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Critiquing Representations Of Intellectual Disability In Occupation-Based Literature, Rachel Reparon, Pamela Block, Ann Fudge Schormans, Debbie Laliberte Rudman, Gail Teachman

Occupational Therapy Publications

Background: Within and beyond occupation-based scholarship, concerns abound regarding the pervasiveness of discourses that promote a negative, deficit-based view of intellectual disability and associated consequences for disabled people’s lives. Such representations risk reducing the complexities of human doing and being and can limit the occupational possibilities of this group. Yet, there is a lack of critically reflexive research exploring how disability is discursively constructed in occupation-based literature.

Aims/Objectives: This paper critically analyses representations of intellectual disability within occupation-based literature. It considers the influence of such representations on the occupational possibilities of people labelled intellectually disabled.

Methods: This review employed a …

Discourse, Power Dynamics, And Risk Amplification In Disaster Risk Management In Canada, Martins Oluwole Olu-Omotayo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The domain of disaster risk management is rife with discursive contentions, whereby dominant discourses amplify the powers of risk actors to precipitate and reinforce political, economic, and environmental inequalities that predispose different sections of the population to unequal disaster risk vulnerabilities. This thesis identified important actors (government, risk experts, media, and NGOs) that shape the power dynamics in disaster risk management in Canada and explained their roles, influences, and the dimensions in which their powers negotiate each other through risk discourses. The patterns of these power dynamics in the three aspects of power –communication, assessment, and social trust –were also …

Caring Revisited: A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis On The Association Of Caring With The Profession Of Nursing, Margot Boulton

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

There have been numerous theories put forward by nursing theorists on the importance of caring in nursing. Very few studies have looked at the impact that this association has on the practice of nursing. This study will add to the existing literature by using a Foucauldian discourse analysis to examine the material effects that the caring discourse has on nurses’ ability to advocate for safe working conditions during a public health emergency. Using the outbreak of COVID-19 in Ontario, Canada in the Spring of 2020 as a context, this study seeks to establish caring as a discourse and examine how …

A Critical Discourse Study Of Programmatic Literacy Curricula In Ontario: Knowledge, Power, And Discourse In An Age Of Diversity, Susan Ibdah

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The aim of this study was to produce understandings of programmatic literacy curricula in an age of cultural, linguistic, and modal diversity. Relative to this diversity, I applied van Dijk’s (2011) Critical Discourse Analysis to the case of the programmatic literacy curricula in Ontario, Canada to investigate how the discourses of these curricula positioned learners, teachers, literacy learning, and the learning environment. Ontario is an important case to study since it has been identified as a model of successful literacy education innovation (e.g., Luke, 2018) in a context that contains hyper diversity within the student population. The study drew on …

Constructions Of Learning Disabilities Within Contemporary Canadian Society: Discourse, Biopower And Governmentality, Bea Waterfield

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Understandings and definitions of disability have changed and varied across social and political climates within North America, affecting the ways in which disabled individuals are treated, represented, and responded to, within various facets of society. Learning disabilities, in particular, have been subject to change and language surrounding the label has shifted across different socio-political contexts. The objective of this research project was to explore and document the dominant discourse constructing learning disabilities within Canada, the various individuals involved with constructing the category of learning disability and how such constructions have informed broader, treatment approaches to learning disabilities within Canada. A …

An App A Day Keeps The Doctor Away: A Visual Case Analysis Of The Self-Optimization Ideologies Downloaded Onto Apple Users As They Download Applications, Ismahan Yusuf

MA Research Paper

This visually thematic qualitative case analysis seeks to advance cyber-sociology by analyzing the hyper-under-attended relationship between interfaces and discourses. Here, the interface under investigation is the Apple App Store, examined for the ways in which the platform is discursively encoded with particular ideologies, ideals, desires and narratives downloaded onto users as they download applications. Such is explored via a two-part research question inquiring: Which type of applications enjoy the most promotion on the Apple App Store and what cyber-architectural tools are herein used to optically exalt them? To investigate this, an iOS 11-operating iPhone was used to frequent the store’s …

Weathering Storms And Flooded Waters: Anthropological Perspectives Of Policy And Risk In Toronto, Ontario, Jennifer Spinney

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation examines how the interactive processes of policy construct social relationships, influence expert and lay perceptions of risk, and contribute to practices of risk management and decision making. In the context of weather and flooding in Toronto, Ontario, I first show how meteorologists at Environment and Climate Change Canada enact their roles as experts and attain operational success while adhering to policy constraints during ‘non-severe’ weather perceived as risky. Then, through an analysis of face and drawing on the concept of Goffman’s interaction ritual and Collins’s interaction ritual chain, I illustrate the role that ambiguous river flood situations play …

