Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Sociology

Western University

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Canada

Articles 1 - 17 of 17

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Syrian Refugee Place Attachment And Place Making In Ottawa, On, Kiran Va Unger-Basappa Aug 2023

Syrian Refugee Place Attachment And Place Making In Ottawa, On, Kiran Va Unger-Basappa

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

How can Syrian refugees’ feelings of attachment towards places and spaces in Ottawa, ON be used to indicate their own sense of integration into Canadian society? Exploring research participants’ place attachments to the city of Ottawa enables a greater understanding of their lived geographies that either hinder or elevate their integration experience. The mixed-method data collection used in this research study include an online qualitative survey, in-depth interviews, and a mental mapping exercise. The analysis of the data is based upon five factors of place attachment used to define integration. These are comfort, security, relationships, involvement, and rootedness. …


Finding Azadi: South Asian Canadian Women’S Experiences Of Sexual Well-Being, Syna Thakur Mar 2023

Finding Azadi: South Asian Canadian Women’S Experiences Of Sexual Well-Being, Syna Thakur

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Eighteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with cisgender women, age 20-40, and their shared experiences were compiled into two narrative composites. This study is informed by an intersectional-life course framework, exploring sexuality as a site of shifting power relations at the micro-, meso-, and macro-levels of participants' lives. This study identifies five predominant sexual constructions that South Asian Canadian women understand and experience over time. It also identifies five predominant strategies used by women to maintain a personally meaningful sexual life (sexual well-being). Participants’ fluctuating sexual well-being involving active negotiation of the relationship to one’s body, identities (including ethnoracial and religious …


A Feminist Analysis Of The Impact Of Covid-19 On Olympic Female Athletes From Canada And The People’S Republic Of China, Dongwan He Oct 2022

A Feminist Analysis Of The Impact Of Covid-19 On Olympic Female Athletes From Canada And The People’S Republic Of China, Dongwan He

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Gender equality in sports acquired unprecedented discussion in the past few decades with the efforts of sports organizations such as the United Nations (UN), athletes, professionals, and scholars worldwide. Girls’ participation, women’s media representation, participation of transgender athletes, equal opportunity, equal pay, etc. drew attention and awareness successfully. However, the outbreak of COVID-19 has been limiting the achievement of women in sports due to the cancellation of sports events, postponement of the Olympic Games, stay-at-home orders in lockdown, and restrictions on health measurements. This study utilized methods of semi-structured interviews, media analysis, and comparative analysis to examine the barriers faced …


The Places We'll Go: Rural Migration In Canada, Lindsay Finlay Aug 2022

The Places We'll Go: Rural Migration In Canada, Lindsay Finlay

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

As Canada increases immigration rates, there is a greater need for geographic dispersion to counteract issues of population aging and economic disparities. Historically, Canada’s main Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs) have experienced the greatest gains in terms of immigrant recruitment and retention. The problem, however, is that this leaves rural regions falling behind in terms of both population increases and overall development. As such, understanding the characteristics of both rural movers and residents is of utmost importance, especially in regard to potential policy initiatives aimed at ensuring newcomers to Canada are evenly distributed across the country. This study adds to the …


Immigrant’S Personal Network In The Integration Process: A Case Study Of Ghanaian Immigrants’ In The Toronto Census Metropolitan Area, Emmanuel Kojo Kyeremeh Dec 2020

Immigrant’S Personal Network In The Integration Process: A Case Study Of Ghanaian Immigrants’ In The Toronto Census Metropolitan Area, Emmanuel Kojo Kyeremeh

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation focuses on the integration of recent immigrants in receiving societies by analyzing their personal networks' contribution to this process. Although migration studies have stressed the importance of relationships or im/migrant networks in different spatial contexts, gaps exist in understanding this phenomenon. Specifically, studies on immigrants' networks' structure and composition that indicate their integration level in the host society is missing within the literature. This research, therefore, contributes to our understanding of personal networks. It considers the structure of immigrants’ network by examining the role of their migration project and context of reception towards developing ties in the host …


Cannabis For Therapeutic Purposes: Older Adult Perspectives, User Characteristics And Motivations For Use, Lean Fiedeldey Dec 2020

