Motivation to study in Higher Education:a comparison between Germany and Great Britain

This article deals with reasons for the motivation to study in higher education. To find out about motives, around 200 A-level students in Germany and Great Britain were asked about their plans for the time after completion of their A-levels. Through socio-demographic data the authors could deploy facts about social backgrounds and the affiliations to socio-economic classes. There are some expected findings (e.g., British A-level students are more likely to study than their German comrades) and some pretty unexpected results (e.g., social classes do not seem to divide students into choosing university or not).

The making of an ideology of the third way:the evolution of christian democracy in Germany (with special reference to 1945-49)

This study investigates the search for the third way in the history of German Christian Democracy. Today, in the United Kingdom, the 'third way' is seen as a new phenomenon, a synthesis of post-war belief in the welfare state and neo-liberal conservatism. Yet it insufficiently acknowledges that the origins of third way thinking, the marriage of social justice with free market economics, of individualism with collective responsibility, are found in the early philosophies of Catholic Social Theory and Protestant Social Ethical Teaching in Germany. This study shows that in the hundred years from the 1840s to the end of the 1940s, there were Catholic and Protestant socio-ethical thinkers and political reformists in Germany who attempted to bridge the philosophical differences between liberalism and socialism, to develop a socio-economic order based on Christian moral values. It will focus on the period 1945-1949, when the CDU was founded as the first interdenominational, Christian party. The study provides the first comprehensive account of the political debates in Christian democratic groups in the Soviet, British, French and American allied occupied zones, also giving equal attention to the contribution from the Protestant wing, alongside the more widely acknowledged role of Catholics in the birth of the CDU. It examines how Christian Democrats envisaged correcting the aberrations of German history, by uniting all social classes and Christian religions in one all-embracing Volkspartei, and transforming party politics from its earlier obsession with sectarian and ideological interests towards a more pragmatic 'third way' programme. The study argues that through the making of its ideology, the CDU modified the nation's understanding of its history, re-interpreted its traditions, and redefined the meaning and perception of established political philosophies. This reveals how the ambiguity of political terminology, and the flexible practice of 'third way' politics, were an invaluable political resource in the CDU's campaign for unity, ideological legitimisation and political power.

Ecfrasis: Escritura y pintura en el costumbrismo argentino

This dissertation examines the discursive practice of Argentine costumbrista texts from a novel perspective. In (re)reading the works of selected prominent writers from the late colonial period to the end of the Nineteenth Century, including those of Alonso Carrió de la Vandera, Emeric Essex Vidal, León Pallière, Lucio Vicente López, Lucio V. Mansilla, and Pastor Obligado we focus on the presence of ekphrastic enunciations with a view toward linking the plastic, painterly dimensions of the prose to parallel representations by artists of the same period. Thus the costumbristas are studied in tandem with the watercolors, oil paintings and lithographic compositions of artists such as Carlos Enrique Pellegrim, César Hipólito Bacle, Raymond Monvoisin and Hipólito Moulin. The resulting comparative study of the two arts---the verbal and the pictorial---illustrates the notion described by W. J. T. Mitchell that a literary text may well "represent a work of visual or graphic art." And thus, it provides us with visual, spatial motifs that enhance its powers of representation. ^ In developing our focus on ekphrastic representations we have followed the theoretic studies of Murray Krieger, Jean H. Hagstrum, James Hefferman, John Hollander, W. J. T. Mitchell, Johann Gottfried Herder, and Wendy Steiner among others, all of whom in various ways take their cue from Horace's Ut pictura poesis and the notion that poetry, that is literary discourse, can be likened to a panting and that in both arts there is a refractive quality that makes literature a spoken vehicle of expression and painting a silent, complementary voice. ^ In studying the literary and plastic discourses comparatively what becomes evident is that they share cultural and ideological concerns that center around the notion of self-definition, national identity, and the relation of the individual to the incipient national community (Benedict Anderson). These concerns are highlighted via the depiction of customs, mores, dress, work habits, professions, and social classes. In late colonial literature and painting and especially in the Nineteenth Century, which constitutes the defining period of Argentine political independence, the confluence of the two disciplinary discourses addresses, and underscores the issues of socio-political empowerment in the new Argentine nation. ^

