This thesis investigates the problem of analysing religion in the study of international relations (IR), answering the need to build an IR framework that accommodates coexisting evidence for secularisation (the decreasing influence of religion) and sacralisation (the increasing influence of religion) in world politics. Part One lays a conceptual foundation, presenting three arguments. Firstly, three discourses of religion are inscribed across the general discourse of IR: the secular, sacral and integrated discourses. Second, together the discourses comprise the religious structure of IR. This construction encourages a situative approach (asking ???where is religion????) rather than a normative one (which asks ???what is religion????). Third, the religious structure and the situative question combine to form the dynamics of religion model, a heuristic framework that meets the present need in IR to accommodate and differentiate secular, integrated and sacral elements of religion. Part Two operationalises the model via a study of religion in international development, occurring at three levels. At the level of discourse, ???orthodox??? and ???critical??? schools of development are situated within a religious structure, revealing the pervasive nature of religion throughout development theory. At the institutional level, the model is applied to analyse how religion entered the operational sphere of the World Bank Group (WBG). This application differentiates secular, integrated and sacral interests at work within and upon the WBG in the 1980s and 1990s, highlighting in new ways the ubiquity of religion in the development sphere. At the policy level, the model is applied to critically compare three ???faith and development??? partnerships initiated by the WBG in the period 1998-2005. The model is then applied to a partnership between the WBG and the World Faiths Development Dialogue (WFDD), an initiative that began as an integrated vision of religion and development but gradually disintegrated. These studies highlight the significant challenges that exist to incorporating religious dynamics into development orthodoxy. Finally, the model is used to situate religious actors into critical approaches toward the WBG, highlighting the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion of religious actors in the global development agenda. Overall, a new integrative model of religion is thus employed as an organising force in the study of IR and development.

This thesis is centrally concerned with the question of how non-government organisations (NGOs) can support marginalised young people and the role the state plays in facilitating this. It utilises a comparative case study methodology and examines the circumstances of two NGOs, Twenty10: Gay and Lesbian Youth Support, located in Sydney, Australia and the Albert Kennedy Trust (AKT) which is located in both London and Manchester in the United Kingdom. Twenty10 and AKT share a similar client base: both work with gay, lesbian, bisexual and/or transgendered (GLBT) young people experiencing homelessness or in a housing crisis. Both also engage in advocacy and service provision. At the time of my fieldwork Twenty10 and AKT differed in two key respects. First, AKT operated in a political context that was significantly more open to NGO advocacy than was the case for Twenty10. Second, AKT was supported almost entirely by the work of volunteers and through philanthropic support, whereas Twenty10 received the bulk of its funding from government. These differing factors allow a consideration of how the varying nature of an NGO???s relationship with the state impacts upon their activities within varying political contexts. The theoretical frameworks drawn upon in this thesis are those of citizenship theory and queer theory. Citizenship theory is particularly useful in analysing the objectives of Twenty10 and AKT, which focus on redressing the distributive and recognition based needs of their young people. The strategies employed by these organisations are also both subsumed within the normative framework of citizenship theory ??? while nonetheless being dependent upon how closely each engages with the state. These case studies are situated against the queer critique of citizenship discourses, which emphasise its normalising and de-politicising consequences. As such, this thesis evaluates critiques of forms of activism that involve citizenship-focused issues and engagement with the state, and hence examines the effect a relationship with the state can have upon an NGO???s work.

