Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Trauma agencie'

Social workers are susceptible to the potential negative impacts of vicarious trauma. Perspectives of trauma social workers on the responsiveness of rural social work agencies to vicarious trauma have not been explored even though the trauma-informed care model has been available since 2006 and outlines best practice in all settings of trauma social work. Considering the risk factors and negative effects vicarious trauma has on social workers, an increased understanding of the perspectives of social workers on how rural social work agencies are responding to vicarious trauma was needed. The purpose of this study was to explore this response through consideration of the trauma-informed care principles of safety, trustworthiness, choice, collaboration, and empowerment. The guiding research question was, what are the perspectives of social workers on the response of rural social work agencies on vicarious trauma and self-care. For this narrative study, storytelling was used as a way to understand and answer the research question. Data were collected using purposeful sampling from 10 trauma social workers through face-to-face interviews and analyzed using a coding and theming process. Organizational culture was identified as a suppressive force that has the potential to be a source of support to therapists. The findings support the need for change in organizational practice standards and furthers knowledge about the potential effects of vicarious trauma on clients, agencies, and therapists and how to mitigate those effects. The awareness this study provided to organizational leaders and policy makers has the potential to be the catalyst for positive practice and policy change.

This thesis is presented in three parts, all of which focus broadly on the experience of agency in relation to psychosis or psychotic-like experiences. Part one, a systematic review of the literature, examines whether ‘sense of agency’, a subjective awareness of intentional actions, is altered in psychosis and evaluates the evidence for different models proposed to explain such alterations. The evidence suggests SoA is altered in psychosis in a number of ways and is associated with delusions of control and other psychotic phenomena. The research with non-clinical populations, however, is less clear. Several methodological limitations were identified. Future research and clinical implications are considered. Part two is an empirical paper that investigates whether different levels of self-agency - namely, action awareness (sense of agency) and a higher order level of agency (locus of control) - are related. It also explores the potential mechanisms by which self-agency alterations contribute to the development of psychotic-like experiences. External LoC was found to mediate the relationship between childhood trauma and psychotic-like experiences. The two levels of agency (SoA and LoC) were not associated. Part three, a critical appraisal of the research, discusses conceptual and methodological issues that arose and the implications for future research in the area of agency experiences. In addition, it includes the author’s personal reflections on the research process more generally and consideration of the scientist-practitioner model.

This thesis considers the reputedly constitutive effects of violence and (intergenerational) loss on youth political subjectivities and agencies, with specific regard for young Tibetans of the refugee-diaspora of Northern India. While the effects of violence on socialisation and agency are currently a significant concern, prevailing clinical, cultural, and even radical psychoanalytical explanations tend – in universalising the traumatic event – to advance underdetermined accounts of experience, subjectivity and agency, leading to depoliticisation of the young or overstatement of their agency. In contrast, this study draws on the Foucauldian concept of political subjectification to reflect on the displaced wider overdeterminative material-discursive field through which young subjects, their subjectivities, and agencies are constituted. Through an ethnographically-informed genealogical method I attempt to trace the signification and affective-internalisation of a specific masternarrative of (national) loss, and the displacements the advent of this account has caused –with specific regard for the displacement of classed, gendered and generational experiences of loss. Finally, drawing on Foucault’s parrhesia as a heuristic for decentred agency, I consider how far young people in exile are able to resist patrifilial hegemony through indexing alternative forms of loss.

