Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Gender and individuality'

This essay focuses on gender roles, individualism and collectivism in Jack Kerouac’s classic road-trip novel On the Road. In order to put the discussion into a meaningful context, I look at the novel from a historical perspective and examine how it relates to post-war American society. I argue that the novel is, in many ways, representative of a society existing in a field of tension between individualism and collectivism, and that its notion of individual freedom, at the time revolutionary, can be seen as retrogressive with regard to the book’s portrayal and treatment of women. The essay features a discussion of what kind of individual freedom is presented in On the Road and how this freedom relates to typical American individualism as well as American post-war societal norms, the norm of the nuclear family in particular. This is followed by a brief analysis of how the novel influenced future generations, specifically in terms of sexual liberation. This analysis introduces a discussion of the way in which women are portrayed in the book and how this portrayal both represents collective progress in post- war America—women are often described as financially independent—and a phallocentric type of individualism. I then show that this individualism is connected to an unthinking optimism which, I argue, is one of the key causes of the retrogressive view of women exemplified by the book. My study ultimately demonstrates that the novel’s notion of individualism—an individualism which was highly influential for future generations and is usually viewed as progressive—can arguably be seen as retrogressive in terms of Kerouac's representation of gender roles.

I begin by discussing structural alienation in the United States and its relationship to the pursuit of romantic love. I argue that romantic love is idealized due the lack of community inherent in a competitive, individualistic society; the romantic partner becomes a replacement for the community individuals once relied on for material and psychological needs. Despite the allure of romantic love, the norms and values associated with it often undermine the development of intimacy, as does the larger society in which the relationship is situated. I refer to this phenomenon as the romantic contradiction. I then discuss some of the factors that contribute to the romantic contradiction, such as the commodification of relationships in a market-based economy, impression management in dating, and the role of gender in heterosexual relationships. Central to this dissertation, I investigate the dominant ideology of romantic love by conducting a textual analysis of the ten most popular romantic comedies and self-help books on romantic relationships from 2006-2010. My findings suggest the dominant ideology of romantic love promotes long-term, monogamous relationships as the primary way to meet a person’s psychological and physical needs. Furthermore, the ideal relationship is based on gendered needs and responsibilities: men are expected to provide material and physical protection, while women are expected to provide emotional support and sexual intimacy. The ideology encourages a dependency between women and men and various forms of inequality. It also reinforces individualism in relationships by placing greater emphasis on meeting needs rather than developing intimacy (e.g. knowledge, empathy) for its own sake. I conclude with a discussion of competitive individualism and romantic alienation, and suggest avenues for reducing gender dependency and alienation in relationships.

<p> An academic dialog concerning the intersectionality of national origin, economic class and gender, as mutually constitutive elements of migration, set the context for my inquiry into the experiences of wives who are barred from paid labor by their restricted visa status. Guided by grounded theory, I conducted seventeen semi-structured qualitative interviews to examine ways in which a move to Silicon Valley under a restricted visa class changes the self-image of women, and how they evaluate this change. I found that the ambiguous agency construct of women socialized in the Soviet and post-Soviet eras facilitated their choice to migrate despite the visa restrictions. After emigrating, the women tended to embrace values of individualism and self-reliance, which reinforced their professional ambitions. However, the absence of professional options created a split between the women&rsquo;s lived experiences and their self-representation. In addition, I found that a visa that prohibits employment creates a homogenizing effect on women&rsquo;s self-images, putting them on similar personal and professional tracks and making their legal and economic status less predictable. These findings suggest that structural strategies might be adopted to help these women reclaim their self-images and exert more control over the selection and pursuit of their goals.</p><p>

This study examines the values underlying marriage formation before childbearing among highly educated women living in Stockholm. This group has been shown in previous research to have increasing propensity to enter marriage before childbearing, due to changing values. Previous studies have suggested a possible connection between rising individualism and gender equality on the one hand, and a new marriage trend on the other hand, noted especially among the highly educated in large cities in Sweden. The values underlying the rise in marriage popularity is yet to be explored which is the aim of the present study based on 20 indepth interviews. The analysis is guided by theories on individualism and gender equality by Anthony Giddens, Ulrich Beck and Gøsta Esping-Andersen. The results show that rising individualism has created a need for relationship stabilizing tools, where marriage works as a practical security measure for relatively new relationships, prior to having children. The results also show that for the group in the study childbearing and marriage are strongly connected. In contrast to individualization theories this  study shows that high marriage propensity can coexist with high levels of individualization.

Abstrakt Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur kvinnor upplever arbetsfördelningen mellan könen i hemmet. Vårt mål är att skapa en förståelse samt belysa hur sju unga kvinnor som lever i en samborelation upplever den könsrelaterade fördelningen vad gäller hushållssysslor i de svenska hemmen idag. För att besvara studiens syfte använde vi oss av en kvalitativ metod där vi utgick från hermeneutiken som metodansats. Vi utförde sju semistrukturerade intervjuer, i syfte att fånga upp och beröra kvinnornas upplevelser och erfarenheter. Materialet vi fick ut av intervjuerna analyserades med begrepp som Individualisering (Beck), Första och Andra skiftet (Hochschild), Habitus (Bourdieu) samt Det andra könet (de Beauvoir). Studiens resultat visar att majoriteten av kvinnorna upplever att de utför mer hemarbete än sin partner. Vi kunde utläsa att kvinnorna har utformat olika strategier i syfte att få sin partner att utföra mer hushållssysslor, något som i våra ögon innebär att de får ta rollensom ”projektledare” i många fall. Resultatet indikerar även på att det finns en kluvenhetmellan en ny medvetenhet och gamla förhållanden, vilket hos kvinnorna har skapat såväl nya förväntningar som önskningar på situationen i hemmet. Detta är bland annat ett svar på framväxten av ett mer individualiserat samhälle där jämställdhetsfrågor står allt mer i fokus.<br>The purpose of this study is to highlight how women experience the division of labour at home between genders. Our goal is to create an understanding as well as illustrate how young women living in a co-relationship experience the gender-related distribution of domestic household chores in Swedish homes today. In order to answer the study's purpose, we used a qualitative method where we went from hermeneutics as a method. We conducted seven semi-structured interviews in order to capture and touch the women's experiences and experiences. The material we received from the interviews was analyzed with concepts such as Individualization (Beck), First and Second Shift (Hochschild), Habitus (Bourdieu) and The Second Sex (de Beauvoir). The study's findings show that the majority of women feel that they are doing more housework than their partner. We could state that women have designed different strategies to make their partners perform more household chores, which in our eyes means that they can take the role of "project manager" in many cases. The result also indicates that there is a gap between a new awareness and old conditions, which in women has created new expectations as well as the wishes of the home situation. This is, among other things, a response to the emergence of a more individualized society where equality issues are increasingly in focus.

Fairness is an important topic that has captured the interest of researchers in many fields. Looking at behavioural and experimental economics, various methods have been used to shed the light on fairness. One of the most recognizable ways is through the use of the ultimatum game. In this paper, we aimed to look at fairness considerations by utilizing this game, while also highlighting gender and culture as factors of importance. Two models, specifically Rabin’s reciprocity model and Fehr and Schmidt’s inequity aversion model, in addition to various research papers on the topics of gender and culture, were used as the cornerstones for this paper. The experimental design was a replication of the ultimatum game, which was carried out online. Results showed that there were noticeable effects from both gender and culture on the behaviour of the participants in the game. However, the results were not statistically significant enough to be considered as determining factors in regard to why individuals behave in a specific manner in the game. Since research from the field has reached mixed conclusions, we can say that making inferences about human behaviour is harder than one might think.