Skills And Student Affairs: A Discourse Analysis, Shannon Mckechnie

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Media, industry, and other public actors have claimed that a ‘skills gap’ exists in students exiting post-secondary education and entering the workforce. The Ontario provincial government has developed policy, the Highly Skilled Workforce Strategy, to provide directives to universities in the province to provide skills development to students to aid in closing the gap and providing a workplace relevant education. In this study, I explore the experiences of student affairs and services (SAS) staff responsible for enacting provincial policy related to skills development at the university level by investigating the discourses that shape policy and practices of these staff …

Rachmaninoff's Piano Works And Diasporic Identity 1890-1945: Compositional Revision And Discourse, Renee Mackenzie

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This monograph examines the post-exile, multi-version works of Sergei Rachmaninoff with a view to unravelling the sophisticated web of meanings and values attached to them. Compositional revision is an important and complex aspect of creating musical meaning. Considering revision offers an important perspective on the construction and circulation of meanings and discourses attending Rachmaninoff’s music.

While Rachmaninoff achieved international recognition during the 1890s as a distinctively Russian musician, I argue that Rachmaninoff’s return to certain compositions through revision played a crucial role in the creation of a narrative and set of tropes representing “Russian diaspora” following the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. …

A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis Of Current Anti-Bullying Policies In Ontario, Zhu Cheng

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study asks how school bullying is conceptualized in current anti-bullying policies in Ontario. Policy documents PPM 144 (Bullying Prevention and Intervention, 2012), PPM 145 (Progressive Discipline and Promoting Positive Student Behaviour, 2012), and the Model Plan (the Working Draft: Safe and Accepting Schools Model Bullying Prevention and Intervention Plan, 2013) are examined. Drawing upon concepts from Foucault, this study expresses how disciplinary techniques operate in anti-bullying policies and how they contribute to the formation of dominant discourses on bullying. It argues that school bullying is represented as an individual problem in these policies. Accordingly, …

Dads And Dyads: Stress And Coping When A Child Has Retinoblastoma, Rob Downie

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Child psychosocial oncology research offers limited examination of fathers’ and dyadic stress and coping. Retinoblastoma (Rb) is a rare genetic eye cancer occurring at birth or early childhood. This qualitative sociological study examines individual and dyadic stress and coping across 4 fatherhood role categories when their child is diagnosed/treated for Retinoblastoma. Using purposive sampling, 23 Canadian Rb couples and 7 unmatched parents completed individual in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Findings confirm fatherhood role identity is diverse, influenced by the current situation, elements of discourse, and cultural references. Often contested in public and private spheres, fathering roles show transitional or permanent change tied …

Addiction: The Colonization Of Rituals, Matthew Prokopiw

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

What is addiction? Since its transformation as a word in the late 19th century, not only has it taken on the form of a scientific concept, but it also contains a complex social-historical component that tells a story of how and why addiction is now conceived of as a harmful and deviant behaviour. The objective of this text is to highlight how addiction fundamentally eclipses scientific discourses and instead functions as a social concept in the interests of colonization – comprised of forces of State and capitalism. Based on a critical reading of Mircea Eliade’s The Sacred and the Profane …

Constructing ‘Farmer’ And ‘State’ Identities In Moral Discourses About Semi-Subsistence Agriculture In North-East Brazil, Karen E. Pennesi

Anthropology Publications

Anthropological analysis elucidates how discourses about agriculture in one North-east Brazilian community reflect relational roles of citizens and the state, the position of farmers in society, and the relationship of individuals to their work. In these discourses, farmers are positioned as moral, hard-working, autonomous citizens, justifying their participation in low-paying activities. The declining numbers of agricultural workers is explained as a result of individual laziness or government irresponsibility. In using these discourses to take stances publicly on agricultural issues, speakers assign responsibilities and moral status to agents. In constructing rural identities, such moral discourses emphasise the symbolic value of subsistence …

Situating Occupation In Social Relations Of Power: Occupational Possibilities, Ageism And The Retirement ‘Choice’, Debbie Laliberte Rudman

Occupational Therapy Publications

Introduction: Research attending to social relations of power can enhance understanding of the mechanisms through which occupational injustices occur and inform socially transformative practice. This study explored how power operates through ageism in ways that shape what people come to take for granted regarding occupation in relation to age, and what occupations are supported through socio- political conditions.

Methods: Narratives were collected using a two-stage interview process with 17 retired Canadians. A critical narrative analysis approach was employed to examine how these narratives revealed the complex ways occupations are negotiated within broader discourses and age relations.