Thesis advisor: Lisa A. Goodman
Recent research suggests that half or more of today’s domestic violence (DV) advocates are survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) or other forms of abuse, consistent with the survivor-led early stages of the DV movement. Advocates who are themselves survivors (survivor-advocates) are at risk of experiencing vicarious trauma and other negative outcomes in response to their challenging work. Emerging research has also identified the possibility of deriving personal growth and healing from the work of advocacy, which bolster survivor-advocates against the stressors in their work. However, the processes by which survivor-advocates navigate their work and cope with its challenges are poorly understood. To date, only one qualitative study has asked survivor-advocates about their experiences. This study began illustrating some of the ways that survivor-advocates approach and experience their work; however, it is vital that we develop a richer understanding of how survivor-advocates experience their work as both healing and harmful, in order to maintain the sustainability and effectiveness of the services they provide. This study used grounded theory methodology to explore how survivor-advocates apply their survivorship to their work, and how their work influenced their well-being and recovery. The theoretical model that emerged was anchored by a central process called bringing my whole self to work, which participants described as consisting of four interrelated components: 1) constructing a personal narrative about how their identity connects to their work, 2) applying those connections to shape their work in numerous ways, 3) experiencing healing as an outcome of the previous two components and 4) the organizational contexts that shaped the process through validating or invalidating the survivor identity. Successfully engaging in this process helped survivor-advocates feel a greater sense of connection and integrity to their survivor identity and work, as well as possibly enhanced well-being. This process suggests numerous ways for DV organizations to encourage and support survivor-advocates to engage more openly, meaningfully, and effectively in their work and points toward new directions in understanding vicarious trauma
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019
Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education
Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology

Background: Sexual abuse is a highly distressing traumatic experience that negatively affects the lives of sexual abuse survivors. The number of individuals who reported sexual abuse has increased, which makes it a public and global concern. As a result, survivors of sexual abuse turn to counselling to cope with the traumatic impacts. Counsellors, psychotherapists, and psychologists engage in deep and meaningful explorations of the sexual abuse in order to support survivors. However, very little is known about the impacts and coping strategies involved in this type of work. Objectives: The objective of this study, therefore, was to explore the experiences of UK-based counselling professionals who counsel survivors of sexual abuse. The research questions were as follows: 1. What is the impact of counselling survivors of sexual abuse? and 2. What self-care strategies and coping techniques have been beneficial when counselling survivors of sexual abuse? Method: An inductive qualitative design was used for the purposes of this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve UK-based counselling professionals who provided counselling to individuals who had experienced sexual abuse. The collected data were then analysed using thematic analysis. Findings: The themes developed from the first research question revealed a number of ways in which counselling survivors of sexual abuse affected counselling professionals. Three main themes emerged from the data analysis: work-related impacts, impacts on personal wellbeing and relationship impacts. These themes encompassed a total of fourteen sub-themes. Another two main themes were developed when exploring participants' self-care techniques and coping strategies: holistic self-care and work environment selfcare. Both of these main themes incorporated twelve more sub-themes. These are introduced and outlined in depth in turn. Conclusions: This research has provided a unique insight into the impacts and coping strategies of UK-based counselling professionals working with survivors of sexual abuse. The findings suggest that the counsellors experienced a number of negative impacts, some of which were perceived as traumatic in nature. Further, the impacts were not limited to the counsellors themselves; partners, children, extended family, and friends were also affected by the work. Such far-reaching impacts of sexual trauma have not been sufficiently explored previously. Contrary to the negative tendencies expressed in the research literature, some of the findings indicate positive aspects, such as high job satisfaction and evolved personal growth. The findings of this study provide a rare insight into the useful self-care techniques and copings strategies specific for counselling survivors of sexual abuse. Although the strategies are similar to those used in other areas of counselling, they emphasize organisational and educational responsibilities to support counsellors' wellbeing. Suggestions are proposed for research, educational, organisational, and ethical developments.

ABSTRACT Navigating systems of leadership in Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) in higher education as a Queer Woman of Color can be a challenging and complex process--one that integrates identity, experience, expertise, knowledge, patience, and most importantly the ability to risk; while remaining authentic and professional. It is a balance, which in my own experience and expertise requires constant reflection, evaluation, and adaptation. A negotiation of owning that one has power and agency, while realizing that the many intersecting identities that one holds influences how dominant culture perceives that power and agency. To reach authentic reflection and evaluation in leadership it is critical to examine and investigate one's own vocation to lead and to ask, what leads us and sustains us in that leadership? This dissertation will offer a counter-narrative of leadership in prose-poetry through a lens of intersectionality outside of the hegemonic or dominant ways that define the parameters of leadership. Through the use of personal narratives reinforced by scholarship using the methodology of Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN), I explore my own experiences of trauma throughout my life that led to agency and inevitably to leadership. I additionally examine the overarching tenants and themes that continue to inform, sustain and strengthen my leadership. "Damned If You Do--Damned If You Don't" represents a phrase often used amongst marginalized communities that signifies the challenges of navigating one's own power and agency within oppressive dominant systems. This SPN dissertation will be supported by the paradigms of Critical Race Theory (CRT) with a specific focus on Counter-Narrative/Storytelling and Critical Race Gendered Epistemology or Feminist Black/Latino Theory, while also incorporating aspects of positive psychology. It will offer a counter-narrative in leadership that highlights how my multiple intersecting identities, coupled with my life experiences, create meaning and go on to further shape my approach to trauma, agency, and leadership. As a Queer woman of color in leadership, I find that by honoring and examining my own stories of trauma and agency, and how it led me to leadership. I am better equipped as a professional to honor the narratives, identities, and experiences of those that I serve.

