Submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree: Masters in Development Theory and Policy in the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management at the University of Witwatersrand / South Africa enshrines itself as a democratic developing country that adheres to the principles of good governance and acknowledges the role that civil society participation in state affairs can have. The purpose of this study was to establish the role and effectiveness of NEDLAC’s social dialogue process through evaluating the contribution of civil society participation in the Development Chamber; and to understand the relationship between NEDLAC’s social dialogue model and the World Bank ideology on civil society participation in policy making. The study highlights that NEDLAC remains one of the key vehicles for social dialogue in South Africa and there have been positive contributions by civil society participation in the NEDLAC process. It takes its premise from the ILO model of social dialogue, whilst it also adapts from the World Bank ideology of civil society participation by including civil society in the process, through the Development Chamber. However, the effectiveness of civil society participation in policy making through NEDLAC is at risk due to the impact of the changing socioeconomic environment. In many ways this study highlights contradictions in South Africa’s social dialogue process. The Development Chamber is not being optimally used for its intended purposes as representativity and accountability of the community organisations are a concern; whilst there is an increasingly active civil society, demonstrated by civil unrest, which is not part of this social dialogue process.

Thesis advisor: Thomas J. Massaro / There is a substantial and growing corpus of literature that describes, with convincing statistics and analysis, globalization as the greatest achievement in the history of our modern world and that it has brought the greatest degree of prosperity and economic growth to poor countries. However, seen from the perspective of the poor and the marginalized, the current globalization has not helped them to end their misery and marginalization; indeed in most cases it has actually worsened their situation. The Christian community cannot remain an idle spectator of this unjust, inhuman and sinful global reality. Analyzed from a Christian theological perspective, it is not only an economic issue but also a moral issue. It is a social sin to violate human dignity, to commodify human labor, and to marginalize the poor. Based on the teachings of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences, the Catholic Bishops Conference of India and some prominent Asian theologians, I contend that dialogue with other faith traditions, cultures and the poor must be an essential part of her mission of humanizing the current globalization. I argue that the Church in India should avoid the presumption that she already possesses a vision of the common good adequate to the Indian society. While remaining committed to gospel values, the Church must be an open-minded listening and learning. / Thesis (STD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

O presente trabalho consiste em uma tentativa de acompanhar as ações do Sindicato dos Metalúrgicos do ABC em duas políticas tripartites do setor automotivo: um programa de regulação do mercado e incentivo à inovação tecnológica e adensamento da cadeia produtiva de veículos automotores (o Inovar-Auto); e outro, de contenção das demissões, o Programa de Proteção ao Emprego (o atual Programa Seguro Emprego) por entender que as negociações existentes em torno da construção, aprovação e monitoramento de ambas as políticas revelam os limites, as opções de cada momento e os dilemas enfrentados pelos sindicatos de trabalhadores ao participarem das ações governamentais de estímulo ao desenvolvimento do setor industrial. A partir da discussão bibliográfica, entrevistas, documentos, dados primários e secundários, pretende-se testar a hipótese de que a base metalúrgica se beneficia de ações realizadas com o apoio do governo, mas a direção sindical também é cobrada por problemas da administração pública que escapam do controle e da esfera de atuação sindical. / The present paper is an attempt to follow the actions of the ABC metalworkers\' union in two tripartite policies of the automotive sector: a program to regulate the market and to encourage technological innovation and increase of automotive production chain (Inovar-Auto); and the Employment Protection Program (the current Employment Insurance Program) considering that the existing negotiations around the construction, approval and monitoring of both policies reveal the limits, options of each moment and dilemmas faced by labor unions when participating in government actions to stimulate the development of the industrial sector. From the discussion of bibliography, interviews, documents, primary and secondary data, we intend to test the hypothesis that the metallurgical base benefits from actions carried out with the support of the government, but its also demanded from the union leadership solutions to problems of public administration that escapes the control and the sphere of union activity.

