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Browsing by Subject "private"

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  • Bland, Clarice (2018)
    This thesis analyses the position of working-class women in Victorian Spiritualism, and how they transcended class positions using their role as mediums. Spiritualism was a religious movement that was popular in both North America and Europe during the Victorian era, and women were especially important to the movement because of their “innate” connection to the natural and supernatural realms. As the movement primarily focused on communication to and from the spirit world, women acted as intermediaries by using their bodies as “vessels” and through this attained positions of power and respect. Recent scholarship has mostly focused on the contributions of middle-class women towards this movement; however, working-class women were also greatly involved in Spiritualist circles. Working-class women were held to a different societal standard however, due to sexual and moral qualities that had been prescribed upon them by the middle class. There were many working-class women Spiritualists but how they were introduced to the movement and how they operated within it differed to their middle-class peers. This thesis examines why Spiritualism was appealing to working-class women, because they would not have used the movement to gain access to the public sphere (as was the case with middle-class women). Working-class women were already present in the public sphere and thus there must have been another reason why they were drawn to the movement. As is shown in the thesis, many Spiritualists also identified as Socialists; the two movements shared many similarities, including a vision of a utopic future where classes and genders were equal as well as a distrust for the middle-class Christians of their society. Another question examined is how working-class women viewed their own position in Spiritualism, which brings forth issues of agency and consciousness. Through examining sources from the mediums themselves as well as newspapers I am able to construct an understanding that working-class mediums knew that in order to be respected in the Spiritualist community they had to downplay their own involvement as well as emphasize their lack of interest in worldly goods. A portion of this thesis focuses on the differing treatment of public and private mediums – those women who were private mediums were commonly regarded as less likely to be fraudulent and more respected than those who were public – public, in this instance, meaning those mediums who took payment for séances and extended their circle beyond that of their family and friends. Working-class women in Spiritualism remain emblematic of contradictions that were so prevalent in Victorian society – the body of the working-class woman was thought to be her strength and her connection to the spirit realm, but it was only through giving up her agency and acting as a mouthpiece for these spirits was she respected and taken seriously. Research methods I have used include an examination of historical sources, mainly being newspapers, accounts from people present at séances and an autobiography from one of the most prominent mediums of the time. I have also included a brief overview of intersectionality and why it is important for this thesis, as well as an analysis of power. From my thesis I hope to show the Spiritualist movement from the perspective of working-class women as well as how they used it to attain their own agency.
  • Rajasalmi, Maria (2022)
    The aging population is a global phenomenon and at the same time a challenge to an increasing number of states. Different countries have opted for a various kind of welfare state models with varying emphasis on public and private provision to confront the situation. Since the collapse of socialist system, the society, and with it the social sector including the elderly care, in the Russian Federation has experienced substantial transformations and fluctuations. It is facing also an increasing number and share of aged population, and the welfare mix is still forming itself. The aim of the thesis was to observe the private providers in the elderly care in this context: what kind of picture the care homes construct of themselves and how they can be positioned in the Russian welfare mix. The material of the thesis consists of the service and facility descriptions on websites of 26 private care homes in the city of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region in the Russian Federation. The corpus was traced with help of search engine searches, and finally selected based on the defined location. The social constructionism and welfare state theories served as frame and approach for the analysis. The thesis thus paid attention to the local circumstances and audience alongside the global context. The texts were analysed with keywords derived from the globally acknowledged document, The Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing, which expresses the guidelines for actions to guarantee the rights and appropriate care of elderly persons. The method used for keyword analysis was CADS, corpus-assisted discourse studies, specifically the chosen software was AntConc. A closer case study was conducted of four care homes. Also, a short summary on the financial possibilities and limitations for a private facility was presented. The results of the analysis showed that the private care homes, which included both those belonging to a chain and those operating as separate, independent units, in the focus area produced in their primary message to the public an image which correspond the targets proposed by the Madrid plan. The image given was that of a high-quality and safe care home which respects the individual needs and agency of an old person. The national characteristics were still apparent in the descriptions. The private care homes also saw themselves as a needed actor in the Russian welfare mix on the side of the public provision complementing it and offering a prime option for selected, wealthy clients.