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Browsing by Subject "families"

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  • At Home With Entertainment : Changing uses, places and meanings of digital entertainment in family leisure 
    Tiilikainen, Sanna (2013)
    This study describes how the families studied use and domesticate digital entertainment technologies and services at home as a part of their practices. Data were collected using fieldwork and analyzed using grounded theory. A total of eight families with children were visited, for one weekday afternoon each. During the visits, each family member was interviewed and their use of entertainment was observed and photographed. Family members also completed some assignments. Motivations for use and relevant technological development factors found were classified into key categories, and relationships between these were recognized to form theory on family digital entertainment use at home. The theory is presented as a flowchart and a narrative. The results are integrated with sociological theories and research on domestication and practices. The results of this theoretical integration are presented as a second flowchart model and a narrative. The findings are also compared with user acceptance models from other disciplines. The research question of this study is: 'How do families with children use digital entertainment at home?' The main results are that families with children use digital entertainment at home in a socially conditioned way and as a part of their everyday practices. Family members have to take others living in the same household into account when making choices. Recent developmental advances in entertainment technology (ease of use and personalization) enable new ways of using entertainment at home, encouraging the social and practical aspects of digital entertainment. Uses, places and meanings of entertainment at home are evolving. Digital entertainment technologies are becoming a part of a technology mediated lifestyle. New and traditional forms of entertainment are used side by side at home and in many creative ways. The studied families are spending quality time together in two ways: in 'Traditional quality time' everybody focuses on the same entertainment and in 'Personalized quality time' everybody is using their entertainment device of choice in a shared space while commenting on the content. Entertainment that fits into the practices of a family is called 'part of our life' and its use is actively encouraged. Forms of entertainment that do not fit the practices of a family are rejected.
  • Tragic Visions, Maddening Worry : an investigation into the worldview and social position of caregivers 
    Huber, Calle (2020)
    This master's thesis concerns the situation of caregivers with a family member diagnosed with one or more mental disorders or illnesses. Research material was gathered for the purpose of the thesis primarily through participant observation and secondarily through loosely structured interviews. The gathering of the research material took place in conjunction with a peer support group meeting for caregivers. The analysis conducted within the thesis is based on the work of the sociologist Lucien Goldmann and that of the scholar of literature Richard Halpern and could be characterized as an inquiry into the presuppositions determining the outlook of caregivers as a group within the wider context of society. In the course of this analysis the work of Michel Foucault is also discussed, with the position argued for in the thesis being partially compatible with his engagement with the subject of madness. The thesis also draws on examples taken from the study of literature and drama to develop its argument. While the thesis is concerned mainly with giving a broad picture of the quandaries faced by caregivers in contemporary society it takes as its point of departure the accounts given by the caregivers themselves, this called for an approach that was capable of teasing out the basic conditions determining or enabling the outlook or worldview of this group. As the thesis is mainly concerned with the more difficult, contradictory and fraught aspects of the situation caregivers find themselves in it was also necessary to perform an in-depth analysis of such concepts as those of tragedy, death and madness in order for me to be able to explore the aforementioned issues. The aim of the thesis is to offer an outline of certain difficulties faced by sociologists interested in the themes of madness, intelligibility, action and meaning. As such it constitutes more of an overview of the challenges faced by anyone interested in the subjects in question, it should not be read as offering any concrete conclusions.

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