A tese examina a primeira obra escrita por Vilém Flusser com objetivo de buscar as raízes do pensamento do futuro filósofo e apontar as características nela presentes que se tornariam relevantes na sua obra futura. Trata-se da peça de teatro Saul, redigida em alemão, em 1936, em Praga, sua cidade natal. A primeira parte da pesquisa foca o ambiente no qual Flusser nasceu e onde se formou sua visão do mundo. Esboçamos uma breve história da comunidade judaica nas terras tchecas, mencionamos figuras importantes da vida literária do país, assim como tendências culturais marcantes, para entender particularidades do seu universo. Na parte biográfica da pesquisa acompanhamos a vida intelectual de Flusser, que se desdobrava entre a Europa e o Brasil, encerrando-a com o levantamento da fortuna crítica que mostra o alcance de seu legado. A segunda parte da pesquisa dedica-se à análise do drama Saul e sua contextualização dentro das correntes artísticas e filosóficas da sua época. No campo da arte, identificamos sua proximidade sobretudo com o movimento expressionista e o teatro épico brechtiano; no âmbito da história do pensamento, por sua vez, com os pensadores cuja obra pode ser considerada dialógica e crítica ao pensamento instrumental. Abordamos nomes como Ortega y Gasset, Martin Buber, Mikhail Bakhtin ou Walter Benjamin e nos detemos nos próprios princípios do diálogo socrático. Reconhecemos uma série de pontos comuns entre os pensadores em questão e a obra de Vilém Flusser, tanto no drama Saul como nos ensaios posteriores. Destacamos sobretudo o caráter dialógico e não conclusivo dos seus textos, a busca pelas novas formas de expressão e pelo discurso científico alternativo. Com essa finalidade o pensador desenvolve uma série de estratégias que visam subverter as normas do discurso filosófico tradicional e acadêmico. Para ele, a posição filosófica carrega uma dimensão ética ela é um meio de engajamento social. Encerramos o trabalho com a reflexão sobre a influência do Fausto de J.W. Goethe no jovem praguense. Salientamos a transformação do papel da ciência no período que separa a vida de Goethe da de Flusser e mostramos como a preocupação com o reducionismo e a instrumentalização da ciência tornou-se um dos temas centrais dos textos de Flusser. / The thesis examines the very first Vilém Flusser\'s work purposing to search for the roots of his thought as well as to point the features in it that would become relevant in his future creation. It is a theatre play Saul written in German, in 1936, in Prague, his hometown. The first part of my research focuses the environment within which Flusser was born and in which his vision of the world was shaped. We have outlined a brief history of the Jewish community in the Czech lands, we have mentioned local important literary life figures and significant cultural tendencies to understand his particular universe. The biographical part of the research follows Flusser\'s intellectual activities unfolded between Europe and Brazil, and it is closed with a mapping of the critical resources that reveals the reach of his legacy. The second part of the thesis is dedicated to the analysis of the drama Saul and its contextualization within artistic and philosophical movements of that time. In the fields of art, we have identified the proximity, especially, to Expressionism and to Brecht\'s epic theatre; in the area of the thought\'s history, in turn, to thinkers whose work can be considered dialogical and critical in respect of the instrumental thinking. We have approached names as Ortega y Gasset, Martin Buber, Mikhail Bakhtin or Walter Benjamin and we have dwelled also on the principles of the Socratic dialogue. We have recognized a number of common aspects between the thinkers under discussion and the Vilém Flusser\'s work, both as in the drama Saul and as in the further essays. We emphasise mainly the dialogical and non-conclusive character of his texts, his pursuit of the new forms of expression and of an alternative scientific discourse. With that purpose, the thinker built up a number of strategies up, that aim to subvert the rules of the traditional and academic philosophical discourse. For him, a philosophical position is filled with an ethical dimension, it is an instrument of social engagement. We terminate the research with a reflection on the influence of J.W. Goethe\'s Faust on the young Prague citizen. We have pointed out the transformation of the role of the science in the period that separates Goethe\'s and Flusser\'s lives and have demonstrated how the concerns about the reductionism and the instrumentalization of the science became one of the central themes of Flusser\'s works.