Wilderness is crucial for global conservation. Contemporary research established that between 33% and 52% of the Earth qualifies as wilderness. It is a fragile, threatened resource which needs a global conservation framework. This role could be successfully fulfilled by the World Heritage Convention. The founding notion of the World Heritage idea ?? Outstanding Universal Value ?? bears a striking resemblance to the attributes and characteristics of wilderness. The two notions possess an indisputable cultural and historic affinity, embodied by their ??iconic?? dimension. This makes the synergy between wilderness and World Heritage extraordinarily effective, as the history of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area demonstrates. The Franklin Dam dispute, solved after the World Heritage nomination of the Tasmanian wilderness, is emblematic in this respect. It gave birth to the world‟s only protected area which includes close to 100% of the local wilderness resource, and which coincides entirely with World Heritage status. The classic wilderness character of the region matched and enhanced the iconic power of the World Heritage, and the outcome represented a watershed for Australia‟s wilderness politics. Locally, it also paved the way for the establishment of a thriving ecotourism industry, providing the core of Tasmania‟s ??green?? brand. Its lesson is still invoked in unresolved wilderness conflicts throughout the country, and could be applied to other similar international contexts, as a model of proactive wilderness reservation through World Heritage nomination and of economic development based on wilderness tourism. On the other hand, despite the cultural affinity wilderness was never chosen as a criterion for World Heritage identification, and therefore the Convention cannot coherently fulfill this role of wilderness protection framework before solving this paradox. The unresolved dispute over Tasmania‟s wilderness forests indicates that the lack of an official endorsement of wilderness as a World Heritage criterion deprives the Convention of the conceptual tools needed to successfully address those environmental conflicts affecting existing World Heritage areas, in which the resource at stake is namely wilderness. Including wilderness as a World Heritage criterion would fill this gap and provide the global community with an effective framework for the preservation of remaining wilderness regions.

This research conducts a conceptual and qualitative investigation into the practices, rationales and functions of imprisonment in NSW. A specific system of imprisonment, in this case the prisons operated by the NSW Department of Corrective services, is explored in order to examine the practices, processes and justifications for incarceration. The various purposes, theories, rhetorics, practices and contradictions of the prison system in NSW and the ways in which the people who are responsible for the administration of this system make sense of its operations and its incoherencies, are central to this analysis. This research utilises a hybrid methodology involving aspects of content analysis and grounded theory. At the centre of this research are eight interviews with senior NSW Corrective Services staff. This analysis is supplemented by interview with ex-prisoners, and other people familiar with, but not working for Corrective Services. In addition a documentary analysis of both Corrective Services documents, and external literature examining NSW prison is carried out. The findings of these analyses are then explored with reference to both their internal coherency, as well as their relationship to a range of theoretical frameworks. The thesis connects abstract and philosophical questions of punishment and penalty with the logistics of running the prison system in NSW. This research found a diversity of practices, understandings and justifications of imprisonment which connected to particular cultural, social philosophical and structural trends. These included victimary discourses, the rhetoric of progress, the influence of managerialism, the faith in ???objective??? professionals, the increasing emphasis on empiricism, the conflicts between coercive practices and individual responsibility, the construction of prisoners as dangerous, and an ongoing struggle for purpose. Imprisonment in NSW was found to be characterised by discrepancies between the intentions of its administrators and pragmatics of its practice, conflicts between internal explanations of its purpose, as well as contradictions between internal Corrective Services accounts and external expectations about the roles, functions and practices of imprisonment. Theoretical perspectives explaining why these characterise imprisonment in NSW were developed. These perspective include the ???ought/is??? confusion of penal administrators, the inhumanity of humane containment, the myth of technocratic amorality, and the sedimentation of purpose.

Es wird gezeigt, wie das Zusammentreffen hervorragender Wissenschaftler mit breitem Wissen und Fähigkeiten zur interdisziplinären Kooperation im letzten Jahrzehnt vor der Machtergreifung der Nationalsozialisten zu einer Glanzzeit naturwissenschaftlicher Forschung an der Freiburger Universität führte. / It is demonstrated, how the coincidence of excellent scientists with broad knowledge und ability for interdisciplinary cooperation led to a height of scientific research at the Freiburg University.

Thèse de doctorat : Sociologie : Lyon 2 : 2001. / Titre provenant de l'écran-titre. Bibliogr.. Index.

