<p> </p><p>Upon a closer examination of the role and performance of the International Court of Justice, we find that it does primarily fulfil its role and obligation as far as the UN charter and the Courts stature are concerned. It is upon the application of Kjell Goldmann’s <em>Internationalists Programme </em>that we find ourselves wanting more from the Court.</p><p>If we assume the development of international institutions, exchange, communication and the like to be desirable and necessary for the continued development of international peace and security, the ICJ can be shown to have had historical opportunities to affect the development to such an effect, but lacks the formal means to do so.</p><p>With the subscription to the internationalists programme, we find that there are plenty of potential improvements that could reasonably be made. These are primarily about the official influence of the Court, with regards to cases relevant to it and its jurisdiction, which is severely crippled by current regulatory framework. This is a condition shared with plenty of other international courts in their various forms.</p><p>Essentially, the current state of the ICJ lacks the desirable attributes and possibilities to influence the development of international law to any meaningful extent. If we indeed were to look for an international court with the means to build international legal institutions and seek to further enforce international peace and security, the ICJ is not what we are looking for.</p><p> </p>

AbstractStudents come to community colleges with different levels of personal development, academic preparedness, and learning needs. Success programs that focus on the holistic development of nontraditional students provide an important pathway into college for students who might not otherwise attend or succeed. These programs face increased accountability to demonstrate student outcomes. In assessing outcomes, are the successes experienced by these students fully captured with traditional student success measures?Constituent groups may differ with regard to expected outcomes and conceptualizations of success. To examine this possibility, a community college program designed to promote goal attainment for at-risk, nontraditional re-entry students was chosen for a case study to determine what success means to the students who participate in the program, the instructional counselors who teach the course for the program, and the administrators who make resource allocation decisions that impact the viability of the program.The case study was organized around four propositions that hypothesize how different participants construct their perceptions of success:1) Students who complete the program course will come to search for and define success in terms of finding their voice and developing cultural capital;2) Instructors who teach the course will conceive of success outcomes in differing ways depending on the extent of their professionalization - locals will support a more traditional, academic oriented preparation whereas cosmopolitans and intermediates, to varying degrees, will embrace a more holistically developmental approach to the course;3) Administrators will evaluate and allocate resources to the program primarily in terms of traditional institutional measures of student success - student credit production and student completion; and3a) Perspectives of success based on students finding their voice, cultural capital, and holistic developmental outcomes are not considered nor valued independently by administrators in their decision-making.Knowing the differing perspectives of what is valued by those involved allows for strategically informed decisions about what to assess and how to present data that best supports the benefits of this program to the students, the college, and the community. The importance of aligning various participant perspectives of success for ultimate program efficiency and effectiveness is demonstrated.

- / Inspired by Douglass North’s work on the role of institutions in economic structure and change and in particular the role of state institutions, this thesis attempts to explore the process of economic transformation through analyzing state-business community relations in the city of Kunshan, Jiangsu, China. The author uses primary data from Kunshan to demonstrate how the open-door policy of China has led to changes in the institutional environment parallel to the economic transformation. Kunshan’s institutional development is analyzed in terms of two factors. First is ‘autonomy’ as in the ability and capacity of the local state to define and pursue its own development strategy. Second is ‘embeddedness’ as in the local state developing a regular relationship with economic elites that share its goals of economic transformation. These two are seen as complementary necessities for economic transformation. This thesis shows how the local state in Kunshan has strengthened both its capacity and integrity to pursue economic transformation and the actual pursuit of it through closer and more institutionalized relations with the business community.

Increasingly, gastronomy is playing a role in people’s motivation for travel, and destinations are making food and beverages their main attraction. This study explored the growing field of gastronomic tourism, a type of niche tourism, through the theoretical framework of destination branding theory. Using a qualitative case study research design, this research examined the branding of the emergent region of Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada as a gastronomic niche tourism destination from the perspective of tourism industry players. Findings indicated that the region turned to gastronomic tourism due to its agricultural history and need for economic development. It was also found that tourism industry players utilized the processes of brand identity, product development, collaboration, support and communication to brand the region. This study contributes scholarly and practical knowledge to the areas of tourism and branding, by providing insight into the development, management and promotion of destination brands.