Cannabis For Therapeutic Purposes: Older Adult Perspectives, User Characteristics And Motivations For Use, Lean Fiedeldey

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Use of cannabis among adults 55 years of age and older is increasing. In Q4 of 2018, slightly over half of cannabis users used for therapeutic purposes at least once, where many reported using for both medical and non-medical reasons (mixed use). Research on older adults regarding the use of Cannabis for Therapeutic Purposes (CTP) is fragmented and there are no comprehensive or in-depth studies on their perceptions or self-reported motivations. Understanding in these areas is important to inform policy that takes the protection of public health and safety as central aims. Does policy affect one of, if not both, …


Organizational Change, Work Conditions And Professional Learning, A Case Study Of Nurses In Ontario, Elise Mcclenaghan Nov 2020

Organizational Change, Work Conditions And Professional Learning, A Case Study Of Nurses In Ontario, Elise Mcclenaghan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In professions, lifelong learning is essential to providing quality and safe services. Certain working conditions, including work intensification due to rationalization and organizational change, may inhibit professionals’ ability to learn on the job. This study adds to the literature surrounding informal learning that occurs on and off the job by exploring the impact working conditions and workplace change have on learning behaviours for nurses in Ontario, through the analysis of survey data. For a sample of nurses working in Ontario in 2016 it is found through a regression analysis that certain working conditions like experiencing discrimination, participating in policy related …


Capturing The Diversity Within Canadian Families, Kathya Aathavan Aug 2019

Capturing The Diversity Within Canadian Families, Kathya Aathavan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Mixed partnerships are unions between two people that cross socially constructed boundaries between groups, particularly race and ethnicity and they are an aspect of diversity within Canadian society. Using the 2006 and 2016 Canadian long-form censuses, I examine mixed unions, measured as partnerships across different visible minority categories and places of birth. I find that there is more diversity within unions than what is captured just using visible minority status. Being highly educated, living in census metropolitan areas, and in same-sex partnerships are predictors of mixed unions indicative of barriers to mixed partnerships possibly being less salient among these groups. …


The Myths That Make Us: An Examination Of Canadian National Identity, Shannon Lodoen Jul 2019

The Myths That Make Us: An Examination Of Canadian National Identity, Shannon Lodoen

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis uses Barthes’ Mythologies as a framework to examine the ways in which the Canadian nation has been mythologized, exploring how this mythologization affects our sense of national identity. Because, as Barthes says, the ultimate goal of myth is to transform history into nature, it is necessary to delve into Canada’s past in order to understand when, why, and how it has become the nation it is today. This will involve tracing some key aspects of Canadian history, society, and pop culture from Canada’s earliest days to current times to uncover the “true origins” of the naturalized, taken-for-granted elements …


Ideology Of Multiculturalism As A Double-Edged Sword: Second-Generation Of Black Jamaicans And Dark-White Portuguese, Esra Ari Apr 2018

Ideology Of Multiculturalism As A Double-Edged Sword: Second-Generation Of Black Jamaicans And Dark-White Portuguese, Esra Ari

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This research examines the interlocking effects of “race” and “class” on the integration of second-generation Jamaicans and Portuguese into Canadian society. Comparing a “visible minority group” (black Jamaicans) with a “non-visible minority group” (Portuguese) controls for the effects of “race,” assisting in the assessment of these two second-generation groups’ degrees of integration. This study uses an historical and critical approach to provide a background for the discussion of this study topic. The main research questions concern the role of multicultural ideology in both cementing social control and in the integration of working-class second-generation Jamaicans and Portuguese into Canada. To address …


Transnational Engagement And Immigrants’ Well-Being In Canada, Jonathan Anim Amoyaw Nov 2016

Transnational Engagement And Immigrants’ Well-Being In Canada, Jonathan Anim Amoyaw

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

After migration, most immigrants do not dissociate themselves from their relational networks in their homeland. Instead, they nourish, reproduce, and maintain ties with their non-migrant relatives and friends by engaging in various forms of transnational activities. Within the transnational paradigm, remittances are central to maintaining transnational relationships. Immigrants’ demonstration of affection and solidarity in the absence of physical propinquity and intimacy is highly contingent on their remittance transfers. Over the years, the motives, determinants, benefits, and consequences of these financial flows on the well-being of recipients in origin communities have been extensively studied. However, the existing literature is mainly informed …


