede en una universidad catalana, y se han contrastado con datos extraídos de un RG con sede en Alemania y con ideas inspiradas en las prácticas del RG de la propia investigadora. Del objetivo empírico ha derivado un objetivo teórico, que consiste en diseñar y probar un marco teórico adecuado para estudiar el fenómeno propuesto de manera integral. Este estudio tiene el objetivo de contribuir a la limitada literatura que describe aquellas prácticas comunicativas "informales" e inéditas de los científicos, así como a la literatura sobre la internacionalización de la enseñanza superior. A nivel práctico, este trabajo pretende contribuir a la mejora de las políticas de internacionalización de las instituciones de enseñanza superior de Cataluña, de Europa y potencialmente de otros contextos en todo el mundo.Universities worldwide are urged to engage in the process of ‘internationalisation’ as a hallmark of quality and as a lure to attract students. The current study approaches this issue from the context of Catalan higher education institutions, which deal with the dilemma of supporting the local language(s) and at the same time embracing multilingualism and especially English. The main aim of this study is to examine the impact of the internationalisation of higher education on the daily communication of scientists. Ethnographic data have been collected throughout a period of 11 months from two multinational research groups (RGs) based in a Catalan state university, and contrasted with data taken from a RG based in Germany and with insights from the researcher’s own RG. From the empirical objective has derived a theoretical objective, consisting in designing and proving a suitable theoretical framework to study the phenomenon holistically. This study aims to contribute to the limited body of research describing scientists’ "informal" and unpublished communicative practices, as well as to the literature on the internationalisation of higher education. On a practical level, this work is intended to aid in the improvement of internationalisation policies of higher education institutions in Catalonia, in Europe and potentially in other contexts worldwide

Assisting Independent Seniors with Morning Care:how care workers and seniors negotiate physical cooperation through multimodal interaction

This dissertation reports two studies into the interactional conduct of care workers and seniors in institutional morning care. The first study focuses on natural data of the communication between care workers and seniors during care activities, investigated from a multimodal conversation-analytical perspective. Two phenomena were analyzed in detail: the distinctively shaped progression requests prompting the senior to perform a movement and the specific use of the particle nou during transitions between activities. The analyses revealed how care workers and seniors use these practices to organize and co-ordinate their interactional conduct. In the complex interweaving of verbal and physical actions during these transitions, a number of interactional multimodal patterns were identified; the orientation towards the senior's autonomy seems to be their underlying organizational principle. The second study is a discourse analysis of three policy documents about Dutch senior care – wherein attention to the senior’s autonomy is a key principle. The texts were analyzed with regard to the articulation of views on how care worker and senior are expected to interact and relate to each other during care activities. Remarkably, the policy documents hardly refer to the physical nature of care interactions and suggest that attention to the autonomy of the senior is only practiced in (thematic) conversational activities. This outcome indicates that knowledge about interpersonal communication in (senior) care is limited, in particular about the interactional course of care routines. The findings of the first interactional study provide a nuanced understanding of interventions during care activities, relevant to the education of care workers

A case for dialogic practice: A reconceptualisation of ‘inappropriate’ demand for and organisation of out of hours general practice services for children under five

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The recent expansion of general practitioner (GP) out of hours cooperatives indicates that many British GPs see this as the solution to managing out of hours work, particularly the 'problem' of 'inappropriate' demand. This thesis investigates the highly contentious subject of 'inappropriateness' of demand for out of hours GP services for children under five, and develops a methodology that allows for a reconceptualisation of the issues involved based on the beliefs, assumptions and practices of all those concerned, rather than locating the 'problem' within the province of parents alone, or within the doctor-patient relationship as a bounded system. Using a predominantly sociological and anthropological conceptual framework, the thesis draws on a synthesis of views and practice, bringing those of professionals and parents together with fieldwork observations based in the primary care centre setting. It suggests that contrary to talk about management of the 'problem' in technical, bureaucratic and medical terms, this becomes a moral issue in practice. Scientific or organisational imperatives disguise largely moral proscriptions and examples illustrate ways in which moral and emotional dimensions embedded within these social relations can conflict with particular forms of rationality. The analysis shows how organisational initiatives that fail to take account of such moral frameworks can produce unexpected and unintended consequences. The thesis illustrates the value of what is described as a dialogic process, taking account of the fluidity between voices, layers of time and space, and interchange between researcher, participants, and future audiences. The play of these issues in the rapid and extensive growth of cooperatives is discussed in the wider context of the rhetoric of consumerism and shifts in interprofessional practices and relationships. Negotiation of 'appropriate' supply of and demand for out of hours services has had a major impact on government initiatives for primary care as a whole. Thus key elements in the formation of cooperatives, originally targeted at a more narrow conceptualisation of problems, can be seen as expressing a deeper impetus for change, and serving as vehicles for more fundamental and rapid development.London NHS Executive R&D (previously, North Thames