The goal of the study was to understand the nature of the relationship among self construal, family functioning and sibling number in terms of gender. Five hundred twenthy-nine high school students participated in the study. Participants were selected from seven general public high schools in Ankara. Data was gathered via Personal Information Questionnaire, Autonomous-Related Self in the Family Scale (Kagit&ccedil<br>ibagi, 2007a) and Family Assessment Device (Epstein, Balwin &amp<br>Bishop 1983). Results of the study indicated that, for both genders, relational selfconstruals had significant correlations with healthy family functioning. It was also evidenced that autonomous self-construal scores of males were significantly higher than females and related self construal scores of females were significantly higher than males. Furthermore the family functioning dimensions that families tend to be v healthy or unhealthy were displayed. All findings were dicussed in line with the relevant literature.

This thesis analyzes the coming out action of individuals through perception of political identity. Instead of considering coming out as an individual experience, it is discussed as a political action that effects the others around the individual. This political action is examined from the Queer Theory&rsquo<br>s perspective of subverting the gender norms. The coming out experience of lesbians, gays and bisexuals not only has an impact of their personal environment, but also effects their relation to the LGBT movement. The importance of coming out in LGBT movement is explained through the interviews with lesbians, gays and bisexuals. Where they place themselves politically in their socialization process is analyzed. LGBT movement&rsquo<br>s historical background is introduced and compared with the movement in Turkey. The issues originate from Turkish society&rsquo<br>s social structure is indicated through interviews.

La demande croissante des marques de luxe crée de nouvelles opportunités et défis pour répondre aux attentes des consommateurs en fonction des caractéristiques sociodémographiques (genre, culture, âge et classe sociale). Cette thèse vise l’explication des effets de culture et du genre sur les valeurs (élitisme, exclusivité, raffinement, héritage) associées à la consommation des marques de luxe selon le modèle de Roux et al. (2007) et à le compléter en introduisant le besoin d'authenticité comme antécédent de l’héritage. Les variations interculturelles de ces valeurs sont étudiées en comparant 2 échantillons de consommateurs : France (512) et EAU (512). Les résultats indiquent que 1) le besoin d'authenticité exerce une influence positive sur l’héritage, 2) les consommateurs occidentaux accordent plus d’importance à l’héritage et au raffinement que les consommateurs orientaux, 3) ces derniers apparaissent plus attachés à l’élitisme, 4) aucune différence interculturelle n’est observée à propos de l’exclusivité. Concernant les effets du genre, elle réplique les travaux de Roux et al. (2007) : en France, les hommes sont plus attachés à l’élitisme et à l’exclusivité, et les femmes accordent plus d’importance au raffinement. Aux EAU, le genre n’affecte pas l’importance attribuée à l’exclusivité. Conformément à la théorie de la structure sociale d’Eagly et Wood (1999), les effets du genre sont, dans les deux pays, totalement médiatisés par l’adhésion des consommateurs aux stéréotypes du genre, ce qui les conduit à privilégier les valeurs du luxe consistantes avec ces stéréotypes. Les contributions théoriques et managériales sont discutées ainsi que les perspectives de recherche<br>The increasing demand for luxury brands creates new opportunities and challenges for the brands to better meet consumer expectations. This thesis aims to highlight and explain the effects of culture and gender on values (elitism, exclusivity, refinement, and brand heritage) associated with luxury brand consumption (Roux, Tafani, &amp; Vigneron, 2017), and to complete this model by introducing the need for authenticity (NFA) as a driver of brand heritage. The cross-cultural variations of these values are investigated by comparing two samples of frequent luxury brand consumers issued from a more individualistic Western culture (France: N = 512) vs. a more collectivist Eastern culture (United Arabic Emirates: N = 512). Main results reveal that (i) NFA exerts a positive influence on brand heritage value, (ii) Western consumers attach more importance to brand heritage and refinement, (iii) whereas Eastern consumers are more concerned with elitism, and lastly (iv) no significant difference is observed with respect to exclusivity. Regarding gender effects, this research replicates Roux et al.’s (2007) findings: in France, men give more importance to elitism and exclusivity, whereas women favor refinement. However, in the United Arab Emirates, gender does not affect exclusivity. In addition, according to the Social Structural Theory (Eagly, &amp; Wood, 1999), in both cultures, the adherence to own-gender beliefs fully mediates gender differences, which leads male and female consumers to favor luxury values consistent with their own gender beliefs. Key theoretical contributions and managerial implications of these findings are discussed before addressing new research perspectives

Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur socialt arbete i en internationell kontext formas efter kulturer och hur detta kommer till uttryck. Vidare ämnar studien ta reda på hur socialarbetare själva ger uttryck för kulturell kompetens samt vilka element som gagnar respektive försvårar det internationella sociala arbetet. Studien har en kvalitativ ansats där semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med fyra kvinnliga respondenter. Databearbetningen gjordes genom tematisering där tre huvudteman framkom, kulturell anpassning, kulturell kompetens och svårigheter, möjligheter och dilemman. I resultatet framkommer att samtliga respondenter ger uttryck för en kulturell anpassning i det internationella sociala arbetet. Detta urskiljs genom att respondenterna uppmärksammar de fungerande kulturella strukturerna, bygger arbetet kring detta och lägger stor vikt vid inhemsk kunskap. Det arbetssätt och den främsta framstående faktor vilken underbygger en kulturell anpassning är empowerment. Vidare ger även samtliga respondenter uttryck för kulturell kompetens genom att visa en medvetenhet kring den egna kulturens påverkan, genom synen på den egna kunskapens giltighet samt genom den vikt respondenterna satte vid att skapa relationer. Studien visar den kulturella anpassningens beroende av socialarbetares kulturella kompetens. Vidare visar resultatet hur den kollektivistiska samhällsstrukturen kan ses som både ett hjälpmedel och som försvårande element. Genus, etik och moral tycks vara de faktorer som främst ställer socialarbetare i svåra situationer och har visat sig frambringa ett arbetssätt som kännetecknas av att verka utan att synas. Relationer visar sig vara en underlättande faktor, men även här framkommer en baksida. Relationen tycks nödvändig på grund av den bristande tillit individer har inför internationella socialarbetare.<br>The purpose of this study is to examine how social work in an international context is formed by cultures and how this is expressed. Furthermore, the study aims to explore culture competence as is expressed within the social workers themselves and which elements that benefit or alternatively hinder, the international social work. The study has a qualitative approach where semi-structured interviews were conducted with four female respondents. The analyzing method chosen to process data was thematization, where three main themes emerged, indigenization/cultural adaption, cultural competence and difficulties, opportunities and dilemmas. The result shows that all respondents express an indigenization process while describing their work. This is distinguished by the attention all the respondents gave to the functioning cultural structures and how they built the work around this. It also showed through the great emphasis the respondent put on indigenous knowledge. The approach and the main prominent factor which underpins an indigenization process is empowerment. The results show that all respondents express cultural competence. This is observed through the respondents awareness of their own culture's influence, through the respondents evaluation and validation of their own personal knowledge and by the expressed importance of creating relationships. The study shows that an indigenization process is dependent on social workers' cultural competence. Furthermore, the result shows that the collectivist social structure can be seen as both an aid and as an aggravating element. Gender, ethics and morality seem to be the main factors which place social workers in difficult situations. This has also been shown to produce a work approach that is characterized by acting without being seen. Relationships prove to be a facilitating factor, but it is not grown for all good reasons, it seem to be necessary because of the lack of trust people have for international social workers.