El discurso costumbrista colombiano del siglo XIX: Instrumento ideológico idealizado

Based on critical ideas from Michel Foucault, Benedict Anderson and Doris Sommer, this study analyzes the nation building function of the article of custom and manners and its literary mode "costumbrismo" in the Colombian literature of the 19th and beginning of the 20 th centuries. The discursive techniques and devices used in " costumbrismo" were put into effect by the Colombian intelligentsia to create a sense of national identity. Authors like, Ricardo Silva, José Caicedo Rojas, José David Guarín, Ignacio Gutiérrez Vergara, Eugenio Díaz, Juan de Dios Restrepo, José María Vergara y Vergara, Jorge Isaacs, José Eustaquio Palacios, José Manuel Marroquín, Tomás Carrasquilla, and José Eustasio Rivera became detailed observers that sometimes criticized and at other times just described customs and manners of different social classes and institutions. Through journalistic and literary discourse depicting regional customs and manners, these regionalist writers pretended to provide an objective and actual image of Colombian society, articulating, instead, a subjective message which expressed and reinforced their particular sense of nation based on a liberal or conservative political agenda. This discourse was used to shape the ideology of the republic thorough the idealization of a particular view of the nation.

Class in Classrooms: The Challenges Public Librarians Face as Border Crossing Educators

In border crossing pedagogy, educators help students negotiate identity and cultural issues. Public librarians help special populations of patrons improve on class issues through education. This study explored the issues public librarians face when they teach and border cross across social classes.

Essays in economic growth, political economy and institutions

This dissertation analyzes the effects of political and economic institutions on economic development and growth.^ The first essay develops an overlapping-generations political economy model to analyze the incentives of various social groups to finance human capital accumulation through public education expenditures. The contribution of this study to the literature is that it helps explain the observed differences in the economic growth performance of natural resource-abundant countries. The results suggest that the preferred tax rates of the manufacturers on one hand and the political coalition of manufacturers and landowners, on the other hand, are equal to the socially optimal tax rate. However, we show that owners of natural resources prefer an excessively high tax rate, which suppresses aggregate output to a suboptimal level.^ The second essay examines the relationship between the political influence of different social classes and public education spending in panel data estimation. The novel contribution of this paper to the literature is that I proxy the political power and influence of the natural resource owners, manufacturers, and landowners with macroeconomic indicators. The motivation behind this modeling choice is to substantiate the definition of the political power of social classes with economic fundamentals. I use different governance indicators in the estimations to find out how different institutions mediate the overall impact of the political influence of various social classes on public education spending. The results suggest that political stability and absence of violence and rule of law are the important governance indicators.^ The third essay develops a counter argument to Acemoglu et al. (2010) where the thesis is that French institutions and economic reforms fostered economic progress in those German regions invaded by the Napoleonic armies. By providing historical data on urbanization rates used as proxies for economic growth, I demonstrate that similar different rates of economic growth were observed in the regions of France in the post-Napoleonic period as well. The existence of different economic growth rates makes it hard to argue that the differences in economic performance in the German regions that were invaded by the French and those that were spared a similar fate follow from regional differences in economic institutions.^

Da casa grande ao condomínio fechado: o que mudou nas formas e modos de morar da família intergeracional no Nordeste e Sudeste do Brasil?