Thesis advisor: Mark S. Heim / This dissertation is a comparative study of spiritual cultivation in Early Daoism and the spiritual teaching of Augustine's Christianity. My goal is to examine how early Daoism's founder, Laozi, and the Christian bishop, Augustine of Hippo, characterize the fulfillment of humanity through religious transformation. My argument is that the metaphysical speculations that figure in their works---and which scholarly readers often emphasize---are offshoots of profound practical, soteriological concerns. These soteriological concerns reveal that the primary interest for both writers was to discover those spiritual and intellectual practices that could most effectively mediate between human experience and the manifestation of transcendent order. This study takes its inspiration from pioneering instances of comparative theology (particularly works by Francis Clooney S.J. and Lee Yearly), and focuses on the cross-reading of texts. For Laozi, the basic text used in this study is. For Augustine, the primary text is de Trinitate, with some Daode Jing closely related writings. Both texts play similar formative roles in their respective religious traditions. My methodology also makes heuristic use of Bernard Lonergan's study of the fourfold operation of human consciousness as experience, understanding, judgment and decision. This general description of human consciousness is a useful framework to draw out similarities and differences in these texts. The primary thematic interest of the thesis is ethical. I explore how early Daoism and Augustine's Christianity were both animated by the concern to confront human violence through spiritual exercises and the renewal of authentic humanity. In comparing Daode Jing and de Triniate, I consider the ways that each author's encounter with social violence shaped their intellectual projects. Laozi and Augustine's search for transcendent order was motivated by the hope of overcoming disordered human desires. This task required an understanding of human participation in transcendent order which could be realized in direct realms of experience, through knowledge of the operations of interior consciousness and the practice of daily spiritual exercises. Though both thinkers are often treated in dogmatic or philosophical terms, their primary interest was in practical spirituality, a way of living. Both Laozi and Augustine searched for `the Way" for disciples of their respective traditions to nurture personal life and to maintain hope as a religious community in a turbulent world. These issues are dealt with in four chapters. In Chapter One I develop my theoretical framework and the categories of the hermeneutics of consciousness. In Chapter Two I reconstruct the political-religious context of Chinese culture that the author of Daode Jing criticized . Against this context, I then explain in Chapter Three Laozi's major insights into the nature of transcendent order, particularly his understanding of its character as Three in One (Self-so, Nothing and Something), specified in Daode Jing. In Chapter Four I expound Augustine's development of the doctrine of the Trinity as the fundamental signature of divine reality, which is also reflected in the structure of human subjectivity. This leads to Chapter Five where I consider these two views as dialogical partners and advance the view that a juxtapositional reading of these two texts leads to new insights through the way that each can be said to develop a distinctive interpretation of the concept "effortless action." / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Thesis advisor: Catherine Cornille / The purpose of this dissertation is to retrieve the early Panikkar's christology of religions, especially in "Meditacion sobre Melquisdedec" and Le mystere du culte dans l'hindouisme et le christianisme. As opposed to the later Panikkar's pluralist, cosmotheandric christology, the early Panikkar privileges the primacy of Jesus Christ amidst a wider considersation of the value and significance of the religions. This dissertation will also situate the early Panikkar's christology of religions against the background of Dominus Iesus and recent systemtatic theologians seeking to move beyond pluralist christologies. The early Panikkar's understanding of Incarnation meets their criteria for an inclusivist theology of religions, but also challenges the asymmetricality of their christologies, expanding the possibilities for inter-religious learning and transformation. Specifically, Panikkar's early dialogue with karman and advaita illuminates the meaning of Jesus' sacrificial existence and the Church's eucharistic participation in that existence through comparison, shedding light upon the centrality of liturgical and paschal transformation in the Christian tradition. This christocentric comparative theology will be constrasted with Panikkar's later, syncretistic appropriation of Hinduism, influenced by Abhishiktananda's quest for Hindu-Christian synthesis, and will conclude by calling for a renewal of interest in neglected aspects of Panikkar's vast corpus. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Thesis advisor: Ruth Langer / The topic of covenant is perhaps the most fundamental means for humans to think about their relationship to God within a particular religious tradition. Since the time of the Second Vatican Council, the Church has gradually been reconsidering what covenant means for Catholics worldwide, especially in relation to other traditions, namely Judaism. Therefore, this paper initially aims to identify what covenant means for Jews and Catholics on an individual basis and how each tradition has historically thought about the other. Secondly, being written from a Catholic standpoint, this paper aims to redefine what covenant means for Catholicism in terms of how it addresses Judaism. Ultimately, this paper proposes a Catholic model for thinking about Judaism in a non-supersessionist manner. / Thesis (BS) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Theology.