Findings: Ageism mattered for …

Verb Use In Parkinson's Disease, Swati S. Nikumb

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Verb-specific impairments in their use and comprehension are well documented in persons with Parkinson’s disease (PD). The grammatical and the motor theories have been proposed as possible explanations for verb impairments. The purpose of this study is to describe the use of low-motion and high-motion content verbs in PD in everyday conversation and to determine which theory best supports these findings. In this cross-sectional prospective study, conversation samples were collected and analyzed from participants with PD and their spouses in a mealtime context. Results indicated that total verb use on a proportional basis was not significantly different between persons with …

Interacciones Narrativas Árabe, Cristiana Y Judía: Convivencia Literaria En El Medievo Peninsular, David Navarro

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation develops a critical study based on identity theory, intergroup relations, and social discourse of the cultural symbiosis forged between the three religious communities of the Medieval Iberian Peninsula - Christians, Jews and Muslims - as reflected in four books written during this period, from the eleventh to the fourteenth century. In the case of Medieval Iberian literature, Semitic culture and traditions were absorbed along with Christian traditions in the development of a future Spanish identity that was reflected in the literary framework. Through this analysis and this theoretical framework it was possible to determine how intergroup contact affected …

In The Fullness Of Time: M. M. Bakhtin, In Discourse And In Life, James C. Hall

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The phrase “the fullness of time” touches upon one of M. M. Bakhtin’s most consistently upheld tenets; for Bakhtin, philosophical and everyday utterances rely on their historical embeddedness for the material and concrete reality from which they draw their meaning and through which they are conditioned, inflected, and re-evaluated. In his very last work Bakhtin stated that all meanings are in continuous evolution. In this thesis the attempt will be made to interpret Bakhtin’s corpus by concentrating particularly on the movement of historical and philosophical becoming, the art of responding to philosophy and the events of everyday life, and the …

Watching High School: Representing Disempowerment On Teen Drama Television, Sarah M. Baxter

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study investigated the representation of teenage characters on teen drama television. Content from a sample of six television series aired between 1989 and 2006 were analyzed, with the intent of describing the underlying discourse of “teenageness” that shapes the portrayal of young people in popular media. Qualitative content analysis found significant, ongoing trends in youth representation that reflect common cultural conceptions of teens. Teen drama narratives were found to suggest that the experiences represented in television story lines are universally shared amongst young people. Teenagers were also represented in the process of discovering or choosing an identity, while socially …

Communicating Crimes: Covering Gangs In Contemporary Canadian Journalism, Chris Richardson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this integrated-article dissertation, I examine representations of gangs in Canadian journalism, focusing primarily on contemporary newspaper reporting. While the term “gang” often refers to violent groups of young urban males, it can also signify outlaw bikers, organized crime, terrorist cells, non-criminal social groups, and a wide array of other collectives. I build on Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical framework to probe this ambiguity, seeking to provide context and critical assessments that will improve crime reporting and its reception. In the course of my work, I examine how popular films like West Side Story inform journalists’ descriptions of gangs. Though reporters have …

"Ça Devient Une Question D’Être Maîtres Chez Nous”: The Canadiens, Nordiques, And The Politics Of Québécois Nationalism, 1979-1984, Terry Gitersos

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation analyzes the discourses produced by the selected newspaper coverage of the Montréal Canadiens and Québec Nordiques, two professional hockey clubs based in the province of Québec, from 1979 to 1984. Sport has long provided a medium for national identification, and constitutes one the most effective institutions through which the nation is imagined. This is especially true of Canada, where ice hockey has been celebrated as the country’s national game and a window into the Canadian soul. However, sport is a malleable institution; in Québec, hockey has long served as a symbol, speaking to French Canadian national identity, imbued …

Thinking Where I Am (K)Not: Resistance, Language And The Unconscious In Freud And Lacan, Ian Richard Mccausland

Digitized Theses

In this work I discuss the relevance of the psychoanalytic concepts of resistance and transference for an understanding of language from a psychoanalytic point of view, in particular how it is that human beings relate to language and whether or not we can conceive of a relation of reference between word and thing from the point of view of Jacques Lacan’s notion of the subject of the unconscious. This investigation takes us through the notion of reference and how it is possible (or not) for language to even refer to anything outside of itself from a psychoanalytic point of view. …

A Discourse Analysis Of Transsexuality Through Three Fields: Expert Knowledges In Legal. Medical And News Texts, Nazgol Afsahi

