A Foucaultian analysis of power relations in child protection case work with youth and families

This thesis takes some steps in examining the child protection system from a position that is rarely discussed. Specifically, I explore how Foucault's concept of disciplinary power can be used to demonstrate how power operates within the client/worker relationship. This relationship is shown to be quite complex with power flowing bidirectionally, rather than hierarchically. Instead of viewing power imbalances as a function of state control, I show how the client/worker relationship is constituted by the worker, the client, the organization and the social body. A postmodern auto ethnography is used to document my journey as I expose the disciplinary practices and instruments that I was subject to and used with my clients. 2 Given that the child protection system is constantly shifting and changing in order to improve its ability to safeguard children a greater emphasis is required to examine how workers operate within this complex, overwhelming and multi-dimensional world. This thesis has shown that by engaging in a reflexive examination of my position of power different approaches to making intervention beneficial to all involved become available. This is important if child protection work aims to work with clients rather than on clients.

"I might be a duck, but I'm human" : an analysis of clothing in Disney cartoons

Mickey Mouse, one of the world's most recognizable cartoon characters, did not wear a shirt in his earliest incarnation in theatrical shorts and, for many years, Donald Duck did not wear pants and still rarely does so. Especially when one considers the era in which these figures were first created by the Walt Disney Studio, in the 1920s and 1930s, why are they portrayed without full clothing? The obvious answer, of course, is that they are animals, and animals do not wear clothes. But these are no ordinary animals: in most cases, they do wear clothing - some clothing, at least - and they walk on two legs, talk in a more or less intelligible fashion, and display a number of other anthropomorphic traits. If they are essentially animals, why do they wear clothing at all? On the other hand, if these characters are more human than animal, as suggested by other behavioral traits - they walk, talk, work, read, and so on - why are they not more often fully clothed? To answer these questions I undertook three major research strategies used to gather evidence: interpretive textual analysis of 321 cartoons; secondary analysis of interviews conducted with the animators who created the Disney characters; and historical and archival research on the Disney Company and on the times and context in which it functioned. I was able to identify five themes that played a large part in what kind of clothing a character wore; first, the character's gender and/or sexuality; second, what species or "race" the character was; third, the character's socio-economic status; fourth, the degree to which the character was anthropomorphized; and, fifth, the context in which the character and its clothing appeared in a particular scene or narrative. I concluded that all of these factors played a part in determining, to some extent, the clothing worn by particular characters at particular times. However, certain patterns emerged from the analysis that could not be explained by these factors alone or in combination. Therefore, my analysis also investigates the individual and collective attitudes and desires of the men in the Disney studio who were responsible for creating these characters and the cultural conditions under which they were created. Drawing on literature from the psychoanalytic approach to film studies, I argue that the clothing choices spoke to an idealized fantasy world to which the animators (most importantly, Walt Disney himself), and possibly wider society, wanted to return.

Scales, networks and uncertainty : an examination of environmental policy-making in Ontario

Through a case-study analysis of Ontario's ethanol policy, this thesis addresses a number of themes that are consequential to policy and policy-making: spatiality, democracy and uncertainty. First, I address the 'spatial debate' in Geography pertaining to the relevance and affordances of a 'scalar' versus a 'flat' ontoepistemology. I argue that policy is guided by prior arrangements, but is by no means inevitable or predetermined. As such, scale and network are pragmatic geographical concepts that can effectively address the issue of the spatiality of policy and policy-making. Second, I discuss the democratic nature of policy-making in Ontario through an examination of the spaces of engagement that facilitate deliberative democracy. I analyze to what extent these spaces fit into Ontario's environmental policy-making process, and to what extent they were used by various stakeholders. Last, I take seriously the fact that uncertainty and unavoidable injustice are central to policy, and examine the ways in which this uncertainty shaped the specifics of Ontario's ethanol policy. Ultimately, this thesis is an exercise in understanding sub-national environmental policy-making in Canada, with an emphasis on how policy-makers tackle the issues they are faced with in the context of environmental change, political-economic integration, local priorities, individual goals, and irreducible uncertainty.

Social competence following mild head injury and moderate traumatic brain injury: Investigating the neuropsychological relationships between arousal, social decision-making and depression

Client-directed long-term rehabilitative goals and life satisfaction following head injury emphasize the importance of social inclusion, rather than cognitive or physical, outcomes. However, very little research has explored the socio-emotional factors that pose as barriers to social reintegration following injury. This study investigates social barriers following head injury (i.e., decision-making - Iowa Gambling Task [IGT] and mood – depression) and possible amelioration of those challenges (through treatment) in both highly functioning university students with and without mild head injury (MHI) and in individuals with moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI). An arousal manipulation using emotionally evocative stimuli was introduced to manipulate the subject’s physiological arousal state. Seventy-five university students (37.6% reporting a MHI) and 11 patients with documented moderate TBI were recruited to participate in this quasi-experimental study. Those with head injury were found to be physiologically underaroused (on measures of electrodermal activation [EDA] and pulse) and were less sensitive to the negative effects of punishment (i.e., losses) in the gambling task than those without head injury, with greater impairment being observed for the moderate TBI group. The arousal manipulation, while effective, was not able to maintain a higher state of arousal in the injury groups across trials (i.e., their arousal state returned to pre-manipulation levels more quickly than their non-injured cohort), and, subsequently, a performance improvement was not observed on the IGT. Lastly, head injury was found to contribute to the relationship between IGT performance and depressive symptom acknowledgment and mood status in persons with head injury. This study indicates the possible important role of physiological arousal on socio- emotional behaviours (decision-making, mood) in persons with even mild, non-complicated head injuries and across the injury severity continuum.