The focus of this study is to draw attention to the intergenerational family’s lifestyles and their various ways of cohabitation, in special to those families which are made by individuals of different generations, these families being constituted of, two or more individuals, or, two or more smaller families, which live under the same roof and have the elderly person as referential in their cohabitation. In those types of families, as for their ways of organization, it is interesting to note that the researches and productions done by inner architects and inner designers do not include this type of family arrangement because their studies do not cover this kind of structuralization nor was this type of organization put together with any of the ways of cohabitation. Therefore there is a theoretical concept void which is propositional, interventional and does not relate to the empirical reality. In observation to these remarks, the research starts a theoretic challenge of deconstruct or reconstruct our modern only habitational template, which is used today in all families configurations which out any regards to where this template will be used, unfitting to the intergenerational families who have elders. This study is then meant to give an differential analysis of the various domestic space’s templates in regards to the new families formats, their basic and special necessities, the home identities of those families which indicates the differential gap in housing and lifestyle from the higher social classes in comparison to the lower social classes. The interdisciplinary method was chosen in order to describe arrangements found in the lifestyles and the ways of cohabitation of the intergenerational families, this method is used for its knowledge base that better articulates the procedure method and the inductive reflexive approach made possible after an qualitative research. In order to accomplish that, an geographical space which tow real possibilities was selected, that is, the space where the people of great social and anthropological proximity are concentrated and the people which are the researcher kinships and friends, in between those are the habitants of Capim Macio’s, Candelária’s, Tirol’s and Petrópolis’s, neighborhoods, located in the south west zone of her home city Natal. It has been noticed that, meanwhile these intergenerational spaces do not claim their said spaces, because of their habits, necessities and relations in between generations and gender, their arrangements of said space are extremely creative. That means that alterations in the concepts of planning, construction and utilization of built spaces are imperative.

Da casa grande ao condomínio fechado: o que mudou nas formas e modos de morar da família intergeracional no Nordeste e Sudeste do Brasil?

The focus of this study is to draw attention to the intergenerational family’s lifestyles and their various ways of cohabitation, in special to those families which are made by individuals of different generations, these families being constituted of, two or more individuals, or, two or more smaller families, which live under the same roof and have the elderly person as referential in their cohabitation. In those types of families, as for their ways of organization, it is interesting to note that the researches and productions done by inner architects and inner designers do not include this type of family arrangement because their studies do not cover this kind of structuralization nor was this type of organization put together with any of the ways of cohabitation. Therefore there is a theoretical concept void which is propositional, interventional and does not relate to the empirical reality. In observation to these remarks, the research starts a theoretic challenge of deconstruct or reconstruct our modern only habitational template, which is used today in all families configurations which out any regards to where this template will be used, unfitting to the intergenerational families who have elders. This study is then meant to give an differential analysis of the various domestic space’s templates in regards to the new families formats, their basic and special necessities, the home identities of those families which indicates the differential gap in housing and lifestyle from the higher social classes in comparison to the lower social classes. The interdisciplinary method was chosen in order to describe arrangements found in the lifestyles and the ways of cohabitation of the intergenerational families, this method is used for its knowledge base that better articulates the procedure method and the inductive reflexive approach made possible after an qualitative research. In order to accomplish that, an geographical space which tow real possibilities was selected, that is, the space where the people of great social and anthropological proximity are concentrated and the people which are the researcher kinships and friends, in between those are the habitants of Capim Macio’s, Candelária’s, Tirol’s and Petrópolis’s, neighborhoods, located in the south west zone of her home city Natal. It has been noticed that, meanwhile these intergenerational spaces do not claim their said spaces, because of their habits, necessities and relations in between generations and gender, their arrangements of said space are extremely creative. That means that alterations in the concepts of planning, construction and utilization of built spaces are imperative.

O comportamento eleitoral da nova classe trabalhadora no Rio Grande do Norte 2014: ideologia, avaliação de governo e voto