Le interfacce aptiche, ovvero le tecnologie che trasmettono delle sensazioni tattili digitalizzate, si stanno diffondendo in vari contesti sociali come telerobotica, comunicazione mobile, arte, videogiochi e cinema. Queste tecnologie stanno permettendo agli ingegneri di realizzare qualcosa mai fatto prima: la digitalizzazione del tatto (che ora può quindi essere registrato e mediatizzato). L’obbiettivo di questa tesi è di decostruire il tatto digitalizzato come un artefatto tecnologico socialmente costruito, il quale sta prendendo forma in un sistema di pratiche interrelate performate da attori in campi disparati della conoscenza. Questi attori si muovono all’interno e attorno ad una comunità di ingegneri apticisti. Adottando un approccio ispirato alla grounded theory, sono stati raccolti dati qualitativi attraverso interviste presso un campo etnografico multi-situato composto da laboratori europei e conferenze internazionali, in cui la conoscenza riguardo il tatto è collettivamente creata e condivisa. Due framework teorico-metodologici sono stati presi in considerazione: la tradizione dei Science and Technology Studies (STS) è stata scelta come principale guida metodologica; in seguito, l’intreccio tra pratiche sociali e tecnologie è stato approfondito attraverso una prospettiva practice-based tipica della cosiddetta ‘practice theory’. Al fine di cogliere il processo in corso di costruzione sociale e flessibilità che caratterizzano il tatto digitalizzato, lo studio si è concentrato sull'assenza di standardizzazione che caratterizza gli aspetti sia hardware che software di questa tecnologia emergente. Inoltre, è stata prestata attenzione alla distinzione controversa e scivolosa tra feedback tattile simbolico e realistico usata nel gergo degli apticisti. Infine, sono stati analizzati i diversi significati, o potenzialità d'uso, che gli intervistati attribuiscono a questa tecnologia. Questi significati si collegano a specifici immaginari sociotecnici geograficamente situati, ad ampi discorsi sociali riguardo l’innovazione tecnologica, e a diverse visioni riguardo le pratiche che possono beneficiare dell’implementazione di queste interfacce. / Devices that provide tactile feedback, called haptic interfaces, are spreading in various contexts such as tele-robotics, prosthetics, videogames, mobile communication, and arts. These technologies are allowing engineers to accomplish something never done before: the digitization of touch (which can now be stored and mediatized). This dissertation aims to deconstruct the digitized touch as a socially constructed technological product, emerging from a system of interrelated practices enacted by actors performing in disparate fields which revolve around the community of haptics engineers. Using a grounded-theory inspired approach, qualitative data were collected through interviews in a multi-sited ethnographic field consisting in European laboratories and international conferences, where knowledge about touch is collectively created and shared. Two theoretical-methodological frameworks have been taken into consideration: the tradition of Science and Technology Studies (STS) has been chosen as the main methodological guide; moreover, the interlacements between social practices and technology have been deepened through the adoption of a practice-based perspective proposed by different approaches in social sciences gathered under the umbrella term ‘practice theory’. In order to grasp the ongoing process of social construction and flexibility that characterize digitized touch, the study focused on the absence of standardization involving both hardware and software aspects of this emerging technology. Furthermore, attention has been paid to the controversial and slippery distinction between ‘symbolic’ and ‘realistic’ tactile feedback which is used in engineers’ jargon. Finally, the different meanings or potentialities of use, which respondents attributed to this technology, have been analysed. These meanings are connected to geographically located socio-technical imaginaries, to broad social discourses about technological innovation, and to different visions regarding the practices that can benefit from the implementation of these interfaces.

