This study reflects on an outreach initiative between two differing tertiary cultures established on different continents. The aim is to develop an understanding of what happens when a prestigious American university and a South African Higher Education Institution meet around a computer-mediated situation. Various inter-relating aspects such as cooperation and cooperative learning, educational technology, Higher Educational Institutions, globalisation, the international Digital Divide, cultural diversity, commonalities, cultural differences, an international learning programme, and power relations in international partnerships are explored. The effect of technology on education is that information is no longer restricted to a single geographical setting, instead it has expanded and became a dynamic international driving force. Increasing educational needs compel Higher Education Institutions to provide in these needs and to adapt to a more flexible learning style. Globalisation causes the world to get smaller, compressed, interconnected and resulted in a world that is in effect flat. Information communication technologies are changing the world. On the one hand the Internet promotes communication and freedom but on the other hand causes uneven development all over the globe. The Digital Divide pertains to the divide between the global well-resourced learners and the local under-resourced learners. Cultural differences between nations and organisations can be interpreted against the background of different models of cultural dimensions. The focus of the study is to explore the effect of commonalities and cultural differences on cooperative learning at organisational level. Power relations between international partners were challenging and resulted in conflict and differences of opinion. The project started with the University of Pretoria’s visit to Stanford University in November 2004. The preparation, organisation and planning phases continued through 2005. The ELISA project was intended as a three-year intervention from 2006 through 2008. The first year was supposed to be a pilot phase to gather and provide information for use in the second and third years. This study pertains to the pilot phase which started in February 2006 until June 2006. It was successfully completed and achieved a 93% success rate. However, in September 2006 Stanford unexpectedly informed the South African partners that the project would be discontinued due to several reasons. Their objections related to the lack of visible progress regarding content scheduling, media production, course logistics, and research practicalities. Although there were accommodating personalities among the project leaders on both sides interpersonal conflict between the remaining project leaders developed. The partners on both sides could not generate sufficient commonality regarding the need to continue. The situation was worsened by the fact that the initial rationale for the project lacked shared motivation among the project leaders on both sides. It is suggested that more research be conducted to explore possible differences of opinion and undercurrents among project leaders throughout the project, and to scrutinize the initial rationale as well as curriculum issues in good time, and to investigate the role of power relations between international partners that are funded by international grants, and the effect of these power relations on the learning experiences of the students involved. Copyright / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / unrestricted

The study examines the thought of Yanagita Kunio (1875-1962), an influential Japanese nationalist thinker best known as a founder of the discipline of Japanese folklore (minzokugaku). The purpose of the study is to bring into light an unredeemed potential of his intellectual and political project as a critique of the way in which modern politics and knowledge systematically suppresses global diversity. The study reads his texts against the backdrop of the modern understanding of space and time and its political and moral implications and traces the historical evolution of his thought that culminates in the establishment of minzokugaku. My reading of Yanagita’s texts draws on three interpretive hypotheses. First, his thought can be interpreted as a critical engagement with John Stuart Mill’s philosophy of history, as he turns Mill’s defense of diversity against Mill’s justification of enlightened despotism in non-Western societies. Second, to counter Mill’s individualistic notion of progressive agency, he turns to a Marxian notion of anthropological space, in which a laboring class makes history by continuously transforming nature, and rehabilitates the common people (jōmin) as progressive agents. Third, in addition to the common people, Yanagita integrates wandering people as a countervailing force to the innate parochialism and conservatism of agrarian civilization. To excavate the unrecorded history of ordinary farmers and wandering people and promote the formation of national consciousness, his minzokugaku adopts travel as an alternative method for knowledge production and political education. In light of this interpretation, the aim of Yanagita’s intellectual and political project can be understood as defense and critique of the Enlightenment tradition. Intellectually, he attempts to navigate between spurious universalism and reactionary particularism by revaluing diversity as a necessary condition for universal knowledge and human progress. Politically, his minzokugaku aims at nation-building/globalization from below by tracing back the history of a migratory process cutting across the existing boundaries. His project is opposed to nation-building from above that aims to integrate the world population into international society at the expense of global diversity.