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Introdução: A incontinência fecal é a perda indesejável de flatos e fezes devido ao déficit do controle esfincteriano, que resulta na diminuição da qualidade de vida e gera grande impacto econômico. A aplicação de um agente de preenchimento tem sido uma opção para o tratamento da incontinência leve a moderada quando as condutas conservadoras forem ineficazes. Porém os agentes disponíveis na prática clínica são de alto custo e de baixa durabilidade. O gel de biopolímero de cana-de açúcar apresenta-se como uma possível alternativa por ser biocompatível, seguro e com baixo potencial de migração. Objetivo: Avaliar o gel de biopolímero de cana-de açúcar como agente de preenchimento do anorreto de ratos submetidos à disfunção esfincteriana. Materiais e Métodos: Realizou-se ensaio biológico constituído por modelo experimental induzido, de natureza cirúrgica. Foram utilizados 45 ratos Wistar, de ambos os gêneros, alocados randomicamente em três grupos de 15: Controle (GC), esfincterectomia e aplicação de soro fisiológico (GE+SF) e esfincterectomia e aplicação de gel biopolímero de cana-de-açúcar (GE+BPCA). Todos os grupos foram submetidos à manometria anorretal nos tempos D0 (início das avaliações), D15 (quinze dias após D0) e D45 (quarenta e cinco dias após D0). Os grupos GE+SF e GE+BPCA foram submetidos à esfincterectomia no tempo D0 para induzir queda dos níveis pressóricos de repouso da região anorretal induzindo disfunção esfincteriana. No tempo D15 foi feita aplicação de 0,6ml de soro fisiológico no anorreto do GE+SF e de 0,6ml de gel de BPCA no anorreto do GE+BPCA. Sessenta dias após o início dos experimentos (D60) os ratos foram sacrificados e as peças anatômicas foram pesadas e enviadas para estudo histológico. Os dados foram submetidos à análise estatística e considerado significativos se p≤0,05. Resultados: No D15 o GC manteve a pressão anorretal constante, o GE+SF apresentou queda do nível pressórico (GC≠GE+SF, p<0,0001) e o GE+BPCA também manteve a pressão anorretal constante, apesar do trauma esfincteriano (GE+SF≠ GE+BPCA, p=0,0004 e GC≠GE+BPCA, p=0,097). No D45 o GC manteve a pressão anorretal de repouso constante, o GE+SF permaneceu com pressão anorretal de repouso inferior aos outros dois grupos e o GE+BPCA apresentou elevação significativa da pressão anorretal. (GC≠GE+SF, p=0,0003; GE+SF≠GE+BPCA, p=0,0002; CG≠GE+BPCA, p=0,0198). Não foi observado processo inflamatório de reparação e remodelamento tecidual no GC e GE+SF. No GE+BPCA, foi observado o implante estável, homogêneo, apresentando integração ao tecido do hospedeiro, com neovascularização, presença de fibroblastos, fibras colágenas e células inflamatórias incorporando sua matriz de forma centrípeta. Conclusão: O gel de biopolímero de cana-de açúcar elevou os níveis pressóricos de repouso da região anorretal dos ratos submetidos à disfunção esfincteriana. Esse agente de preenchimento permaneceu no local do implante neovascularizado, colonizado por células gigantes multinucleadas, fibroblastos e tecido conjuntivo fibroso de sustentação.
Introduction: Fecal incontinence is the involuntary loss of flatus and stools as a result of poor sphincter control, affecting quality of life and induction major economic impact. Its treatment with bulking agents has been proposed as an option for mild to moderate fecal incontinence when conservative approach is ineffective. However, the current available bulking agents has high cost and low durability. The sugarcane biopolymer gel presents itself as a possible lternative to be biocompatible, safe and low migration potential. Objective: To evaluate the sugarcane biopolymer gel as an anorectal bulking agent of rats sumitted to sphinteric dysfunction. Materials and methods: A biologic assay, performed as an experimental induced model through surgery. The study used 45 Wistar rats randomly divided equally into three groups: 15 rats for control group (GC); 15 for sphincterectomy and injection of physiological saline group (GE+SF); and 15 for sphincterectomy and injection of sugarcane biopolymer gel group (GE+BPCA). All the rats in all the groups were subjected to anorectal manometry at D0 (first day, on the beginning of evaluations), D15 (fifteen days after D0) and D45 (forty-five days after D0). The GE+SF and GE+BPCA groups were subject to sphincterectomy at D0 in order to reduce the anal pressure at rest. At D15, 0,6ml of physiological saline was injected into the anorectum of animals from GE+SF, whereas for GE+BPCA it was injected 0,6Ml sugarcane biopolymer gel. Sixty days after experiments has begun (D60) the rats were sacrificed and their anatomical specimens were weighed and analysed. Results: The manometry analyses at D15 demonstrated that GC maintained a constant anrectal pressure as well as GE+BPCA, nevertheless the sphincter trauma (GC≠GE+BPCA, p=0,097), while GE+SF displayed decreased anorectal pressures (GC≠GE+SF, p<0,0001 and GE+SF≠GE+BPCA, p=0,0004). At D45, GC remained constant the anorectal pressures at rest, while anorectal pressures of GE+SF group remained below the other’s two groups. At same period, GE+BPCA presented a significant increase of anorectal pressure at rest. (GC≠GE+SF, p=0,0003; GE+SF≠GE+BPCA, p=0,0002; CG≠GE+BPCA, p=0,0198). The histopathologic evaluation for GC and GE+SF exhibited no inflammatory process for tissue repairing or remodeling. For GE+BPCA the histopathologic evaluation exhibited the implant as stable, homogeneous, integrated into the surrounding tissue with new blood vessels and presence of fibroblasts, collagen fibers and inflammatory cells embedded in its matrix in a centripetal distribution. Conclusion: Therefore, we conclude that sugarcane biopolymer gel increased anorectal presures at rest in rats submitted to sphincterectomy. This bulking agent remained at injection site and it was colonized by multinucleated giant cells, fibroblasts and dense conjunctive tissue. Key-words: Faecal incontinence. Bulking agent. Sugarcane biopolymer. Cellulosic exopolysaccharide. Anorectal manometry.