In this thesis, I provide an analysis of 1960s American popular culture by examining Playboy, "The Playboy Philosophy," Cosmopolitan, and Sex and the Single Girl. These cultural artifacts furthered the feminist movement by challenging gender structures and sexuality. I discuss how these publications focused on the advancement of the individual through careerism, consumerism and sexuality. These publications assisted in challenging and breaking down various aspects of gender and sexual boundaries and assisted in reworking social limitations that kept women from advancing themselves outside of the pre-set gender roles of domesticity. Regardless of the traditional feminist critique of Hugh Hefner and Helen Gurley Brown, this thesis argues that in fact these popular culture icons and their publications worked to re-negotiate sexual liberation, which assisted in furthering women's liberation. This thesis analyzes the writings and advertisements of these publications and shows that Hugh Hefner and Helen Gurley Brown have positive correlations to feminist discourse.

This thesis attempts to extend the historical scope of divorce research in Sweden by providing an analysis ofhow the variations in the divorce rate over time and across geographical areas are connected to the economic, normative and institutional restructuring of Swedish society during the period 1915-1974. The thesis finds that the economic reshaping of Sweden into a modern market economy is at the center of the process that has resulted in decreased marital stability during the twentieth century. The shift from a single- to a dual-provider model and an increased integration of both men and women into market processes outside the family have resulted in lowered economic interdependence between spouses, which in turn has decreased the economic constraints to divorce. This conclusion is supported by the empirical finding that indicators of female economic self-sufficiency are associated with increased propensities for divorce, during the entire period under research in this thesis. That changes in the constraints experienced by women have been important is further emphasized by the finding that women have been more prone than men to initiate divorce, and that this gendered pattern of divorce was established already during the early twentieth century in Sweden.The results further indicate that the growth of divorce is connected not only to a shift in the provider model but also to the way sustained economic growth has resulted in a general increase in the resources available to individuals, as proposed by the socio-economic growth hypothesis. During the 1920s and 1930s, high-strata groups, such as lawyers, journalists, engineers and military officers, exhibited a divorce rate on the same level as in the general population of Sweden today. By the early 1960s, however, this positive associa- tion between social class and divorce had changed: by then it was rather couples in working-class occupations who exhibited the highest probability of divorce, which is a pattern that appears to have persisted since then. These findings indicate that a general increase and more even distribution of economic resources betweenboth genders and social classes have facilitated individuals’ possibilities to sustain themselves independent of family ties. This democratization in the access to divorce has meant that growing segments of the populationhave gained the means to act on a demand for divorce.However, another result of the thesis is that it is not possible to limit the analysis to a strictly economic perspective. Rather, economic changes have interacted with and been reinforced by changes in values, as wellas in institutions, during the periods when widespread and rapid behavioral change has occurred. In Sweden, like in most other Western countries, this was primarily the case during the 1940s and a period covering approximately the second half of the 1960s and first half of the 1970s. The studies of the thesis suggest that these two periods of rapid growth in the divorce rate stand out as periods in Swedish history when attitudes also changed more rapidly toward values that can be regarded as permissive, secular and more open to indi- vidual freedom of choice. Trenchantly, these two periods also correspond to the two harvest periods in Social Democratic welfare state policy. In the thesis it is argued that the marked increase in government services and social security at these time points integrated with and reinforced economic restructuring in a way that worked to “de-familializate” individuals by making them less dependent on family ties for social security. Institutional changes of this type have been particularly important for making single life more feasible for women and low- income groups. In the thesis, it is argued that the timings of substantial behavioral change become difficult to understand if the analytical perspective does not explicitly incorporate how such contextual-level changes in values and institutions have integrated with changes in the provider model and the economy during thesedynamic periods of the divorce transition in Sweden.

Ce projet de thèse se situe à l’intersection de la sociologie des professions et des sciences de l’éducation : comment rendre compte que certaines professions se féminisent alors que d’autres non, ou moins rapidement ? Que révèle ce phénomène sur l’action des normes de genre et sur leurs transformations ? Comment analyser les différences de vitesses de cette féminisation que nous appellerons « hétérochronie de genre » ? A quelles « médiations éducatives » ce phénomène d’hétérochronie est-il lié ? L’entrée des différentes vitesses de féminisation des professions n'est pas abordée par la littérature en sociologie des professions pour comprendre les dynamiques d’égalisation entre les hommes et les femmes dans notre société. L’enjeu de ce travail sera de pallier ce point aveugle par la mise à jour de ces dynamiques qui ont participé de l’évolution du genre du travail : il s’agira de réinterroger la distribution du travail professionnel et domestique entre les hommes et les femmes avec un regard nouveau. Ce projet de thèse s’inscrit également en sciences de l’éducation. C’est à partir de la réactualisation d'une logique de style d'éducation familiale et de l’élaboration d’une typologie de l’orientation professionnelle ; que nous pourrons reconstruire les espaces de construction des dispositions, ou médiations éducatives, qui rendent possible la création des hétérochronies de genre dans les champs professionnels<br>This thesis project is located at the intersection of the sociology of professions and educational sciences: how to report that some professions feminize while others do not, or less rapidly? What does this phenomenon reveal about the action of gender norms and their transformations? How to analyze the differences in speeds of this feminization that we will call “gender heterochrony”? To which “educational mediations” is this phenomenon of heterochrony linked?The entry of the different speeds of feminization of the professions is not addressed by research in the sociology of professions to understand the dynamics of equalization between men and women in our society. The challenge of this work will be so blind at this point by the updating of these dynamics that have contributed to the evolution of the gender of work: it will be a question of re-examining the distribution of professional and domestic work between men and women with a new look. This thesis project is also part of the educational sciences. It is based on the updating of logic of family education style and the development of a typology of vocational guidance; that we will be able to reconstruct the construction spaces of dispositions, or educational mediations, which make possible the creation of gender heterochrony in the professional fields