The Master's Thesis deals with a management of a particular multicultural team of Bershka division of Inditex company. The aim of the thesis is to evaluate the current situation from the view of the manager of the multicultural team of Bershka and to specify recommendations regarding the aspects of the specific cultural composition of the team. Theoretical part states a concept of working teams with the multicultural aspects, it deals with the cultural diversity and the cultural dimensions of G. Hofstede, E. T. Hall and F. Trompenaars. Analytical part involves the analysis of Hofstede's dimensions to define the cultural differences among the team members. To verify stated hypothesis, the qualitative methods of observation and personal interviews were used. The aim of the thesis is fulfilled by suggesting the specific recommendations for effective management of the team of Bershka.

La diversité reflète le fait que les membres d’une communauté diffèrent selon certaines caractéristiques, liées à l'origine ethnique, au statut socio-économique ou à la culture. L’essor du commerce et l'intégration économique placent les sociétés modernes face à des niveaux de diversité croissants. Cette thèse évalue l’impact social et économique de la diversité locale. elle montre comment la diversité d’un quartier influe sur les conditions de vie et les perspectives d'emploi de ses habitants. Ce travail contribue à la littérature de trois façons: il examine des questions inexplorées à un niveau très local, révèle les mécanismes sous-jacents et fournit de nouvelles méthodes pour aborder la question de l'endogénéité. Le chapitre 1 montre que la diversité des origines a un effet négatif sur la qualité des biens publics locaux, du fait d’actes de vandalisme liés à un manque de pression des pairs, et du fait de l'échec de l'action collective qui permettrait une gestion efficace de la propriété. Aucun effet robuste sur la sécurité publique n’est à noter. Le chapitre 2 révèle que l'effet du chômage sur la criminalité a une dimension spatiale. Pour les crimes économiques, le taux de chômage des quartiers environnants a un effet plus fort que celui du voisinage immédiat, l'inverse étant vrai pour vandalisme. Le chapitre 3 montre que les personnes vivant dans un quartier plus diversifié ont des perspectives d'emploi inférieures, cet effet étant plus lié à la dimension culturelle qu’ethnique de la diversité. Le chapitre 4 développe un modèle rationalisant le recours des minorités ethniques à l'économie informelle en réponse à des conditions défavorables sur le marché du travail. / Diversity reflects the extent to which members of a given community share different characteristics, usually pertaining to ethnicity, socio-economic status or even culture. As a result of trade development and economic integration, modern societies have to cope with increasing levels of diversity, both in terms of origins and social statuses. The purpose of this dissertation is to assess the social and economic impacts of local diversity. More precisely, this thesis shows how neighborhood level diversity affects individuals’ living conditions and employment prospects. This work contributes to the existing literature in three ways: it examines unexplored issues at a very local level, gives new insights about the underlying mechanisms and provides new methods to address the endogeneity issue. Chapter 1 shows that diversity in terms of origins has a negative effect on the quality of local public goods, due to vandalism, not deterred by social policing, and due to collective action failure to ensure effective property management. However, it has no robust effect on public safety. Chapter 2 reveals that the effect of unemployment on crime has a spatial dimension: for economic crimes the effect of unemployment rate in surrounding neighborhoods is stronger than that of the immediate neighborhood, while the reverse holds for vandalism. Chapter 3 shows that people living in a diverse neighborhood face lower employment prospects, but that this effect is more related to cultural (e.g. language) diversity than to ethnic diversity. Chapter 4 develops a model rationalizing the fact that ethnic minorities turn to the informal economy in response to adverse labor market conditions.