Widows in Nigeria endure adverse and traumatic practices that affect their health, well-being, and rights as women. After decades of struggle and resistance against persistent widowhood practices, this study sought to portray in Nigerian widows, hidden strengths, resilience, and agency rather than their vulnerability and powerlessness. Analysis of secondary scholarship, interviews, and survey questionnaires reveal that some Nigerian widows are able to cope even as they navigate through the challenges and trauma of demeaning and stressful practices. The results also demonstrate that the ability to cope and thrive under stress and adversity links not only to an individual’s personal growth and well-being, but also to their ability to develop agency and empower themselves. This study has implications for female empowerment and sociocultural change. Additionally, the results suggest a need for future research and interventions that further develop the concept of resilience in Nigerian widows.

The subject of corpses from mass violence is surprisingly unexplored, even though the materiality of the corpse carries strong symbolic capital in conflicts. The aim of my PhD research is to create new knowledge about the implications of unburied corpses that stem from intergroup conflicts, and subsequently to add knowledge concerning how intergroup violence is organised to achieve desired social agendas. In the licentiate thesis presented here, I research the conditions for postmortem agency and how treatment of corpses can be studied in prehistory, specifically through the material remains of unburied corpses from the Sandby borg massacre. The Sandby borg case study is explored through a bioarchaeological perspective. Inside the Iron Age ringfort, the remains of at least 26 individuals have been recovered hitherto. Several of the dead display traces of lethal intergroup violence. By integrating osteology, archaeology, taphonomy and social theories, I show how bioarchaeological research can contribute to the understanding of past postmortem agency in relation to intergroup violence as a social process. The thesis is comprised of four articles.