Les hommes et les jeunes sont plus souvent impliqués dans les accidents graves et mortels de la route que les femmes et les conducteurs plus âgés. D’après la littérature, les comportements à risques et infractionnistes (CRI) au volant pourraient être motivés par la recherche d'une appartenance et d'un statut social valorisants mais également par l'affirmation de valeurs relatives à la compétence, au pouvoir et à la masculinité. Peu d’études ont proposé de tester directement le rôle médiateur de ces valeurs et la normativité dans les différences de sexe et d’âge affectant les CRI. Nos travaux proposent d’explorer (a) le rôle de l'adhésion à certaines valeurs dans la survenue des CRI au volant ; (b) de tester le rôle médiateur de ces valeurs dans les différences liées au sexe et à l'âge ; (c) de vérifier la normativité de ces comportements en fonction du sexe et de l’âge. Six études ont été réalisées. Les principaux résultats indiquent que (a) l'adhésion à des valeurs centrées sur la recherche d’un haut statut social est particulièrement associée aux CRI ; (b) ces valeurs médiatiseraient en partie les différences de sexe et d’âge observées ; (c) CRI relatifs à la vitesse font l'objet d'une plus grande valorisation sociale chez les hommes et chez les jeunes conducteurs mais ce phénomène ne serait pas sous-tendu par les mêmes motivations pour ces deux populations. Les implications théoriques de ses résultats sont discutées sur le plan des relations empiriques entre les différents modèles mobilisés. Les perspectives pour l’application dans le champ de la sécurité routière sont également discutées sous l'angle du changement de comportements<br>Men and young drivers are more often involved in serious and fatal road accidents than women and older drivers. According to the literature, risky and offending behaviours (ROBs) at the wheel could be motivated by the search for a sense of belonging and social status, but also by the affirmation of values relating to competence, power and masculinity. Few studies have proposed to directly test the mediating role of these values and normativity in gender and age differences affecting ROBs. Our work proposes to explore the role of adherence to certain values in the occurrence of ROBs at wheel; (b) to test the mediating role of these values in gender and age differences; (c) to verify the normativity of these behaviours according to gender and age. Six studies were carried out. The main results indicate that (a) adherence to values centred toward the pursuit of a high social status is particularly associated with ROBs; (b) these values partially mediate the observed gender and age differences; (c) ROBs related to speed are more socially valued by men and young drivers, but this phenomenon is not supported by the same motivations for these two populations. The theoretical implications of its results are discussed in terms of empirical relationships between the different models used. Applied perspectives for behaviour change in the field of road safety are also discussed

Croisant une sociohistoire des représentations de l’infanticide et une étude du fait divers télévisuel, cette thèse analyse les (re)configurations des maternités et paternités, des masculinités et féminités, que condensent les discours produits par les journaux télévisés nationaux entre 1962 et 2018.D’abord invisibilisé par une télévision d’État soucieuse de protéger l’unité nationale, puis mis à distance par des rédactions réticentes à montrer des désordres familiaux, l’infanticide accède à la représentation dans la seconde moitié des années 1980, à mesure que la télévision s’ouvre à la concurrence. La reconnaissance de l’enfant comme personne et des victimes n’est pas innocente dans cette monstration simplifiée de la famille comme un lieu de danger. Néanmoins, la dimension parentale des crimes est peu abordée : en tendance, les femmes sont montrées comme des mères (malades) et les pères comme des hommes (violents). À partir de 2005, la médiatisation des infanticides augmente considérablement, avant de décroître à partir de 2014. La monstration de criminel.le.s individualisé.e.s va de pair avec une problématisation accrue des parentalités. Si les meurtrières restent souvent présentées comme de « bonnes mères », les effets dévastateurs de la maternité oblative sont davantage reconnus. Les hommes, qui occupent toujours des rôles périphériques à la famille, dont ils restent dépendants, entrent timidement dans une culture de l’intimité. Les représentations médiatiques travaillent des tensions caractéristiques du passage de la première à la seconde modernité : elles problématisent les sacrifices identitaires féminins et la faible intégration des pères dans la famille<br>Combining a sociohistory of representations and an analysis of television news items, this thesis considers how national TV news discourses (re)configure motherhood and fatherhood, masculinities and femininities, from 1962 to 2018.Infanticide was first invisibilized by the French State television, which was reluctant to portray crimes that threatened to weaken national unity, and thereafter set aside by editorial staffs unwilling to feature family disorders. It eventually gained representation in the second half of the 1980s, after the television sector was progressively opened to competition. During that period, the recognition of children as persons and the rise of figures of victimhood contributed to the simplified representation of family as a dangerous place. However, the parental dimension of the crimes was still rarely discussed: women were usually shown as sick mothers and fathers as violent men.From 2005 on, media coverage of the phenomenon exploded, before drastically falling a decade later. The showing of individualized parental figures goes hand in hand with an increased problematization of motherhood and fatherhood. While the majority of female criminals are presented as “good mothers”, the devastating effects of oblative maternity on personal well-being were given more consideration. As the part they play remains peripheral to a family unit they still depend upon, men are only very slowly embracing the culture of intimacy. All in all, media representations influence the tensions endured by motherhood and fatherhood, as they engage with second modernity: they challenge feminine identity sacrifices and the weak integration of fathers within the relational family

