Over the years the coming together of Brazil, Russia, India and China into the BRIG forum has been treated as a moment in time when emerging economies started making their mark in the global arena. Similar patterns of extraordinary productivity and growth as well as tangible development have been the driving force that predicts these countries as being the world economic leaders of the future. South Africa has now come into BRIG, which necessitated the changes in the acronym to BRIGS, an alleged hegemon of Southern Africa and the continent's economic power house. This country joined BRIG group, adding to the world's emerging economies and as a representative of the African continent. When South Africa became a member, its main aim was to develop its economy and align itself socio-politically with the emerging economies of the world. These emerging economies have shown some positive growth. The emergence of BRICS has recently captured the commanding heights across all borders in the 'South' and the 'North'. It is evident that South Africa has striven to be recognised worldwide, by its foreign policy, stable politics and its sophisticated economic policy. South-South multilateral agreements have been widely discussed in International Political Economy, but little has been said about the impact they make in the socio-economic development of the emerging countries. The issue of multilateral agreements concerning BRIGS is still relatively unexplored in comparison to other multilateral agreements that South Africa has ventured into. Globally the BRIGS multilateral agreement has generated different views concerning its future expectations of promoting growth for its member states, particularly South Africa. The dissertation has discovered and highlighted the importance of South Africa as a member of BRIGS, and how its engagement in the multilateral agreement will benefit the country with opportunities that lie ahead. This paper also looked at the insinuation that South Africa may be used by its powerful BRIGS partners and thereby lose its continental dominance. The study scrutinises and allows open space for further investigation to be made about the BRIGS multilateral agreement and its impact on socio-economic development in the Republic of South Africa. Many argue that South Africa's entry in BRIGS is a dangerous and risky move while others prefer to say it is a wise decision taken by the country. However the action taken by South Africa is a fait accompli and the country should plan ahead and understand the needs of its national interests and foreign policy to achieve its goals. / Thesis (M. Soc Sc (International Relations) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2013

Today, many developing countries are embarking on ambitious programmes to develop large computer-based information systems within their public administration to promote socio-economic development. However, the overall objectives of these investments remain unfulfilled. Success and failures of information systems are largely determined by the performance of organizational members associated with the development and use of information systems. Performance of these members is primarily determined by individual competencies and the environment in which the activities of these members are taking place. Information systems related education and training to create competent individuals has always been a matter of great concern to almost all developing countries. However, public administration in developing countries is an intensely political affair. Organizational politics very often give birth to a number of macro and micro environmental conditions, which constrain certain courses of action of competent individuals. Therefore, individuals, however competent, cannot perform to the best of their abilities. This invariably results in information systems that are ineffective and inefficient. Systematic empirical studies that can increase our understanding of this domain are virtually non-existent. The current research aims to rectify this issue. The research methodology adopted for the current research assumes that organizational members, when involved in a particular activity in a particular context, interpret the situation, and act accordingly. Researchers, by immersing themselves in the members' world can understand their actions. Focusing on two cases within the public administration of India and adopting a hermeneutic approach, the study interprets the actions of different organizational members associated with the implementation of information systems. By relating the performance of these members to the strengths and weaknesses of the information systems, the study makes broad recommendations. Findings of the study reveal that Indian policy makers and implementers have always given significant consideration to information systems related education and training. However, on the other hand, the very factors that India has been trying to address through successive administrative reforms since national independence happen to be the same factors that constrain the performance of competent individuals.

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This discussion is written in a descriptive manner, firstly because of the nature of the phenomenon investigated as the appropriate quantitative metric has yet to be invented, secondly because of the importance of the cybernetic-systems approach to some of the more critical questions facing man, the importance that the average layman understands this approach and the questions tackled in this investigation. These critical questions concern the converging trends in socio-economic evolution that mankind is facing. Some of these trends are physical, some are socio-mental. The physical trends are more obvious; the accelerating cost of raw materials, the rapid decline in available raw materials on a per capita basis, the exploding population, the increasing disparity in the ability to generate wealth both within developed and developing countries as well as between them, new attitudes towards consumption and work, the increasing integration of the world into one socio-economic system, increasing life span and population bulges, technological advance, environmental deterioration, morale and moral degeneration and regeneration, cultural and social decay and expansion, deforestation, ideological resolution and conflict, economic waste and efficiency, and information and noise explosion. This discussion focuses upon the flow of socio-economic systems as directed and influenced by information flows and communication channels and how in consequence these converging trends are and can be optimally dealt with. "Extensive, concious attempts to direct a complex society in a viable, adaptive manner have only just begun in modern history, and much remains to be learned to avoid the mistakes of the past. An intimate understanding of the workings of the sociocultural level of complex adaptive system is essential." Walter Buckley.