Gliklazid je jedan od najčešće korišćenih lekova u terapiji dijabetes melitusa tip 2. U poslednje vreme, utvrđeno je da gliklazid ispoljava i druge pozitivne farmakološke efekte kao što su imunomodulatorni i anti-koagulacioni efekti, ukazujući na njegovu potencijalnu primenu u terapiji dijabetes melitusa tip 1. Gliklazid se odlikuje varijabilnim stepenom apsorpcije nakon peroralne primene i iz tog razloga pretpostavlja se da bi tehnike njegove ciljane isporuke, kao što je mikroinkapsulacija, mogle da dovedu do poboljšanja njegove apsorpcije i njegove potencijalne primene u terapiji T1DM. Pokazano je da različite žučne kiseline, uključujući i holnu, imaju stabilizacione efekte u domenu primene mikrovezikula i kontrolisanog osobađanja lekova, te je moguće da bi njihov dodatak u mikrovezikularnu formulaciju gliklazida mogao dodatno da poboljša oslobađanje gliklazida, njegovu apsorpciju i antidijabetičke efekte. S tim u vezi, cilj ovog istraživanja je da se ispita hipoglikemijski efekat gliklazida primenjenog u obliku alginatnih mikrovezikula, sa ili bez dodatka holne kiseline na T1DM modelu pacova. Trideset šest pacova obolelih od T1DM indukovanog aloksanom i odgovarajuće zdrave kontrolne životinje su nasumično raspoređene u šest grupa (n=6) i tretirane jednokratnom dozom fiziološkog rastvora, suspenzijom gliklazida, gliklazidom u obliku alginatnih mikrovezikula, samo holnom kiselinom, i mikrovezikulama gliklazida sa ili baz dodatka holne kiseline. Uzorkovana je krv tokom 10 h nakon unete doze i merena je koncentracija glukoze u krvi I koncentracija gliklazida u serumu korišćenjem HPLC metode. Mikrovezikule gliklazida su ispoljile hipo-glikemijski efekat kod pacova obolelih od dijabetesa, uprkos njegovim smanjenim koncentracijama u serumu, dok je dodatak holne kiseline u mikrovezikularnu formulaciju smanjio hipoglikemijski efekat gliklazida. Ovo potvrđuje izostanak sinergističkog efekta između gliklazida i holne kiseline. Takođe, ni proces mikroinkapsulacije niti dodatak holne kiseline nisu doprineli poboljšanju apsorpcije gliklazida, što ukazuje na činjenicu da su njegovi hipoglikemijski efekti nezavisni od njegove apsorpcije i koncentracije u serumu. Stoga se može pretpostaviti da su hipoglikemijski efekti gliklazida pre pod uticajem crevno-metaboličke aktivacije nego ciljanog oslobađanja u digestivnom traktu sistemske apsorpcije. Mikrovezikule gliklazida ispoljavaju hipoglikemijski efekat kod pacova obolelih od T1DM nezavisno od insulina, te mogu imati potencijalnu primenu u terapiji T1DM. Ovaj rad su podržali: HORIZON 2020 MEDLEM projekat broj 690876; Projekat Sekretarijata naučnog i tehnološkog razvoja Vojvodine broj . 114-451-2072-/2016-02; Projekat Ministarstva obrazovanja, nauke i tehnološkog razvoja Republike Srbije broja 41012.
Gliclazide is one of the most commonly prescribed drugs for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes. Recently, gliclazide has reported to have desirable pharmacological effects such as immunomodulatory and anti-clotting effects, suggesting its potential applications in Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D) therapy. Gliclazide has variable absorption after oral administration, and therefore use of targeted-delivery techniques, such as microencapsulation, may optimise gliclazide absorption and its potential applications in T1D. Different bile acids, including cholic acid, have demonstrated microcapsule-stabilising and controlled-release effects, and thus their incorporation into gliclazide microcapsules may further optimise gliclazide release, absorption and antidiabetic effects. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate the hypoglycaemic effects of gliclazide alginate-based microcapsules, in combination with or without added cholic acid, in a T1D rat model. Thirty six alloxan-induced T1D rats and respective healthy controls were randomly assigned into six equally distributed groups (n=6) and gavaged with a single dose of normal saline solution, gliclazide suspension, gliclazide alginate-based microcapsules, cholic acid alone, combination of gliclazide and cholic acid or alginate-based microcapsules with combined gliclazide and cholic acid. Blood samples were collected over 10 h post-dose and analysed for blood glucose concentrations and gliclazide serum concentrations using HPLC. Gliclazide microcapsules exibited a hypoglycaemic effect in diabetic rats, despite detected lower serum concentrations, whereas cholic acid incorporation diminished the hypoglycaemic effects. This suggests a lack of synergistic effects between gliclazide and cholic acid. In addition, neither microencapsulation nor cholic acid incorporation optimised gliclazide absorption which suggests that hypoglycaemic effects of gliclazide are independent of its absorption and serum concentrations. This provides evidence that hypoglycaemic effects of gliclazide may be associated with gut-metabolic activation rather than gut-targeted delivery and systemic absorption. Conclusion Gliclazide microcapsules exibited hypoglycaemic effects in T1D rats independent of insulin and thus may have potentials in treatment of T1D. This research was supported by: HORIZON 2020 MEDLEM project Grant No. 690876; Project for Scientific and Technological Development of Vojvodina No. 114-451-2072-/2016-02; Project of Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia, Grant No. 41012.