For many years, Sweden has had a reputation for having a comprehensive and women friendly welfare state. However, as in many other European countries during the past few decades, the organization and governing of welfare has undergone profound changes. Through interviews with social workers and the application of theories of governmentality, this thesis analyzes the expressions and consequences of such current organization and governing. One result is that the introduction of meticulous documentation practices of social workers contact with clients, regulate their interaction and constitute a control over both client and social worker. Another result is that the current organization fragments labor and awards more authority to managers, which functions to produce loyalty to the organization and management, rather than clients. This is expressed in demands not to voice protest, as it is said to create a bad mood. It is also expressed in demands to spend as little as possible on clients; short duration of treatment, preference for outpatient treatment and by making it difficult to receive financial support. This austerity is legitimized through the intermeshing of different ideals; budget awareness, evidence that supports short and outpatient treatment and that clients in order to change their course of life should to be allowed or coerced into taking individual responsibility. Another important finding is that the current governing and organization of social work produce distance and detachment, and thus discourage caring subjects. This is a complex process in which an assemblage of different techniques and rationalities undermines the cultivation of a relationship between social worker and client. 1) The ideal of evidence-based practice favors rigid methods over a flexible and holistic approach. 2) Ideals of rationality, closely connected to notions of masculinity and professionalism, value objectivity and devalue and deter the surfacing of emotions. 3) Meticulous practices of documentation reduce the amount of time available to meet clients. 4) Ideals and particular methods designed to promote individual responsibility in clients legitimize social workers distancing themselves from clients’ dependency and needs. 5) A division of labor, in either assessment or treatment, reduces time spent with clients for those who work with assessment and ultimately engage in the rationing of resources. 6) Standardized digital templates, installed to aid in assessments, regulate and proceduralize interactions with the client. 7) Austerity, heavy workloads, individualized responsibility and stress further accentuate distance, as detachment becomes a means to cope with arduous working conditions. The transformation of social work described above produces alienation and a fragmentation of social workers’ collective subjects. Simultaneously, an ethos of caring makes some social workers work extra hard to provide for clients, which ultimately covers for flaws in the system. Although such an ethos of caring allows for the further exploitation of social workers, it is also understood as a means of resistance, which in turn also forms the basis for organized resistance.<br>Sverige har ett internationellt rykte för att ha en omfattande och kvinnovänlig välfärd. Även om riktigheten i en sådan uppfattning sedan länge ifrågasatts har på senare år, likt i många andra Europeiska länder, det svenska välfärdssystemet genomgått en omfattande förändring i avseende på dess räckvidd, men också dess organisering och styrning. Fokus för denna studie är just denna organisering och styrning, och mer specifikt, hur detta påverkar ett av välfärdens kanske mest centrala område: socialt arbete. Genom att intervjua socialarbetare undersöks i denna studie uttryck för och konsekvenser av en sådan förändring, bland annat genom att undersöka hur könsbundna föreställningar och förväntningar är sammanflätade med det sociala arbetets organisering och styrning. I studien konstateras att socialarbetare erfar att deras arbete genomgått omfattande förändringar, vilket kopplas ihop med både organiseringen och styrningen av det sociala arbetet. Detta uttrycks både i de ideal som kringgärdar arbetet men också i dominerande arbetssätt. En sådan förändring är införandet av  omfattande dokumentationsprocedurer av socialarbetarens arbete och kontakt med klienter, vilket medför att kontakten med klienterna blir ytligare. Dokumentationsprocedurerna utgör också en sorts kontroll av både klienterna och socialarbetarna själva. En annan förändring som konstateras är att nya organisationsmodeller och en förändrad ledarskapskultur skapar förväntningar på socialarbetarna att vara lojala med organisationen och ledningen snarare än klienterna. Bland annat utrycks detta genom förväntningar att inte protestera och skapa dålig stämning på arbetsplatsen, men också genom uttalade krav att spendera så lite resurser som möjligt på klienterna; korta behandlingstider, öppenvårdsalternativ och orimligt hårda krav för att få ekonomiskt bistånd. Detta legitimeras genom sammanväxningen av flera olika ideal; budgetmedvetenhet, att klienter inte mår bra av långa institutionsvistelser, men också att klienterna ska tillåtas eller bör tvingas att klara att sig själva. Ett av studiens huvudresultat är att den nuvarande organiseringen och styrningen av socialt arbete skapar avstånd och likgiltighet. Genom flera sammankopplade ideal och arbetssätt styrs dagens socialarbetare till att bry sig mindre om de klienter de möter. På så sätt undermineras förutsättningarna för framväxten av en djup relation mellan socialarbetare och klient; 1) Idealet och kravet att socialarbetare ska arbeta utifrån evidens, det vill säga metoder och förhållningssätt som i speciellt utformade utvärderingsmodeller visat sig ha effekt, gör att väl strukturerade och rigida metoder ges företräde. Denna instrumentalisering underminerar ett flexibelt, relationsorienterat och helhetsfokuserat sätt att arbeta. Dessutom gör evidensidealets fokus på enskilda individer och avgränsade utvärderingstider att mer samhällsinriktat kritiskt och långsiktigt inriktat arbete undermineras. 2) Ett rationalitetsideal, tätt sammanbundet med föreställningar om professionalitet och maskulinitet, värderar objektivitet och förmågan att frikoppla socialarbetarens egna känslor från sitt arbete. Detta maskuliniserade professionsideal innebär att empati och solidaritet med klienten undergrävs. 3) Omfattande krav på olika former av dokumentation av det sociala arbetet gör att tiden som socialarbetaren har till sitt förfogande för att besöka och att ha möten med klienten blir knapp. 4) Ett allmänt samhällsideal kring individuellt ansvar och en särskild arbetsmetod (motiverande samtal) som många socialarbetare förväntas lära sig, framhäver klientens eget ansvar för och vilja till förändring. Detta legitimerar ett avståndstagande från klientens behov av hjälp och stöd enligt logiken  ”du måste klara detta själv”. 5) En vanligt förekommande uppdelning av socialarbetarnas arbetsuppgifter i en så kallad beställar-utförarmodell gör att vissa socialsekreterare arbetar med hjälp och stöd, medan andra arbetar med bedömningar av klienters behov. De senare, som också har inflytande över resurstilldelning, blir med en sådan organisering av arbetet alltmer frikopplade från den stödjande och hjälpande verksamheten och kontakten med klienten. 6) Standardiserade digitala bedömningsinstrument, skapade för att på ett likvärdigt sätt bedöma klienters behov och dokumentera det sociala arbetet, reglerar och instrumentaliserar kontakten med klienter. 7) Tunga arbetsbördor, individualiserat ansvar och stress, bidrar ytterligare till att skapa avstånd och likgiltighet eftersom det för vissa utgör ett sätt att genomleva en ohållbar arbetssituation. En allmän åtstramning av socialtjänstens resurstilldelning förstås som en viktig orsak till behovet av att skapa ovan distansmekanismer. Men distansen hänger också ihop med en tendens till ett återupplivande av en tidigare dominerande förståelse av marginalisering och sociala problem; där människors nöd ses som ett utslag av dålig karaktär och ett resultat av dåliga individuella val. De förändringar av det sociala arbetets premisser som beskrivits ovan gör att socialarbetarna alltmer görs främmande inför sitt arbete – de alieneras. Detta främmandegörande uttrycks genom att inte kunna identifiera sig med arbetet självt, sina kollegor eller med sig själv. Ett sådant främmandegörande underminerar, eller fragmentiserar, både relationen till klienten, men också en känsla av gemenskap med andra socialarbetare. En gemenskap som kan utgöra ett ”vi” och ligga till grund för att ställa krav, protestera och göra motstånd mot avhumaniserande ideal och reformer. På så vis är främmandegörandet inte bara en konsekvens av dagens organisering och styrning, utan också något som fyller en viktig funktion för en sådan styrning och organisering, och genomförandet av en allmän åtstramning i socialpolitiken. Samtidigt som dagens organisering och styrning av socialt arbete är främmandegörande, slår vissa socialarbetare knut på sig själva och arbetar extra hårt för att täcka upp för systemets brister och krympande resurser, för att trots det svåra läget ändå försöka ge det stöd som de upplever att klienten behöver. Ett sådant historiskt förankrat femininiserat omsorgsideal, dvs känslor av ansvar och empati inför behövande och en ilska inför oförrätter, utgör därmed på samma gång grund för en fördjupad exploatering av socialarbetarna, och ett vardagligt motstånd mot rådande system. I ett läge när flera upplever att kollegialiteten som grund för motstånd på arbetsplatserna underminerats, utgör ett sådant omsorgsideal samtidigt också grunden för organiserat motstånd utanför arbetsplatsen, bortom chefernas insyn, kontroll och härskartekniker. Medan nuvarande styrningssystem underminerar ett visst sorts motstånd, uppstår samtidigt grunden för nya.