Digitized Theses

Employing a Foucauldian discourse analysis, this thesis examines knowledge produced about transsexuality and sex reassignment surgery (SRS) through the fields of medical, legal and news texts. I explore key shifts in Western feminist, queer and trans approaches to sex/gender and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual o f Mental Disorders’ pathologization of gender-variance in the Gender Identity Disorder diagnosis. I also undertake a case study of trans marriages prior to Bill C-38, and the Ontario Vital Statistics Act’s reliance on medical proof in change of sex designation requests. Finally, I analyze seventy-seven texts from The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, …

‘Killer Vacations’ And ‘Murder Music’: The Discourses Of Gay Identity, Consumerism, And Race In The Gay-Dancehall Confrontation, James Rogers

Digitized Theses

Using Foucaultian discourse analysis, this thesis examines the discursive practices of Anglo- American gay activists who respond to the homophobie lyrics and violence of Jamaican dancehall music and culture. Since the early 1990s, gay activists in North America and the United Kingdom have mobilized in opposition to the graphic anti-gay violence in Jamaican popular culture. While much has been written about the metaphor, performativity, and symbolic violence in dancehall music, there is a paucity of scholarship that analyzes the discourse of gay activists who, in taking aim at dancehall homophobia, arguably produce the framework in which dancehall is meaningfully discussed. …

“From Canada. For The World”: National Myth And The Canadian Museum For Human Rights, Brendan Mcgeagh

Digitized Theses

On April 20, 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced plans for a new national institution, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR). This announcement was swiftly followed by amendments to the Museums Act, and a unanimous Parliamentary endorsement of the museum. It is from here that the questions of my thesis arise: What notion of “human rights” is being evoked and promoted by the CMHR? How does this national human rights museum both lean upon and support national identity? And, how does the museum’s version of human rights generate definitions of citizenship and responsibility? Much human rights activism is at …

‘Killer Vacations’ And ‘Murder Music’: The Discourses Of Gay Identity, Consumerism, And Race In The Gay-Dancehall Confrontation, James Rogers

Digitized Theses

Using Foucaultian discourse analysis, this thesis examines the discursive practices of AngloAmerican gay activists who respond to the homophobic lyrics and violence of Jamaican dancehall music and culture. Since the early 1990s, gay activists in North America and the United Kingdom have mobilized in opposition to the graphic anti-gay violence in Jamaican popular culture. While much has been written about the metaphor, performativity, and symbolic violence in dancehall music, there is a paucity of scholarship that analyzes the discourse of gay activists who, in taking aim at dancehall homophobia, arguably produce the framework in which dancehall is meaningfully discussed. My …

Security And Belonging: Reconceptualising Aboriginal Spatial Mobilities In Yamatji Country, Western Australia, Sarah Prout

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

Since British colonisation of Australia began, Aboriginal mobility practices have been poorly understood within the Anglo-Australian consciousnesses. This paper examines current discourses and conceptualisations of Aboriginal mobilities in Yamatji country, Western Australia. Finding none of these explanations and interpretations singularly sufficient to encompass the diverse spatial practices of Aboriginal people in the region, the paper proposes an alternative framework for interpreting and understanding these population dynamics. The central tenet of this reconceptualisation is that contemporary Aboriginal spati- alities – including spatial distribution, movements, and immobility – are iteratively shaped by the processes of procuring, contesting, and cultivating security and belonging. …

Persepolis Gone? Theorigins, Developmentandpraxisofayatollahkhomeini's Islamic-Nationalistnarrative (1979-1989), Jonathan Robert Eeuwes

Digitized Theses

A critical investigation of the question: what were the origins, development and implementation of Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamic-nationalist narrative? How did he manage to take discursive control of the 1979 Revolution, and allow Khomeini to implement his version of Islamic Government? To answer this question this thesis will look at Khomeini’s use of a Shi’a “battle myth” in order to frame the revolution as an “Islamic act” of rebellion against an unjust power. In addition, Khomeini’s political theory of Veleyat-e Faqih, its origins, structure, development and potential problems will also be studied, in order to analyze how Khomeini influenced the

creation …

Tease Of The New Earthdivers: Following Native Narrative In Search Of New Identities, Gerald P. Mckinley

Digitized Theses

This thesis aims to trace the role of contemporary Native narratives in the creation of a new Native identity after the liquidation of the indian simulation. Originating in a language theory that is based both on words as representative signs and as casual I seek to explore how contemporary Native authors are blending their specific community’s oral traditions together with contemporary Western theory. Of primary concern is how Native authors are appropriating Western theory for their own use rather than depending on Western discourse for meaning. I examine the role of Trickster Discourse in upending the invented indian simulation and …