Female survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Nigeria endure harsh and traumatic experiences that affect their rights as women and their well-being. As the phenomenon of IPV persists in Nigeria, it is not only a family problem but a critical social and psychological problem. This study examined Nigerian female survivors’ hidden strength, agency, and resilience, rather than their powerlessness and vulnerability. Analysis of survey questionnaires, interviews, and secondary scholarship reveals that some Nigerian female survivors of IPV are able to cope whilst navigating stressful and traumatic experiences. The results also show that survivors’ ability to thrive and cope under stress not only results from individual traits and use of agency, but also from external support. This study infers sociocultural change and female empowerment. The results propose a need for interventions and further research on the development of the concept of resilience in female Nigerian survivors of IPV.

In an attempt to address the issues in research and theory on consent, this thesis explores what consent can be seen as "doing" through an 'Intuitive Inquiry' (Anderson 2011a) and 'Agential Realism' (Barad 2007). Various manifestations of consent appears through: the experience of the researcher, consent research and theory, consent legislation, interviews with professionals in intimate-sexual consent, and, feminist fanzines. Consent evokes issues around agency, power, communication, respect, violence, risk, morals and ethics that go beyond sexual-intimate negotiation. Consent emerges as multiple, complex and fluid in 'intra-action' (ibid.) with the context. Entanglements and paradoxes of consent are further explored in 'diffractive analysis' (ibid.) through "bodily autonomy" and"rights/obligations". As a phenomenon, consent appears to make agency and power intelligible (to different degrees), but, can not be said to provide a viable strategy against sexual violence. The tenets of consent discourse risk (re)producing anxieties around intimacy and sex, responsibilizing survivors and obfuscating sexual violence. Further and improved research on communication in everyday sexual negotiation, sexual violence, consent legislation and what consent "does" is urgently needed.Through creative method and new epistemology the thesis (re)presents a knowledge process true to lived experience, as well as, an invitation to pull the terrible wonderful world, it's complexities, and us in it, closer.
I ett försök att ta itu med problem inom forskning och teori om 'consent' undersöker denna avhandling vad samtycke kan ses som ”göra” genom 'Intuitiv Inquiry' (Anderson 2011a) och'Agential Realism' (Barad 2007). Olika manifestationer av 'consent' framträder genom: forskarens erfarenheter, samtyckes-forskning och teori, samtyckelagstiftning, intervjuer med professionella inom samtycke, och, feministiska fanzines. Samtycke väcker frågor kring agens, makt, kommunikation, respekt, våld, risk, moral och etik som går bortom sexuella-intima förhandlingar. Samtycke framträder som multipelt, komplext och rörligt i 'intra-action' (ibid.) med kontexten. 'Entanglements' och paradoxer inom samtycke undersöks vidare i 'diffraktiv analys' (ibid.) genom "kroppslig autonomi" och"rättigheter/skyldigheter". Som ett fenomen gör samtycke agens och makt möjlig att tänka (iolika grad), men kan inte sägas bidra med en hållbar strategi mot sexuellt våld. Grundsatserna i samtyckesdiskursen riskerar att (re)producera ängsla kring intima-sexuella situationer, responsibilisera offer och dölja sexuellt våld. Ytterligare och förbättrad forskning är i akut behov kring kommunikation i vardagliga sexuella förhandlingar, sexuellt våld, samtyckeslagstiftning och vad samtycke "gör". Genom kreativ metod och ny epistemologi (re)presenterar avhandlingen en kunskapsprocesssom är trogen till levd verklighet, samt en inbjudan att närma sig, den fruktansvärda underbara världen, dess komplexitet, och oss inom den.