Bakgrund: I samband med ökad globalisering och kulturell mångfald i slutenvården riskerar patientsäkerheten att hotas till följd av den bristande kommunikations- och informationsöverföringen. Detta kan leda till utmaningar i vårdprocessen som påverkar den personcentrerade vården på grund av språkbarriärer. Syfte: Att beskriva hur patienter och vården påverkas av språkbarriärer inom slutenvården. Metod: Litteraturstudie baserad på 18 vetenskapliga artiklar som publicerats mellan år 2014– 2019. Sökningarna har skett via databaserna Google scholar, CINAHL och PubMed. Resultat: Resultatet bygger på patientens och vårdpersonalens upplevelse av kulturell förståelse, påverkan på patienten och kommunikativa strategier. Språkbarriärerna inom hälsooch sjukvården påverkar vårdpersonal, patient och anhöriga genom att god vård på lika villkor inte uppfylls och kan leda till ökat lidande för patient och en ökad risk för vårdskada. Slutsats: Vårdpersonal och patienter är medvetna om att språkbarriärer påverkar vården för patienten negativt genom ökat lidande och risk för vårdskada och vårdskada. Kroppsspråk och gester används för att kommunicera och för att kunna ge personcentrerad vård. / Background: With the increased globalization and cultural diversity within inpatient care the patient safety is threatened because of communication and information difficulties. As a result of language barriers between health-care professionals and patients Aim: To describe how patients and the healthcare are affected by language barriers within inpatient care, and how healthcare staff are affected in their work by communicative language barriers. Method: A literature review based on 18 articles, published between 2014 - 2019. A literature search was made in databases as Google scholar, CINAHL and PubMed. Results: The results are based on patients and healthcare staff experiences of cultural diversity, effects on the patient and communicative strategies. Language barriers in healthcare affects, healthcare staff, patients and their relatives by not provide good care on equal terms. This can lead to increased suffering and an increased risk for healthcare injuries. Conclusion: healthcare staff and patients are aware that language barriers affect the care for patients negatively by increasing suffering and risk for healthcare injuries. Body language and gestures are used to communicate by healthcare staff to provide person-cantered care.

Contemporary business leaders require suitable leadership strategies, skills, capabilities, and competencies to lead individuals with culturally diverse backgrounds effectively. Local retail business executives have experienced complex leadership challenges leading international and intercultural teams when expanding business operations into global markets. The objective of this multiple case study was to explore leadership strategies local retail business leaders used to lead a global workforce. The target population included 3 local retail business leaders from Minnesota who had 6 to 8 years of global leadership experience. The composite conceptual framework that grounded this study was leadership and transformational leadership. Data were collected from semistructured, face-to-face interviews and organizational documents. Member checking was used to ensure trustworthiness of findings. The data analysis followed Yin’s 5-phase process: compiling, disassembling, reassembling, interpreting, and concluding. Three themes emerged from the data analysis: cross-cultural awareness, cross-cultural challenges and competence, and cross-cultural leadership strategies. The findings from the study might contribute to positive social change by encouraging business leaders to explore business opportunities locally and globally, resulting in an understanding of cross-cultural differences, enhanced quality of cross-cultural work environments, increased job creation, and improved living standards for communities’ citizens.