This thesis proceeds from the Toni Morrison's novel Sula and it mainly concentrates on a mutual relationship between an individual and society as reflected in the book. It consists of two main parts. The first one describes some aspects of the African-American history; the second one focuses on the individual characters in Sula and analyzes the Bottom society, charted against principles of US society in general. Individuality as the basic point of this thesis is shown as the moving element in the development of the society that also gives the direction of that development. Relationship between an individual and society is considered dialectic - on one hand, particular individuals participate in the development of the society, destroy stereotypes and violate dogmas; on the other hand, these people are often subdued and limited for the sake of the proper functioning of the society. Primary basis of this work is an assumption of the necessity of individual driving elements in the society for its (social) ceaseless development and subjectivism as the basic point of view on human existence. Key words: human being, gender, race, society, subjectivism, womanism.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)<br>The aim of the thesis is to use computational stylistics, and in particular the methods pioneered by John Burrows, to explore aspects of the nineteenth-century periodical genre. Published for the most part anonymously, periodical articles were written by an extraordinary range of authors on an incredible variety of topics. The standard of writing in the thousands of articles appearing in the ‘higher’ or ‘literary’ journals has generally been agreed by scholars to be ‘remarkably good’. Beginning in 1802 and flourishing for most of the century, this outstanding genre of writing had all but disappeared by the beginning of the twentieth century. The text collection for the thesis consists of almost two million words by twenty-two authors. My study employs a variety of statistical tests on these texts to examine the effect of such factors as anonymity, commonality, authorial individuality, gender, house-style, text-type and chronology on the periodicals. I begin by taking a broad view of the field: first allowing the articles to ‘speak for themselves’ and to exhibit their commonalities and individual differences; then exploring the significance of both the intra-generic focus of the article – the stance taken in a particular article – and the author’s own idiosyncratic preferences in determining the incidence of function words in these articles. The interplay between these two factors provided an explanation as to why the articles of some authors invariably grouped together while those of other authors displayed marked variability. The use of lists of authorial ‘marker words’ – those words used relatively more or relatively less frequently by individual authors – showed that one can think of this large group of mostly anonymous periodical articles as a set of authorial oeuvres. I also look at the frequently made assertion that authors adapted their writing to the ‘house style’ of particular journals, and come to the conclusion that it does not significantly affect the deeper level of style revealed by function word usage. I then examine the question of whether or not there are differences between men’s and women’s usages of function words, coming to the conclusion that, although differences can be seen to exist, it is not at present possible to come up with sets of ‘marker words’ that reveal gender in the way that is possible with authorship. I use ‘marker words’ to identify the characteristics of one major author, George Eliot, and to show how she modified her stylistic practices when she moved from the periodical essay to fiction. I demonstrate how the techniques of computational stylistics can be used to check the legitimacy of some of the attributions made in the Wellesley Index, and I attribute one much-discussed anonymous group of articles on ‘the woman question’ to Robert Cecil 3rd Marquess of Salisbury and Prime Minister of England.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)<br>The aim of the thesis is to use computational stylistics, and in particular the methods pioneered by John Burrows, to explore aspects of the nineteenth-century periodical genre. Published for the most part anonymously, periodical articles were written by an extraordinary range of authors on an incredible variety of topics. The standard of writing in the thousands of articles appearing in the ‘higher’ or ‘literary’ journals has generally been agreed by scholars to be ‘remarkably good’. Beginning in 1802 and flourishing for most of the century, this outstanding genre of writing had all but disappeared by the beginning of the twentieth century. The text collection for the thesis consists of almost two million words by twenty-two authors. My study employs a variety of statistical tests on these texts to examine the effect of such factors as anonymity, commonality, authorial individuality, gender, house-style, text-type and chronology on the periodicals. I begin by taking a broad view of the field: first allowing the articles to ‘speak for themselves’ and to exhibit their commonalities and individual differences; then exploring the significance of both the intra-generic focus of the article – the stance taken in a particular article – and the author’s own idiosyncratic preferences in determining the incidence of function words in these articles. The interplay between these two factors provided an explanation as to why the articles of some authors invariably grouped together while those of other authors displayed marked variability. The use of lists of authorial ‘marker words’ – those words used relatively more or relatively less frequently by individual authors – showed that one can think of this large group of mostly anonymous periodical articles as a set of authorial oeuvres. I also look at the frequently made assertion that authors adapted their writing to the ‘house style’ of particular journals, and come to the conclusion that it does not significantly affect the deeper level of style revealed by function word usage. I then examine the question of whether or not there are differences between men’s and women’s usages of function words, coming to the conclusion that, although differences can be seen to exist, it is not at present possible to come up with sets of ‘marker words’ that reveal gender in the way that is possible with authorship. I use ‘marker words’ to identify the characteristics of one major author, George Eliot, and to show how she modified her stylistic practices when she moved from the periodical essay to fiction. I demonstrate how the techniques of computational stylistics can be used to check the legitimacy of some of the attributions made in the Wellesley Index, and I attribute one much-discussed anonymous group of articles on ‘the woman question’ to Robert Cecil 3rd Marquess of Salisbury and Prime Minister of England.

<p>Moving beyond traditional conceptions of suicide in Romantic literature as indices of Romanticism's fascination with tragic or mad genius, this dissertation traces how Romantic-era writers also employed the trope of suicide as a political tool to argue for the rationality of individuals without rights, or with limited rights, such as slaves, women, and the poor. In both scholarly and post-Romantic artistic engagements with so-called Romantic suicide, suicide is typically interpreted as neither a critique of an unlivable society, nor even a mark of mental illness, but instead operates as a meta-critique of art itself, suggesting that the artist, by virtue of his creativity, is somehow beyond this world. But by showing how suicide also emerged, in the Romantic period, as a metaphor for challenging social structures associated with liberal individualism, Suicidal Romanticism posits that the emphasis on the link between creative and suicidal proclivities associated with Romanticism, which persists even in our contemporary imagination in spite of social scientific arguments to the contrary, troubles our capacity to talk either about the problem of mental illness or about the social injustices that would drive somebody to want not to live. The Romantic writers examined here--including Thomas Day and John Bicknell, Mary and Percy Shelley, and William Wordsworth--proposed an alternative conception of suicide, positing the need to open the social field to recognize all those who are considered "non-subjects." By using suicide as a metaphor to interrogate the roots of inequality within a social structure based on exclusive individualism, these writers suggest that acts of suicide represent responses not only to private phenomena, but also to social conditions, and that the two are not mutually exclusive. By thus reading Romantic-era discourses of suicide as radical interrogations of liberalism, Suicidal Romanticism also positions Romanticism itself as a response to political questions that first emerged in abolitionist and women's rights discourses of the long eighteenth century.</p><br>Dissertation