Die TU Dresden ist die größte Technische Universität in Deutschland – und eine der größten Universitäten mit einem alle Wissenschaftsdisziplinen übergreifenden Fächerangebot. Unsere wissenschaftlichen Kennzahlen weisen uns in den Ingenieurwissenschaften, den Naturwissenschaften, den Geistes-, Sozial- und Kulturwissenschaften und in der Medizin als hervorragende Universität aus. In unseren Forschungsschwerpunkten Biomedizin und Bioengineering, Materialwissenschaften, Informationstechnik und Mikroelektronik, Kultur und Wissen sowie Energie und Umwelt zählen wir zu den führenden Hochschulen. Darüber hinaus gibt es zahlreiche weitere Fachgebiete, in denen exzellente Forschung und Lehre geleistet wird. Dank dieser Kompetenztiefe und -vielfalt befassen wir uns insbesondere mit den großen Aufgaben unserer Gesellschaft, die häufig nur durch disziplinenübergreifende Ansätze lösbar sind. Gerade dafür bietet Dresden optimale Grundlagen. Denn diese schöne Stadt an der Elbe hat eine Konzentration an wissenschaftlichen und kulturellen Einrichtungen, die europaweit einmalig ist. 15 dieser Institutionen sind in dem Forschungsverbund DRESDEN-concept eng verzahnt, im Zentrum die TU Dresden. Er verbindet vielschichtige Wissenschaftsbereiche mit allen Ebenen der Gesellschaft und wird von Menschen mit unterschiedlichen Interessen, Berufen und Weltanschauungen getragen. Stellvertretend für über 36.000 Studierende und 8.100 Mitarbeiter zeigen die folgenden Seiten ausgewählte Themen und Persönlichkeiten, die gemeinsam neue Wege gehen. Sie schaffen das Wissen, aus dem Zukunft wächst. Prof. Dr. Dr.-Ing. habil. Hans Müller-Steinhagen, Rektor der TU Dresden / TU Dresden is the biggest University of Technology in Germany – and one of the major universities with a range of subjects and research fields covering every academic discipline. Our academic indicators mark us out as an excellent university in engineering, the natural sciences, the humanities, the social sciences, cultural studies and medicine. We are a leading site of further education with research priority areas in biomedicine and bioengineering, materials science, computer science and microelectronics, culture and knowledge, and energy and the environment. In addition to this there are numerous other fields of excellent research and teaching. With this depth and variety of expertise, we concentrate particularly on the major challenges to modern society, which can often only be solved by means of synergies and interdisciplinary approaches. Dresden provides the perfect conditions for this: this beautiful city on the Elbe river has a high concentration of scientific and cultural institutions which make it one of a kind in Europe. The most important of these institutions are joined together in the DRESDEN-concept research institute alliance, which revolves around the TU Dresden. This combines multifaceted academic fields with all levels of society and is supported by people with all kinds of interests, jobs and ideologies. On behalf of over 36,000 students and 8,100 members of staff, the following pages will present selected topics and personalities coming together to explore new routes. This is how they create the knowledge from which the future develops. Prof. Hans Müller-Steinhagen, Rector of the TU Dresden