Cette thèse vise à comprendre l’émergence de l’édition indépendante au Chili depuis le tournant des années 1990. Coïncidant avec le retour vers la démocratie, elle incarne la confrontation entre deux logiques d’internationalisation du marché du livre au niveau mondial : l’une s’inscrivant dans la concentration du marché de l’édition autour de multinationales ; l’autre se nourrissant du capital symbolique accumulé et valorisé au gré d’alliances internationales entre petits éditeurs. Dans cette dernière, il est question de la fabrication de l’indépendance comme stratégie de résistance collective. S’appuyant sur la catégorie de la diversité culturelle et la place du livre « produit pas comme les autres », ces éditeurs ont construit des passerelles entre l’Amérique latine, le Canada et la France - qui leur ont permis d’acquérir une reconnaissance auprès des agences publiques chiliennes dans le champ de la culture, tout en produisant des réaménagements de l’espace éditorial plus vaste. L’étude de ce répertoire d’actions permet de comprendre les ressorts de la reconnaissance politique de ce petit groupe d’éditeurs, qui leur a permis d’assurer leur survie économique au plan national et international face aux logiques néolibérales des multinationales de l’édition et aux contraintes du cadre transitionnel vis-à-vis du livre et de la lecture. / This thesis aims to understand the emergence of independent publishing in Chile since the turn of the 1990s. Coinciding with the return to democracy, this type of publishing is characterized by a confrontation between two different internationalization rationales in the global book market. One rationale is part of the process of concentration of the publishing market around multinationals. The other, is nourished by the symbolic capital accumulated and valued through international alliances between small publishers. In this last rationale, internationalization is about the fabrication of independence as a strategy of collective resistance. Based on the category of cultural diversity and the idea of the book "a product like no other", small publishers have built bridges between Latin America, Canada and France, which have enabled them to gain recognition from Chilean public agencies in the field of culture, while at the same time producing changes in the wider editorial space. The study of this repertoire of actions allow us to understand the political recognition of this small group of publishers, as a mechanism that enabled them to ensure their economic survival at the national and international levels, against the neoliberal logic of multinational publishing companies and the constraints of the transitional framework vis-à-vis books and reading.

MSc (Botany) / Department of Botany / See the attached abstract below

The presented dissertation deals with the ethical aspects of inconsistent view on the contemporary world, which can be seen as a philosophical, political and multicultural problem. Since the Federal Republic of Germany can be considered an example of open multicultural society, the author presents in the work a rich factual history, culture and realities of the country with the aim to clarify the understanding of its foreign policy relating to the immigration. The dissertation addresses the issue of the ethical dimension of multiculturalism in connection with migration and multicultural coexistence in a culturally diverse and often turbulent environment, including their practical impacts. The research carried out at the university environment of multicultural Germany in 2014-2016 detects present cultural diversity of the country, confirms the importance of the education in the process of integrating newcomers into mainstream society and searches for opportunities to improve the coexistence of people of different races, ethnicities, cultures and religions. In the conclusion, the author tracks the future developments and expectations with respect to the topic of multiculturalism and its ethical dimension both, on the territory of immigration Germany and in European and world context. KEY WORDS...

Studien undersöker hur förskollärare resonerar kring och arbetar med barns identitetsutveckling i en multietnisk förskola. En hermeneutisk tolkningsansats med utgångspunkt i Ricoeurs handlingsteori används för att tillsammans med förskollärarna tolka vad deras språkliga handlingar kan leda till. Studien bygger på observationer, enkät och reflekterande samtal med sex erfarna förskollärare i en förskola med hög andel barn utan svenska som ett av sina modersmål. Ett centralt resultat är att förskollärarna arbetar med att synliggöra barns olika kulturella identiteter. Förskollärarna i studien är genomgående positiva till flerspråkighet, ser flerspråkighet som en viktig del av barns identitet och har ett interkulturellt pedagogiskt arbetssätt. Studiens resultat visar också att för dessa förskollärare är dialog och samspel med vårdnadshavare viktigt, men försvåras när inte förskollärare och vårdnadshavare kan mötas i ett gemensamt språk. / The study examines how preschool teachers reason about and work with children's identity development in a multiethnic preschool. A hermeneutic interpretive approach based on Ricoeur's action theory is used to interpret together with the preschool teachers what their linguistic actions can lead to. The study is based on observations, questionnaires and reflective conversations with six experienced preschool teachers in a preschool with a high proportion of children without Swedish as one of their mother tongues. A key result is that preschool teachers work to make children's different cultural identities visible. The preschool teachers in the study are consistently positive about multilingualism, see multilingualism as an important part of children's identity and have an intercultural pedagogical approach. The results of the study also show that for these preschool teachers, dialogue and interaction with guardians is important, but is made more difficult when preschool teachers and guardians cannot meet in a common language.