This thesis examined factors that influence three Canadian Nursing Associations’ priority setting and policy advocacy for community environmental health (CEH). The research questions that guided the study were: (a) how do the nature and scope of nursing organizations’ engagement for CEH policies differ according to provincial and federal contexts? and (b) how do nursing organizational factors and external system factors influence the priority-setting and policy advocacy choices for CEH policy? To answer these questions I undertook a qualitative comparative case study. The research was guided by epistemological and methodological principles of interpretative description and informed by whole-systems socio-ecological theory and institutional theory. Data were collected through participant interviews (n=41) and document review. Guided by framework analysis and the use of descriptive and conceptually-oriented matrices, cases were analyzed using an iterative and inductive approach to identify case patterns. These case patterns were then compared to identify cross-cutting factors that influence the Nursing Associations’ priority setting and policy advocacy for CEH. Key findings are represented in an integrated conceptual framework. Nursing Associations’ priority setting and policy advocacy are embedded in a dynamic policy field whereby structures and institutional pressure both create opportunities and narrow the Nursing Associations’ options for engaged CEH advocacy. The findings lead to recommendations for practice, policy, and research that have relevance for the profession, nursing associations, and policy decision-makers.

The arrival of the modern matron into the NHS acute setting in 2001 was in response to increased public and political concern regarding standards of nursing care and the quality of patient care. As a politically motivated initiative, the modern matron role and its relationship with the concept of the traditional matron has been extensively debated. The aims of this study were to explore: 1. How far the modern matron represents continuity between the traditional matrons of the mid 20th century and the present day. 2. What socio-political forces led to the development and establishment of the modern matron? 3. From the perspective of health professionals, what impact has the modern matron had on the quality of patient care? Adopting a case study design underpinned by realistic evaluation, the study involved interviewing patients and a carer, a focus group and interviews with staff and national policy leads. Documentary analysis was undertaken on a set of traditional matron archives. A number of key themes emerged from the research, including: the importance of uniform and visibility, patient expectations, the impact of policy processes and the political rationale for national policy change. Conflict between ensuring nursing quality and operational demands, which acts as a barrier to the modern matron role, was also found. Long-held assumptions about the functions and the positioning of the traditional matron are explored, with continuity and divergence between the traditional and modern matron roles revealed. Using a realistic evaluation approach, the findings were framed whilst considering the structural and generative elements, which resulted in social interplay or visible phenomena and provided an explanation for the predicament of the modern matron. The key conclusions were that national policy decisions appeared to be diluted once locally implemented. Modern matrons in part did positively impact on care quality. The introduction of modern matrons and the quality agenda may have been the start of a national discussion about how to continually improve patient care in an arena where intermittent care quality challenges which give concern. The effect of previous national policies that impacted on senior nurses may have diverted them away from their core purpose – patient care. The modern matron guidance may have been limited before publication by the inference within it about limiting the authority of the new post-holders. There was limited evidence of the modern matrons’ visibility to patients and this was reflected by the traditional matron’s accounts. The expectation of modern matrons’ physical presence may have been drawn from assumptions embedded in nostalgia and media portrayal of the traditional matron. The thesis concludes with implications for strategic nurse leaders and national policy leads to consider how the organisational arrangements for secondary care can best support and secure the ultimate aim of consistent provision of good quality nursing care.

The lived experiences of the family of a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) survivor is an under represented, yet growing field of qualitative psychological research. This thesis used a case study approach with a family in which one member sustained TBI thirteen years previously. Using conversational unstructured interview techniques, I participated with the family in eliciting public narratives around their experiences since the accident. These public stories were also thickened by individual interviews, which both supported and contradicted the public narratives. In the analysis I found two major narrative lines, the first of which was the baby-narrative which held that the injured person must not be injured any further in word or deed and must be protected at all time. The second dominant narrative was the fighting-narrative, which was characterised by language and actions around fighting/battling on behalf of the injured person against uncaring ‘others’. Several important suppressed or counter narratives emerged during the individual interviews, which could not be spoken about publically. I conclude that the power of the two dominant narratives is fuelled by constant rehearsal and enactment, which actually freezes the family and does not allow it to move forward. Suppressed stories are discussed as a possible avenue for therapeutic growth and for the evolution of the family story as they age.