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Introduction: Literature shows that the transition from high school to university is fraught with challenges and that there is need to appreciate these challenges from the students’ perspectives and devise ways of assisting the students navigate them smoothly. - Aim: To explore the perspectives of first year students at the University of Zimbabwe, College of Health Sciences (UZCHS) regarding their transition from high school to the UZCHS and propose possible ways to manage the transition phase based on the students’ perspectives. - Objectives : The objectives of this study were to determine the students’ perspectives with regards to various factors that are known to affect the transition from high school to university. - Design: An evaluative research study design was adopted using a mixed method research approach sequentially applying a quantitative and qualitative method. - Method: Four hundred and eighty six (486) self-administered survey questionnaires with 23 closeended questions were distributed to all first year students in the UZCHS. Only 16 questions were analysed for purposes of this research project. A total of 49 interviews were conducted for the in-depth structured questions interview on a randomly selected group of students from each of the programmes. - Results : The response rate was 51% (246/486) ; 81.4% of students were in the 19 to 20 years age group; 52% males and 48% females; 44.4% of the students were enrolled in the MBChB programme. The major challenges faced by the students were the heavy workload; poor counselling services; sticking to timetables; using the library; poor teacher-student relationships; poor sense of belonging; living with a diverse population Frustrations at the UZCHS were identified as arising from academic issues: examinations marks; poor facilities; inadequate high school preparation for university grades and poor feedback. Students’ financing at university was also of concern to the students. The students found the orientation week most useful. The motivation for joining the UZCHS was for career prospects, personal desires and parental influence. Preparatory information given by the UZCHS was considered adequate but not sufficiently detailed. Factors that helped students settle in were the initial reception, orientation week, and the relationships between students, staff and lecturers. The role of parents, peers and friends in settling in was also highlighted as important. - Conclusions : The students’ perspectives on transition are similar to those reported in the literature:need for pre-university information, better accommodation, improved library facilities, improved counselling services, lengthening the orientation week, more detailed information about UZCHS before admission, improve pre-university contact with students ,reduced workload in order to accommodate extra-curricular social life. Students’ preparation for life and learning at university should start during high school. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Inleiding: Uit die literatuur is ditbaieduidelikdat die oorgang van studentevanaf die skoolnauniversiteitbaieuitdagend is. Daar is derhalwe ‘n behoeftedathierdieuitdagingsvanuit die perspektiewe van die studentebeskou word in ‘n poging om hulle op die meeseffektiewemanierteondersteunentebegelei. - Doelstelling: Die doel van hierdie studie is om die perspektiewe van eerstejaarstudente aan die Universiteit van Zimbabwe se Fakulteit Gesondheidswetenskappe (UZCHS) te ondersoek wat betref die oorgang van hoërskool na die UZCHS, en wyses voor te stel om die oorgangsfase te bestuur, gebaseer op die studente se perspektiewe. - Doelwit: Die doelwitte van hierdie studie was om te bepaal wat die studente se perspektiewe was oor die verskeie welbekende problematiese faktore teenwoordig in die oorgang van skool na universiteit. - Ontwerp: ʼn Evaluerende navorsingsontwerp is onderneem deur ʼn gemengde navorsingsmetode te volg. Dit is opeenvolgend deur ʼn kwantitatiewe en kwalitatiewe metode toegepas. - Metode: ʼn Self-administrerende vraelysopname met 23 geslote vrae is ewekansig toegepas en versprei aan vierhonderd ses- en tagtig (486) studente van die UZCHS. Slegs 16 vrae is vir die doeleindes van hierdie studie geanaliseer. ʼn Onderhoud met in-diepte gestruktureerde vrae is ook gevoer met ʼn ewekansig geselekteerde groep studente (49) van elk van die programme wat aangebied word by die UZCHS. - Resultate: Die responskoers was 51% (246/486); 81.4% van die studente was in die ouderdomsgroep 19 tot 20 jaar; 52% was manlik en 48% vroulik; 44.4% van die studente was geregistreer vir die MBChB program. Die uitdagings deur die studente ervaar was onder andere die swaar werklading, swak studente-ondersteuningsdienste, om by te bly by die rooster, die gebruik van die biblioteek, swak dosent-student verhouding, ʼn swak gevoel van behoort aan, en om deel te wees van ʼn diverse samelewing. Frustrasies by die UZCHS het hul oorsprong gehad by akademiese kwessies: eksamenpunte; uitslae en swak terugvoering. Studente-finansiering aan die universiteit was ook ʼn bron van kommer by studente. Studente het die oriëntasieweek die nuttigste gevind. Die motivering om aan te sluit by die UZCHS het verband gehou met loopbaanvooruitsigte, persoonlike behoeftes en ouer-invloed. Voorbereidende inligting verskaf deur die UZCHS is beskou is voldoende maar sonder genoeg besonderhede. Faktore wat studente gehelp het om tuis te voel was die aanvanklike ontvangs, oriëntasieweek, en die verhoudings tussen studente, personeel en lektore. Die rol van ouers, portuurgroep en vriende om hulle te laat tuis voel, is aangedui as belangrik. - Gevolgtrekkings: Die studente se perspektiewe op oorgang is soortgelyk aan dié wat in die literatuur gerapporteer word. Daar is ʼn behoefte aan beter studentebehuising en biblioteekfasiliteite en studente-ondersteuningsdienste, en meer gedetailleerde informasie oor die UZCHS voor toelating. Studente glo ook dat die oriëntasie week verleng moet word en dat die werklading verminder moet word om hul buitemuurse sosiale lewe te akkommodeer. Studente se voorbereiding vir die studentelewe en universiteitstudies behoort reeds op hoërskool te begin.

Mém. DES--Sciences économiques--Rabat, 1985.