This thesis investigates the voting behavior of the fractions of the new working class in Rio Grande do Norte, more specifically in the cities of Natal, Mossoró and Caicó, from the presidential election of 2014. This research examined the ideology, the evaluation of government and guidance the vote of a portion of the working classes of RN voters. In Brazil, from 2003, socio-economic change has occurred perceptibly, especially in a part of the working classes who ascended socially and switched to the "C economic class." Thus, there was this period, a significant expansion of this social stratum. The expansion of the "class C" in the past decade in Brazil raised the academic debate and in the media about the emergence of a "new middle class". Neri (2008) termed the "class C" of the "new middle class" and that will be the central part of their studies. But the debate on the "new middle class" can not be simplistic to the point of considering that social mobility, the main variable income, entered this segment of the population in the middle class, because it has different specificities of the popular classes. To understand this phenomenon, the income variable was outdated, adding the importance of ownership of the means of production, control of labor power and the symbolic values in the division of social classes resulting in three fractions of the new working class: the management positions, non-heads and small fighters. In this study, using as a complement to the sociological approach (ideologies and social classes) and the performance evaluation was identified that the new working class (heads) mainly reproduced the ideological and political positioning of the middle class, resulting in the rejection of PT governments (2003-2014) and it’s social, compensatory and redistributive policies. From what has been seen, the new working class (chiefs) approaches the ideological and political behavior of the middle class that will reflect in their electoral choices and class interests. The new working class (not heads and small fighters who voted in the situation) because of its classist and ideological interests approached the Workers' Party positively evaluating the Lula-Dilma governments (2003-2014) due to the implementation of compensatory policies, and redistributive programs government turned to the popular classes. In a counterpoint, the voters of the new working class (not heads and small fighters) who voted null, reproduced the discourse of mainstream media and the middle class about the rejection of compensatory policies, redistribution and government programs of Lula-Dilma governments, and consequently they disapproved of the government Dilma and her candidacy.

A nursery for seamen: life histories from the St. John's Royal Naval Hospital Cemetery, Newfoundland

A cemetery associated with the St. John’s Royal Naval Hospital, NL (~1725-1825) was partially excavated in 1979, uncovering the skeletal remains of at least 21 individuals. Isotopic analyses (δ¹³Cvpdb, δ¹⁵Nair, δ¹⁸Ovpdb, and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) were used to examine the diet and geographic origins of these individuals and compare them with recent results from other British Naval cemeteries. Their origins according to enamel carbonates and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr are mainly consistent with the British Isles and the bone collagen values were largely consistent with naval rations. There was some variability in δ¹⁵Nair and δ¹³Cvpdb values, suggesting different social classes and the consumption of C₄ foods associated with North America. While this study has highlighted deficiencies in the ability of isotopic analyses to define the variability within naval rations, it is the first to examine origins of early modern naval sailors isotopically, as well as the experiences of these sailors within the context of Newfoundland.

When Consumption Embraces Faith: How Religious Beliefs and Practices Influence Consumption

Marketers have long looked for observables that could explain differences in consumer behavior. Initial attempts have centered on demographic factors, such as age, gender, and race. Although such variables are able to provide some useful information for segmentation (Bass, Tigert, and Longdale 1968), more recent studies have shown that variables that tap into consumers’ social classes and personal values have more predictive accuracy and also provide deeper insights into consumer behavior. I argue that one demographic construct, religion, merits further consideration as a factor that has a profound impact on consumer behavior. In this dissertation, I focus on two types of religious guidance that may influence consumer behaviors: religious teachings (being content with one’s belongings), and religious problem-solving styles (reliance on God).

Essay 1 focuses on the well-established endowment effect and introduces a new moderator (religious teachings on contentment) that influences both owner and buyers’ pricing behaviors. Through fifteen experiments, I demonstrate that when people are primed with religion or characterized by stronger religious beliefs, they tend to value their belongings more than people who are not primed with religion or who have weaker religious beliefs. These effects are caused by religious teachings on being content with one’s belongings, which lead to the overvaluation of one’s own possessions.

Essay 2 focuses on self-control behaviors, specifically healthy eating, and introduces a new moderator (God’s role in the decision-making process) that determines the relationship between religiosity and the healthiness of food choices. My findings demonstrate that consumers who indicate that they defer to God in their decision-making make unhealthier food choices as their religiosity increases. The opposite is true for consumers who rely entirely on themselves. Importantly, this relationship is mediated by the consumer’s consideration of future consequences. This essay provides an explanation to the existing mixed findings on the relationship between religiosity and obesity.