Children growing up in poor areas with high crime rates are shown to easily get involved in violent actions and criminal gangs. In South Africa, despite considerable efforts to reduce youth delinquency, youth crime rates are still disturbingly high – specifically, in the townships of the Cape Flats. This paper points out an important aspect previously unaddressed by most youth crime prevention: the subconscious roots of youth crime. What if we could develop youth crime prevention programs that manage to impact the subconscious behavioral patterns of youth in high crime areas? This paper proposes a  promising and cost-effective approach that has great potential to affect multipe causes of crime: mindfulness meditation. Built upon newest findings in Neuroscience, this paper suggests that mindfulness meditation classes are associated with a reduction in aggressive behavior, a risk factor for youth crime, and an increase in self-efficacy, a protective factor. The impact of mindfulness classes at a high school in Khayelitsha, a poor and violent-stricken township of Cape Town, is analyzed. Self-reported aggression and self-efficacy are measured via a psychometric survey questionnaire created from two well-tested and validated scales. Regression analyses of 384 survey answers provided mixed results. Whilst novice meditators were not associated with higher self-efficacy and lower aggression, long-term meditators performed better in several dimensions of self-efficacy and aggression, yet no significant relationship was found. Further research specifically needs to investigate the moderating effect of age (a proxy for psychological development) on meditation. This study aims to bridge the gap between the outdated paradigms of youth crime prevention and ancient wisdom via ground-breaking new evidence from the field of Neuroscience. This study furthermore hopes to point policy makers toward developing new, integrative and sustainable approaches to youth crime prevention – approaches that give back agency to our youth.

Anders Westholm har inget med betygssättningen att göra annat än i rent formellt hänseende (examinator). Det är han som rapporterar in och skriver under men i sak är det seminarieledaren som har beslutet i sin hand. Statsvetenskapliga institutet har som princip att skilja på handledning och examination vilket innebär att handledaren inte får vara seminarieledare. Seminarieledare och personen som satt betygget var i det här fallet Sven Oskarsson: Sven.Oskarsson@statsvet.uu.se