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In this dissertation I argue that the notion of environmental justice is recognised by section 24 of the Constitution, forms part of our law, and could play a role in South African socio-economic rights litigation as a transformative tool. I assert that because environmental justice recognises the intrinsic links between the distribution of basic resources and the environments in which poor people continue to find themselves in post 1994 South Africa, it has the ability to enhance and strengthen the enforcement of socio-economic rights. Environmental justice can do so by, among other things, focussing the court‟s mind on questions of justice and equity in the context of previous unjust environmental decision-making. In chapter 1, I explore the origins of environmental justice as a conceptual framework and as a movement that first emerged in the United States, and was subsequently embraced in the early post-apartheid era in response to immense environmental injustices experienced by South Africa‟s poor black majority as a result of apartheid. I discuss how many of these injustices not only „linger on‟ in post 1994 South Africa, but have also arguably become more entrenched, representing a failure on the part of the hopeful environmental justice movement of the early post-apartheid era. I highlight some of the reasons for this failure, which include the fragmented nature of the environmental justice movement, changes in government policy in relation to environmental issues, and the inadequate implementation of environmental laws intended to ensure public participation. In spite of these set backs, I argue in chapter 2 that there remains room for environmental justice to play a role in transformative constitutionalism. I then demonstrate that, despite environmental justice having been incorporated into our law, it has failed to capture the imagination of lawyers engaged in socio-economic rights litigation. Sustainable development and human rights discourses have thus far been the dominant voices in socio-economic rights litigation, at the expense of environmental justice, and its transformative potential. In chapter 3, I analyse Mazibuko v City of Johannesburg, which concerned the right to free basic water under section 27 of the Constitution. In my analysis of Mazibuko, I align myself with those who criticise the court‟s approach as anti-transformative. I do so by demonstrating that the court ii „technicised‟, „personalised‟, „proceduralised‟ and so, „depoliticised‟ the applicants‟ challenge to the government‟s policy. In this way, the court endorsed the „commodification‟ of water, and a „neo-liberal paradigm‟ towards access to basic water. I point to how linking environmental justice to the right to access to basic water could have encouraged the court to adopt a more redistributive and transformative approach. Finally, in chapter 4, I conclude by considering the future role of environmental justice in socio-economic rights litigation to enhance the ability of the environmental right to challenge poverty and effect transformation in the lives of poor people in South Africa. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / Public Law / Unrestricted

Bien que le best-seller existe au Quebec depuis des annees, il n'a suscite qu'un faible interet parml les critiques litteraires. Il y a l'exception notable de l'equipe du CRELIO (Centre de Recherche en Lltterature Quebecolse) de de l'Universite Laval, dont font partle Denis Saint-Jacques, Claude Hartin et d'autres, qui, depuis 1982, a fait du best-seller son domaine de recherche. Ces chercheurs ont limite leur champ de recherche aux best-sellers les plus populaires entre 1970 et 1982. Puisque les recherches faites par le CRELIO ne couvrent que les best-sellers parus pendant les annees soixante-dlx, j'al voulu examiner le best-seller quebecois des annees quatre-vingt, en particuller, Le Matou (1981), Les Filles de Caleb (1985 et 1986) et Les Tisserands du pouyoir (1988) qui ont tous connu untel succes qu'ils peuvent etre consideres comme ~best-sellers quebecois des annees quatre-vlngt. De quel type de succes s'agit-il? S'agit-il d'un succes comme par exemple celui du MATOU d'Yves Beauchemin, d'un succes programme grace aux relations publiques, mettant en valeur l'usage extensif de la presse et des medias, beneficiant de l'accuell chaleureux requ en France avant d'etre lance au Quebec, ou celui des FILLES DE CALEB d'Arlette Cousture, d'un succes inattendu, qui depasse toute strategie de marketing, OU celui des TISSERANDS DU PQUVOIR de Claude Fournier, d'un succes qui est peut-etre base sur !'adaptation du livre a l'ecran (film et serie televisee), le scenario ayant precede le livre? / Thesis / Bachelor of Arts (BA)

The existence of socially-patterned health (with poorer health generally being experienced by those in more disadvantaged circumstances) is widely recognised. Social differentials have been observed for (inter alia) respiratory disorders, and for cardiovascular disease. One possible explanation for social inequality in these areas of health posits a mediating effect of housing conditions: disadvantaged individuals may face greater exposure to residential hazards (such as dampness), which may in turn adversely influence cardiorespiratory health. However, few studies have examined a complete posited causal chain linking socioeconomic position (SEP) with health via housing. Using pre-existing data, this study constructed detailed representations of the social and residential experiences over adult life (15 to 60 years) of a sample of elderly British people. Both measures of accumulated exposure (to disadvantage, and to housing hazards), and explicit trajectories of social and residential experience, were derived. Construction of trajectories required the development of methods for condensing individuals’ diverse experiences into higher-level groups, in the interests of analytical tractability. Relationships between the derived measures of lifetime exposure and a range of outcomes expressing aspects of cardio-respiratory health in old age were assessed. No persuasive evidence was observed to support the hypothesis that lifetime residential exposures may mediate the relationship between SEP and the health outcomes examined. In addition to testing this specific conceptual model, the study examined how exposure to social disadvantage and to residential risks varied over adult life, identifying distinctive features of the exposure experience which could not readily be captured by the infrequent sampling of SEP commonly featured in health inequality research. The respective merits of such ‘sparse’ sampling and the more intensive sampling used in the study were compared. It was concluded that fully exploiting the additional information captured by intensive sampling requires confronting a number of methodological challenges. Because of this, it is argued that the collection of detailed information on exposures over time does not automatically confer genuine advantages over the hitherto dominant approach of sampling at only a small number of time points. Future development of lifecourse epidemiology will require further debate over how lifetime exposure (to both social and environmental risk factors) can most effectively be represented in quantitative analysis.

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