A heterogeneous research partnership (HRP) is one in which industry, academia and government collaborate to conduct research, typically of national importance. Whilst most HRPs complete their planned duration and deliver their agreed tasks, it is not uncommon for participants to be left feeling somewhat dissatisfied, suggesting that the requirements which are being met are incomplete. There is an opportunity to improve the success of HRPs by establishing principles and practices for the application of systems engineering in their development. The thesis reviews literature drawn from a broad body of work covering three main areas: the context of HRPs themselves, systems engineering and related disciplines, and research methodology. The research adopts an interpretive approach, initially applying Soft Systems Methodology in a pilot case study and subsequently conducting a qualitative analysis of sixteen HRP case studies in order to develop and refine generic models which are relevant to HRPs. Drawing from the commentary of interviewees, published sources and other evidence, major themes across the case studies are integrated in order to develop ten principles and ten practices for the application of systems engineering to HRPs. The importance of consistency between the research context, systems approach and research methodology is emphasised, and the thesis highlights a significant philosophical challenge facing system of systems research as the discipline seeks to use a range of hard and soft systems approaches which are fundamentally rooted in different paradigms.

This research identifies, through an extensive series of exploratory and explanatory case studies, the mathematical difficulties that might be encountered by dyslexic engineering students. It details support mechanisms that may be put in place to help these students reach their full potential and makes suggestions for the introduction of measures at institutional level to ensure compliance with current legislation. This is an area, identified from the literature search, that has not, until now, been the focus of any substantial research activity and thus the findings form an original and significant contribution to knowledge in this field. The findings are not only intrinsically interesting but will also be of use to practitioners of mathematics, support staff, staff developers and policy makers in higher education. A literature review gives historical background on the development of education in general, and mathematics in particular, in the UK. The main theories and problems associated with developmental dyslexia are also given. Surveys were undertaken to determine the extent of mathematics learning support in UK universities and also to determine the extent of the provision of mathematics support to dyslexic students. Using case study research and by providing one-to-one mathematics support, the difficulties encountered by dyslexic students were investigated. Related work is an exploratory study into the use of different media combinations in Computer Assisted Assessment. Additionally, an in-depth case study of the Mathematics Learning Support Centre at Loughborough University has been undertaken and is reported in detail with recommendations for changes suggested. The results of this research show that mathematics learning support is widespread and often essential to bridge the gap between school mathematics and university level mathematics but specialist mathematical support for dyslexic students is rarely available. It is determined that dyslexic students can be impeded in their learning and understanding of mathematics as a direct result of their dyslexia. Recommendations for further study in some areas and future lines of inquiry in others are suggested.

This study presents a normative framework of the RFID implementation process in the UK public sector. It was motivated by the lack of socio-technical studies on the RFID implementation process in the UK public sector and the need for existing and potential RFID project managers to have an implementation model which could guide their effort in implementing any RFID initiatives in the sector. The study has been conducted through a combination of case study research and grounded theory research approach. Primary data have been collected from the in-depth interviews conducted with the RFID project managers from seven public sector organisations, i.e., five libraries and two hospitals. The analyses of the data were in two main stages. The first stage involved the analysis of the RFID implementation process in each of the organisations and the second stage involved a cross analysis of the RFID implementation process across the entire organisations. Potential contribution towards the existing body of knowledge on RFID implementation was in the form of a normative framework of RFID implementation process in the public sector. This framework describes the main and sub activities in the implementation process, and illustrates the dissimilarities and similarities between the implementation processes. Consequently, the implications of the study to the existing and potential RFID project managers in the public sector and also to the study of information system and RFID implementation are discussed.