La rapida diminuzione dei tassi di fecondità verificatasi in tutti i paesi industrializzati a partire dagli anni Settanta del secolo scorso si trova sempre più spesso al centro dell’attenzione di studiosi e policymaker a causa della molteplicità di implicazioni che comporta sia per gli individui sia per la società nel suo complesso. A partire da tale quadro, ci si propone di approfondire il ruolo dei principali fattori che presiedono all’andamento dei tassi di fecondità – livello macro - e alle decisioni individuali – livello micro – attraverso la definizione di un framework concettuale che tenga conto della duplicità di piani che caratterizza i comportamenti riproduttivi. L’analisi e la valutazione dei modelli utilizzati in ricerche sullo stesso tema hanno portato a scegliere il framework RWA (Ready – Willing – Able), proposto da Coale nel 1973 per spiegare la riduzione della fecondità, riletto alla luce del mutato contesto in cui vengono prese oggi le decisioni di fecondità. Nel passaggio dalla Prima alla Seconda Transizione Demografica, il “nuovo comportamento” sembra rappresentato in modo più adeguato dalla scelta di avere un(altro) figlio piuttosto che da quella di non averlo. Nel momento in cui la possibilità di avere un figlio viene ad essere il frutto di una scelta deliberata, il “desiderarlo” non è più sufficiente e gli individui, a partire dal contesto in cui si trovano a vivere, devono, contemporaneamente, essere pronti (ready), cioè ritenere la decisione di avere un figlio positiva per loro stessi e per la loro famiglia; volerlo (willing), cioè considerare la genitorialità una scelta legittima, condivisa e supportata dalla società; poterlo fare (able), cioè avere a disposizione tutti i mezzi, tecnici e istituzionali, che possono facilitare la realizzazione del loro desiderio. L’ipotesi che si intende valutare è se la decisione di avere o meno un(altro) figlio, per quanto indubbiamente frutto di considerazioni del tutto personali, risenta in modo non irrilevante anche dell’ambiente sociale in cui gli individui stessi si trovano a vivere, ovvero del panorama di vincoli ed opportunità a partire dal quale essi possono prefigurarsi ed elaborare le proprie strategie di vita familiare e personale. Si ritiene, infatti, che contesti istituzionali e socio-culturali diversi contribuiscano a creare milieu più o meno family friendly ovvero più o meno adatti a sostenere le decisioni riproduttive rispondendo ad una sorta di domanda latente di supporto familiare riscontrabile, in particolare, nei paesi a bassa fecondità. Dal punto di vista operativo, si ipotizza che la formulazione dell’intenzione di avere un(altro) figlio nei successivi tre anni e il valore assunto dalla componente ready del framework RWA – la valutazione dei vantaggi/svantaggi legati alla nascita di un figlio – siano influenzati, oltre che dalle variabili individuali, anche dal contesto in cui i soggetti vivono e, in particolare, dalla componente able che esprime la presenza in un determinato paese di condizioni tecniche e istituzionali in grado di sostenere la genitorialità. I dati utilizzati per l’analisi empirica provengono dai database messi a punto dall’Unece nell’ambito del Generations and Gender Programme (http://www.ggp-i.org/), integrati dai database Eurostat, del Multilink Project e dell’European Values Study. La verifica condotta a livello contestuale attraverso il confronto dei cluster di paesi definiti in base alla relazione tra gli indicatori macro-sociali classici, le componenti RWA e i tassi di fecondità conferma la capacità del framework RWA di esprimere la “posizione” dei paesi rispetto alla fecondità in modo più preciso rispetto alle analisi condotte separatamente su singoli indicatori. A livello individuale, risulta confermata l’ipotesi, formulata a partire dal framework RWA originale, dell’esistenza di una relazione tra le tre precondizioni ready-willing-able e le intenzioni di fecondità, mentre la stima dei modelli multilivello per la verifica degli effetti contestuali consente una verifica solo parziale dell’ipotesi di un’influenza esercitata dalle politiche familiari – espresse tramite la precondizione able-macro – sulle valutazioni di livello individuale. Tale risultato rinvia da un lato alla difficoltà di cogliere tramite indicatori sintetici la complessità delle misure di sostegno alla genitorialità, dall’altro alla necessità di dare spazio e riconoscimento all’autonomia della soggettività e alla riflessività individuale rispetto alle condizioni di contesto.<br>The fast decrease in fertility rates, occurred in all industrialized countries since the Seventies of the last century, is increasingly the center of attention for scholars and policymakers due to its several implications for individuals and society. From this framework, my aim is to study the role of the main determinants of fertility rates – on the macro level - and of individual decisions – on the micro level – by defining a conceptual framework which takes into account the duality that characterizes the reproductive behaviors. The analysis and the evaluation of models used in research on same subject led to choose the framework RWA (Ready - Willing - Able), proposed by Coale in 1973 to explain the decrease in fertility, reviewed in the light of the different context where people make their fertility decisions today. In moving from the First to the Second Demographic Transition, the "new behavior" seems better represented by the choice of having a (nother) child rather than to not have it. When the ability to have a child is the result of a deliberate choice, the "desire" is no longer enough and the individuals, from the context where they live, must at the same time be ready, that is to believe that the decision to have a child is good for themselves and for their family, be willing, that is to consider parenting a legitimate choice, shared and supported by society, and be able, that is to have all the technical and institutional means that can facilitate the achievement of their desire. The main hypothesis to evaluate is whether the decision to have a (nother) child, even though it is doubtless the fruit of the personal characteristics and individual conditions, is affected even by the social environment where individuals live, namely by the background of opportunities and constraints from which they can develop their personal and family life strategies. It is believed, in fact, that the different institutional and socio-cultural contexts contribute to create the different milieux, more or less family friendly, i.e. more or less suitable to support the reproductive decisions responding to a kind of “latent demand of family support” noticeable, especially, in low fertility countries. By an operational standpoint, it is hypothesized that the intention to have a (nother) child in the next three years and the value assumed by the “ready” component of the RWA framework - the evaluation of advantages / disadvantages connected with childbearing - are influenced, in addition to individual variables, also by the context where people live and, above all, by the “able” component which expresses the presence, in a given country, of technical and institutional conditions able to support the parenting. The data used for empirical analyses come from the databases developed under the UNECE Generations and Gender Programme (http://www.ggp-i.org/), supplemented by the databases collected by Eurostat, by Multilink Project and by European Values Study. The study carried out on the contextual level, by comparing clusters of countries defined according to the relationship among the classical macro-social indicators, the RWA components and the fertility rates, confirms the ability of the RWA framework in identifying the "position" of the countries with respect to fertility trend in a more accurate way than through the analyses of each indicators separately. On the individual level, the hypothesis formulated from RWA original framework of a link between the three preconditions ready-willing-able and the fertility intentions is confirmed, whereas the multilevel models estimated in order to verify a potential contextual effect on people’s evaluations allows only the partial confirmation of the hypothesis about the influence exerted by family policies expressed by the precondition able-macro. This result refers to the difficulty in capturing with synthetic indicators the complexity of the measures aimed to support parents, on the one hand, and to the need to give space and recognition to the subjects’ autonomy and reflexivity in relation to contextual conditions, on the other.

Due to the changing demographics of South African organisations after the 1994 elections and the subsequent sub-cultural diversification, the working environment is becoming the primary place where the different South African sub-cultural groups, with their different value systems, are in interaction with each other. The consequent lifting of sanctions exposed South African organisations to globalisation and international competition. This forced managers to improve organisational processes and operations, not only to protect their own domestic markets, but also to become internationally competitive. At the same time, they had to adhere to newly created labour legislation, which dramatically changed the face of the South African labour market. The complex combination of several sub-cultures in the South African work environment can adversely affect organisational effectiveness if not properly understood and managed by effective transformational leaders. The concept of cultural values was used to explore the differences, as well as the similarities, between the various sub-cultural groups in the South African environment. This study examined cultural differences and similarities between 477 junior and middle managers in the financial services sector, who belonged to the four South African sub-cultural groups (Black, Coloured, White, and Indian), and between South African male and female managers. It also investigated whether cultural values change indiscriminately during the acculturation process, or whether certain cultural values, labelled peripheral values, change easier or before other cultural values, labelled core values. Due to the importance of transformational leadership in the work environment, this study also explored the differences and similarities of South African managers on Bass and Avolio’s Full Range Model of Leadership. (Avolio&Bass, 1999; Bass, 1985, 1997). A moderate social constructionist theory was used as a framework for this study, to analyse and describe quantitative results obtained with the various measuring instruments. Firstly, it was found that although there were statistically significant differences between most of the cultural value dimensions of the various sub-cultural groups, not all of these differences were practically significant. Results indicated that these groups could often be clustered together on specific cultural value dimensions, sometimes consisting of a Black, White, and Coloured cluster, sometimes as a Black, Coloured, and Indian cluster, and so forth. Secondly, independent variables other than sub-cultural group, gender, and age also showed practically significant relationships with some of the cultural value dimensions. Thirdly, the results indicated that the cultural values are very stable, even in the dynamic and multi-cultural South African environment, and as such, no core or peripheral values could be identified. Finally, the results also indicated that the transformational-transactional leadership model is cross-culturally endorsed within the South African financial services sector. It pointed out that irrespective of gender, junior or middle management level, age, educational level, number of years full-time work experience, number of years as manager, or having been exposed to formal Western management training, all managers evaluated themselves as more transformational than transactional.<br>Thesis (PhD (Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2007.<br>Psychology<br>unrestricted