Le pilocentrisme de la France d’Ancien Régime : évolution des représentations de la pilosité de François 1er à Louis XVI

Thèse réalisée en cotutelle avec la direction de Jean-Jacques Courtine à l'Université de Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle sous la discipline anthropologie et avec la direction de Dominique Deslandres à l'Université de Montréal sous la discipline histoire

La identidad latinoamericana: una perspectiva desde las clases sociales

Se analizan las identidades latinoamericanas desde un enfoque de las clases y de la lucha de clases, situándose más allá de la bipolaridad clásica burguesía-proletariado y se incorporan una visión heterogénea de las clases sociales. En este debate se articulan dos lógicas elementales: la de la explotación y la de la opresión /dominación que, al vincular los fundamentos de clase con los étnicos, dan un perfil y una resiliencia de lucha particular al continente, que quizás no ocurre en otra región del mundo. La tesis sustentada es que la lucha de clases continúa, mediante movimientos sociales que luchan por diversas reivindicaciones y que asumen el papel de “nuevo sujeto histórico con pretensiones de toma del poder, como en el caso de Bolivia. Abstract The article analyzes the Latin America identities from the class and class struggle approach placing them beyond the classic bipolarity “bourgeoisie-proletariat” and incorporates a heterogeneous vision of the social classes. This debate articulates two elementary logics; the logic of exploitation and the logic of oppression-domination that by linking the fundaments of class with the ethnic give a particular profile and a particular strength fight to the continent that might not be present in other regions of the world. The idea that the article defends and proposes is that the class struggle continues through social movements that fight for several grievances and these movements assume the role of the “new historical subject” who tends to take power as it is the case in Bolivia.

Unmet health needs in patients with coronary heart disease: implications and potential for improvement in caring services

BACKGROUND: Improving the quality of health care services requires tailoring facilities to fulfil patients' needs. Satisfying patients' healthcare needs, listening to patients' opinions and building a closer provider-user partnership are central to the NHS. Few published studies have discussed cardiovascular patients' health needs, but they are not comprehensive and fail to explore the contribution of outcome to needs assessment. METHOD: A comprehensive self-administered health needs assessment (HNA) questionnaire was developed for concomitant use with generic (Short Form-12 and EuroQOL) and specific (Seattle Angina Questionnaire) health-related quality of life (HRQL) instruments on 242 patients admitted to the Acute Cardiac Unit, Nottingham. RESULTS: 38% reported difficulty accessing health facilities, 56% due to transport and 32% required a travelling companion. Mean HRQOL scores were lower in those living alone (P < 0.05) or who reported unsatisfactory accommodation. Dissatisfaction with transport affected patients' ease of access to healthcare facilities (P < 0.001). Younger patients (<65 y) were more likely to be socially isolated (P = 0.01). Women and patients with chronic disease were more likely to be concerned about housework (P < 0.05). Over 65 s (p < 0.05) of higher social classes (p < 0.01) and greater physical needs (p < 0.001) had more social needs, correlating moderately (0.32 < r < 0.63) with all HRQL domains except SAQ-AS. Several HRQL components were highly correlated with the HNA physical score (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Patients wanted more social (suitable accommodation, companionship, social visits) and physical (help aids, access to healthcare services, house work) support. The construct validity and intra-class reliability of the HNA tool were confirmed. Our results indicate a gap between patients' health needs and available services, highlighting potential areas for improvement in the quality of services

Formación profesional y desigualdad de oportunidades educativas por clase

Tras un repaso a las reflexiones sociológicas sobre la FP y su relación con el origen socioeconómico y el género, así como su plasmación en los debates de política educativa en España, mostramos las tasas de estudiantes o graduados de FP a los 19 y 20 años según clase social de origen y género, desde los nacidos en 1957 hasta 1992. Durante todo este periodo, la desigualdad de oportunidades sociales en el acceso a la FP ha permanecido más bien constante por clase social mientras que ha disminuido por género a partir de las personas nacidas en 1961, pero en mayor medida en las nacidas después de 1970. Los datos muestran que la reforma introducida por la LOGSE, que endureció los requisitos académicos para cursar FP, disminuyó la probabilidad de cursar FP en todas las clases sociales, y que es posible que haya perjudicado en mayor medida a la clase obrera que al resto de clases. Por otro lado, las mujeres cuya familia social de origen pertenece a las clases intermedias optan en menor medida por los estudios de FP que lo que cabría esperar por su género y por su clase social.