The term ‘accidental celebrity’ entered the Australian academic lexicon in 2000 as a way of describing ordinary people who become publicly well-known following a high-profile news event. Among this group are survivors of an unanticipated traumatic experience who are pursued by journalists competing for witness accounts. The media spotlight on the survivors’ private lives grows so intense and for such a prolonged period that they are transformed into celebrities. Although the notion of accidental celebrity has been adopted in subsequent international studies, little consideration has been given to the role individuals play in changing their status. The aim of this practice-led project is to explore how prominent survivors may exercise agency in interactions with media. Underpinning the research is the structuration theory of British sociologist Anthony Giddens (1984), who argues that people are not powerless in relations with others but have the capability to think and act for themselves. Data is drawn from semi-structured interviews with 14 Australians who could be considered accidental celebrities. Each was a central figure in one of 11 high-profile news events—between the 1980 death of baby Azaria Chamberlain, taken from a Northern Territory desert campsite by a dingo, and the 2006 rescue of two Tasmanian gold miners, trapped underground at Beaconsfield for two weeks following a rockfall. The perspectives of these individuals are brought together for the first time in order to provide insight into the involvement of survivors in the creation of news and other media content, from being regarded by journalists as newsworthy to represented as celebrities and treated as commodities. By analysing the survivors’ actions, this study finds they were never entirely constrained by institutionalised practices. The investigation of individual agency builds on two decades of research by Australian cultural studies academic Graeme Turner on the production of celebrity, which emphasises the institutional power of media. Turner, along with Frances Bonner and P. David Marshall (2000), coined the term accidental celebrity in their influential book Fame Games. The original manuscript Accidental Celebrity documents the survivors’ contacts with media and thoughts about their public profile, incorporating secondary material in the form of print articles to illustrate how their behaviour was reported. The capability of individuals to influence media is examined in the accompanying exegesis, which identifies six categories of action in a Taxonomy of Accidental Celebrity Agency. They are recognised as choosing to tolerate attention, moderate behaviour, initiate contact, cooperate on content, delegate to a third party and dictate the terms of involvement. By applying this new framework to the survivors’ accounts, the different ways they seek to control their interactions with media are analysed. The project, as a whole, extends academic research largely centred on journalistic practices and celebrity representation, to produce an explanation of actual behaviour, social experience and the ways ordinary people change their circumstances. It reveals how high-profile trauma survivors may act as free-willed individuals in relations with media, and the potential consequences of attempting to exert control. In doing so, the work offers a new, more nuanced and considered understanding of accidental celebrity.

A qualitative approach was taken to explore Canadian Congolese refugees’ experience of war trauma recovery. Six volunteers (three men and three women), who self-identified as traumatized by their experience of war in Congo and had lived in Canada for less than ten years, participated in in-depth interviews. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach to analysis, a core construct of Surviving War was identified. A hierarchical model of surviving war was developed that subsumed all other categories. By extrapolating principles from this model, a theory of Surviving War was developed which identifies factors that contribute to surviving war. Limitations of the current research are presented along with suggestions for further research. Recommendations for professionals working with a refugee population are also presented.

In post-conflict settings real and imagined boundaries do a great deal to determine who is inside and who is outside of state-based narratives of peace and prosperity. Based on case studies in Rwanda and Northern Ireland, I provide an analysis of the post-conflict periods and the impact of neoliberal-styled governance on the dynamics of power. I argue that as power shifted, ‘peace’ also entailed a general social pacification, and prosperity equated to greater private profit. However, top-down social engineering has not contained the entire field of social struggle. I examine micro-level interventions taking place on the margins of mainstream discourse that trouble the moralizing state-narratives that seek to legitimate structural violence. Such spaces facilitate alternative values and practices that contribute to sustained social and cultural resilience, as well as forms of resistance. Post-conflict Rwanda and Northern Ireland have been impacted by both coercive and consensual forms of social engineering. In Rwanda, state-based framework laws and forceful regimes of local implementation rely on stark contingencies of reward and punishment to shape and control behaviour in the public sphere. In Northern Ireland, the power-sharing structure of the Belfast Agreement has reinforced ethnic politics, while depoliticizing and instrumentalizing civil society in support of its neoliberal policies. I present ethnographic research and interviews conducted with community organizations in Northern Ireland (Ikon) and Rwanda (Student Association of Genocide Survivors - AERG) that demonstrates how alternative discourses and practices are emerging in the cracks of these top-down systems. I explore Ikon’s use of creative performances and radical theology to create socially resonant cultural spaces that function as temporary autonomous zones. These TAZs unsettle aspects of individual identity while intentionally seeking to destabilize mainstream power dynamics. Unlike Ikon, AERG faces greater public scrutiny and higher political stakes. They demonstrate an adherence to the dominant social script in the public sphere, while exhibiting micro- level agency through trauma healing, and material support in private day-to-day practices. AERG’s performance in the public sphere creates temporary spaces of encounter that exceed the boundaries of official discourse, making their alternative presence felt while remaining illegible to the dominant surveillance frameworks.
Thesis (Ph.D, Cultural Studies) -- Queen's University, 2014-06-02 11:02:09.033