Tese de Doutoramento em Ciências da Comunicação apresentada à Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra.<br>É frequente ouvirmos que a blogosfera feminina tem um importante potencial de articulação identitária que os mediatradicionais negaramàs mulheres. Nesta tese, abordamos as subjetividades de género que dominam a cultura mediática e as práticas quotidianas contemporâneas, analisando as “novas feminilidades” presentes na blogosfera feminina portuguesa, entendendo estas como construções que respondem a um contexto cultural em que o poder das mulheres é simultaneamente celebrado e contrariado de novas formas. A tesecentra-se empiricamente na análise dos blogues femininos mais populares, e na forma como as suas autoras se autorrepresentam nos media sociais. Partimos para esta investigação esperando encontrar resultados que demonstrem que, apesar do domínio dos discursos neoliberais e de consumo, a blogosfera feminina se constitua como um novo espaço de empoderamento, resistência e emancipação para as mulheres. Concretamente, centramo-nos em práticas mediáticas e representações que,não sendo de resistência feminista, podem ser politicamente significantes,revelandoa forma como algumas mulheres renegoceiam as suas feminilidades nos ambientes tecnológicos contemporâneos.Metodologicamente, recorremos a uma triangulação metodológica mista, seguindo a metáfora de esfera Webque prevê o cruzamento de análise de redes, etnografia virtual participante, entrevistas em profundidade semiestruturadas e análises textuais e imagéticas. Desse modo, procuramos indagar de que forma a articulação das (novas) identidades femininasnos (novos) media se faz por uma inscrição nas dinâmicas sociais, políticas e económicas que caraterizam as sociedades contemporâneas, ampliando o foco da discussão tanto para o contexto macro (político-económico), como o da cultura feminina “situada” no espaçocultural e histórico nacional. O corpus de análise é composto pelos blogues femininos mais lidos em Portugal, examinados a partir de: entrevistas em profundidade semiestruturadas a 19 bloggers, análise de conteúdo dos 20 blogues mais visitados, num total de 2.500 páginas A4 de poststextuais e imagéticos; uma etnografia virtual participante realizada de 2014 a 2017, incluindo a criação de uma blogger-persona;e uma análise de redes da blogosfera feminina realizada com uma profundidade a dois graus dedistância, cuja esfera alcança os 15.976 links. Os resultados não demonstraram a existência de uma consciência claramente feministanos blogues analisados; antes, determinou-se um domínio dos discursos neoliberais e de reportórios caraterizadores das “novas feminilidades” numa atmosfera cultural repleta de contradições. Propomos, assim, olhar para a blogosfera feminina portuguesa como um território de práticas de comunicação e de sociabilidade caraterizadas pelo “double digital bind”que incitam representações de novas subjetividades femininas como o “eu como marca”, a intimidade interativa e a visibilidade compulsiva, ativadas no contexto de consumo e de pós-feminismo. Enquadramos a blogosfera feminina popular no paradigma de conteúdos dominados por lógicas neoliberais e práticas mediáticasde tipo empreendedor e individualista, cujo intuito é a maximização de visualizações para atrair parcerias e publicidade. Sendo certo que a blogosfera tem vindo a servir de suporte de expressão a narrativas individuais femininas que, de outra forma, ficariam confinadas às silenciosas paredes da esfera privada, nesta tese, e a partir de uma análise focada nos blogues de maior popularidade, desafia-se a ideia romântica de uma blogosfera feminina essencialmente caraterizada como espaço multiplicador de vozes alternativas e que contribui essencialmente para uma maior representatividade e pluralidade das mulheres na esfera pública. O que osnossos resultados evidenciam é que os discursos e representações veiculados pela blogosfera feminina contemporânea se coadunam com uma sensibilidade pós-feminista que enfatiza a felicidade através do consumo de moda e beleza, a adoção de estilos de vida marcados por metanarrativas neoliberais como o empoderamento, autotransformação e a atitude positiva. Osdiscursos que encontramos têm, no entanto, alguma ambivalência, já que, se por um lado exercem uma força regulatória na forma de ser e estar, condicionando as mulheres a “serem” de uma determinada forma “pós-feminista”, não deixam de conferir notoriedade e visibilidade às mulheres na esfera pública. A blogosfera feminina, cria assim, potencialmente, novas pressões, divisões e invisibilidades.<br>It has been argued that the female blogosphere has an important potential of identity articulation that the traditional media seems to have denied to women. In this thesis, we address the genre subjectivities that control the media culture and the daily contemporary practices, analysing the “new femininities” present in the Portuguese female blogosphere, perceiving them as constructions that answer to a cultural context in which the female power is simultaneously celebrated and thwarted in new ways. The thesis is based on the empirical analysis of the most popular female blogs, and in the way their authors self-represent themselves in social media. We started this investigation hoping to find results that show that, despite the domination of consumption and neoliberal discourses, the female blogosphere represents a new space of empowerment, resistance and emancipation for women and feminism. We particularly focused on the media practices and representations that are not a classical feminist “resistance”, but that can be politically significant through the disclosure of the way these women renegotiate post-feminism and their femininity conditions in the technological contemporary spaces.Methodologically, we used a mixed methodological triangulation, following the metaphor of a Websphere that envisages the intersection of social networkanalysis(SNA), participatory virtual ethnography, semi-structured qualitative in-depth interviewsand textual and imagery analysis. Therefore, we aim to enquire about which waythe articulation of the (new) feminist identities in the (new) media is performed by a registration in the social, political and economic dynamics that characterise contemporary societies, broadening the focus of discussion both to the macro context (political-economic) and to the female culture “located” on the cultural and historical-nationalsphere. The corpusof analysis consists of the most read female blogs in Portugal, examined from: semi-structured qualitative in-depth interviewsto 19 bloggers, analysis of the content of the 20 most visited blogs, in a total of 2,500 pages A4 of textualand imagery posts; a participatory virtual ethnography performed from 2014 to 2017, including the creation of ablogger-persona; and an analysis of the female blogosphere networks carried out with depth of two levels of distance, whose sphere reaches 15,976links.The results did not illustrate the existence of an increase in the feminism conscience or activism; conversely, a clear mastery of the neoliberal discourses and repertories typical of the “new femininities” in a post-feminism cultural atmospherefull of contradictions was determined. We suggest, therefore, to lookat the Portuguese female blogosphere as a territory of communication and sociability practices characterised by the “double digital bind”which incites representations of new feminism subjectivities such as the “self-branding”,the interactive intimacy and compulsive visibility, activated in the consumption and post-feminism context. We framed the popular female blogosphere in the paradigm of contents dominated by neoliberal logics and entrepreneurial and individualist media practices, the aim of which is the maximisation of the views to attract partnerships and advertisement. However, it is also true that the blogosphere has been serving as a support of expression of the individual feminist narratives that, in any other way, would be confined to the silent walls of the private sphere. In this thesis, and from an analysis based on the most popular blogs, we dismantle the romantic idea of the prevalence of a female blogosphere as a space ofmultiplication of alternative voices and that contributes to a wider representation and plurality of women on the public sphere. Our results highlight that the discourses and representations conveyed by the contemporary female blogosphere are linked with a post-feminist sensibility that emphasises happiness through the consumption of fashion and beauty, the adoption of lifestyles defined by neoliberal metanarratives, such as empowerment, self-transformation and positive attitude. However, if we are far from the feminist ideals as developed by the main feminist movements and activists, it is also true that the discourses we found were ambivalent since, on the one hand, if they wield a regulatory force in the way to be, conditioning women to “be” a certain “post-feminist” way they, on the other hand, still bestow notoriety and visibility on women in the public sphere. Therefore, the blogospherepotentially creates new pressures, inequalities, divisions and invisibilities.