Social Connectedness, Social Support And The Health Of Older Adults: A Comparison Of Immigrant And Native-Born Canadians, Natalie Iciaszczyk Aug 2016

Social Connectedness, Social Support And The Health Of Older Adults: A Comparison Of Immigrant And Native-Born Canadians, Natalie Iciaszczyk

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Considerable research exists on the influence of social relationships for health in old age. However, few studies have compared the associations of social connectedness and social support with the health of older adults. Using data from the CCHS-Healthy Aging, this study examines how these constructs are related to the self-reported health status of immigrant and native-born adults aged 65+. Results show that social connectedness and social support are differently associated with health in later life; whereas connectedness is linked to better health, social support is negatively related with health once levels of social connectedness are considered. Furthermore, these associations hold …


Representations Of Youth Crime In Canada: A Feminist Criminological Analysis Of Statistical Trends, National Canadian Newspapers, And Moral Panics, Jennifer Silcox Jun 2016

Representations Of Youth Crime In Canada: A Feminist Criminological Analysis Of Statistical Trends, National Canadian Newspapers, And Moral Panics, Jennifer Silcox

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This research explores different representations of youth crime in Canada from a feminist criminological and social constructionist perspective. Using a mixed-methods approach that draws upon historical scholarly works, official governmental crime and court statistics, and national Canadian newspapers, I investigate statistical and media representations of youth crime in Canada.

Official crime and court statistics were analyzed to identify trends in youth crime and how they vary by gender and legislative changes. I provide an historical overview of changing definitions of youth, crime and delinquency, and consider how these combined with changing norms regarding morality to shape youth crime legislation in …


A Critical Examination Of Immigrant Integration: Experiences Of Immigrants From Turkey To Canada, Guliz Akkaymak Apr 2016

A Critical Examination Of Immigrant Integration: Experiences Of Immigrants From Turkey To Canada, Guliz Akkaymak

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Drawing upon qualitative interview data, this dissertation critically examines the integration experiences of immigrants from Turkey to Canada, who comprise an understudied immigrant group. I am interested in how immigrants access and develop social networks, how they integrate into the labour market, and how being an immigrant affects their workplace experiences. Relying theoretically on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, I aim to address social inequalities existing among Turkish immigrants in particular and in Canadian society in general.

The first manuscript (Chapter 2) examines immigrants’ intra- and inter-group differences and hierarchies, and their impact on study participants’ access to and development …


Abortion And Crime In Canada: A Test Of The Bmdl Hypothesis, Timothy Kang May 2013

Abortion And Crime In Canada: A Test Of The Bmdl Hypothesis, Timothy Kang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Donohue and Levitt (2001) argued that the legalization of abortion in the US during the 1970s contributed to 50 percent of the dramatic decline in crime that occurred in the 1990s. Although a lengthy debate in the literature has proliferated and remains inconclusive, this controversial theory has been popularized by the Freakonomics (2005) franchise. The liberalization of abortion services that occurred in Canada in 1988 offers an improved focal intervention to perform an empirical test of this theory. The methods that have emerged from the debate are reviewed. The most promising strategies, namely time-series plots of crime, “effective abortion rate” …


Communicating Crimes: Covering Gangs In Contemporary Canadian Journalism, Chris Richardson Jun 2012

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 …


Constructing Categories, Imagining A Nation: A Critical Qualitative Analysis Of Canadian Immigration Discourse, Andrea R. Flynn Jan 2011

Constructing Categories, Imagining A Nation: A Critical Qualitative Analysis Of Canadian Immigration Discourse, Andrea R. Flynn

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Immigration and population diversity are hot topics in Canadian society. Canadian immigration discourses include widespread debates over the value of immigration to Canada, the structure of the immigration program, and the impact of immigrants with ‘non-Canadian’ traditions and practices on Canadian society. Representations deployed in these discourses operate to socially construct the Canadian nation, and symbolically define immigrants’ place in Canada’s national imagined community. The present thesis elaborates on theoretical understandings of the social construction of the Canadian national community in the contemporary era of international migration by providing a qualitative critical discourse analysis of three types of Canadian immigration …