A investigação O Discurso de Celestina tem a finalidade de estabelecer dialogicamente as relações entre representações sociais, ideologia e elementos linguísticos que unem a protagonista Celestina à enunciação. Essas relações se concretizam no seio das esferas literária e histórico-social. Com esse propósito foi feito um recorte na perspectiva discursiva, espaço em que se efetiva uma série de relações de poder por intermédio das ações de Celestina. O discurso deste personagem, persuasivo por excelência, emerge da crise dos valores renascentistas, na obra La Celestina, editada pela primeira vez em 1499 e escrita por Fernando de Rojas, judeu converso, em Salamanca, Espanha. O discurso desta protagonista parece revelar a voz do autor que ora desvenda, ora encobre suas intenções, seus interesses e contextos. Seu conteúdo é redefinido e ou esvaziado, o que valoriza seu caráter paradoxal e irônico, como reflexo da cultura humanística de Rojas. Recorremos à Análise do Discurso para abordar os elementos da Nova Retórica que dessem conta do éthos discursivo de Celestina e, no seio dessa análise, nos deparamos com elementos dos mais diversos campos de estudo; destacamos, dentre eles, a parte da que analisa a reformulação textual da segunda carta de Sêneca a Lucílio sobre a diversidade da leitura e a parte que identifica os elementos do esperpento de Valle Inclán. Para concluir, reconhecemos que a persuasão é a principal característica do discurso de Celestina para alcançar seus objetivos pessoais e que ela é um personagem que se constrói e se destrói em seu discurso e por intermédio dele. / The research The Celestina speech aims to establish a dialogue relations between social representation, ideology and linguistic elements that unite the enunciation to the protagonist Celestina. These relationships are materialized within the ball literary, social historical. For this purpose a cut was made in view discursive space in which an effective series of power relations though the Celestinas actions. The speech of this character, persuasive par excellence, emerging from the transition period to the Renaissance. The book La Celestina was written around 1498 in Salamanca, Spain, by Fernando de Rojas, a Jewish convert. This speech is the real protagonist, as it reveals the authors voice, that sometimes unravels and conceals his intentions, interest and backgrounds. Its contest is reset or empty and that values its ironic and paradoxical character, reflecting that episodic memory. We appeal to the discourse analysis to address the elements of the New Rhetoric devised to address the discursive ethos of Celestina and within this analysis, we encounter elements of many fields of study, we have emphasized, among them the part of the research that identifies elements of Valle Inclán Esperpento and textual study of the reformulation of the second Senecas letter to Lucilius about the diversity of reading. To conclude, we recognize that persuasion is the hallmark of Celestinas speech to achieve her personal goals and she is a character who builds and destroys in her speech and through it.

A presente pesquisa analisa os dialogos de f i w o das peGas teatrais de Nelson Rod rig ues, especificamente suas tragedias cariocas, a fim de verificar como a lingua literaria pode mostrar exemplos significativos que tenderiam a nos lembrar a naturalidade dos dialogos produzidos em intera~oesfa ce a face. Essa analise sera enfocada sob a perspectiva da teoria da enuncia@o bakhtiana (2002), auxiliada pelos pressupostos da Sociolingiiistica lnteracional e pelas premissas da Analise da Conversa~io, de base etnometodologica. A linguagem do teatro de Nelson Rodrigues B diferente daquela que se praticava entso, e e senso comum que isso se deve a utiliza@o de vocabulario tipico da linguagem praticada correntemente el tambem, a estrutura gramatical corrente, caracterizada pelo emprego de estruturas que podern apresentar desvios gramaticais. Nossa tese versa sobre a questso do efeito de sentido de naturalidade que a linguagem teatral de Nelson Rodrigues cria, e, a partir da hipotese de que isso se deve mais ao trabalho com o discurso que propriarnente com a lingua. Essas peps teatrais s%o consideradas aqui nessa pesquisa nosso corpus de oralidade na escrita, jA que ao lerrnos tais textos, e assistirmos a algumas dessas peps, nos deparamos com dialogos ageis e dinamicos, que representam o discurso vivo. Partimos da hip6tese de que a linguagem teatral de Nelson Rodrigues apresentou-se inovadora para a epoca em que veio a luz porque o autor a construiu n3o somente sobre a representa@o da lingua correntemente praticada, em termos de l6xico e sintaxe, mas tambem sobre a irnita@o do discurso que ocasiona os enunciados efetivamente praticados. A metodologia utilizada 6 a da Anslise do Discurso, ja que partimos do exame das pqas teatrais para analisar as estrategias conversacionais. / The present research analyses the fiction dialogues of Nelson Rodrigues\' theatrical plays, Tragedias cariocas specifically, in order to verify how the literary language can exhibit significant examples to make us remember the spontaneity of dialogues produced in face-toface interactions. This analysis will be focused under the perspective of the theory of the Bakhtin (2002), assisted by the estimated International Sociolinguistics and by the Analysis of Conversation premises, with etno-methodological basis. The language of Nelson Rodrigues\' theatre is different from that one practiced before, and it is common sense this is due to the use of typical vocabulary of the language fluently practiced as well as the fluent grammatical structure, pointed out by the use of structures that may present grammatical deflections. Our thesis turns on the question of the effect of naturalness meaning created by the theatrical language of Nelson Rodrigues, and from the hypothesis that this is due to the work with the speech, more than properly with the language. These theatrical plays are considered here our corpus of verbality in the writing, since when reading such texts, and attending some of these parts, we come across agile and dynamic dialogues that represent the alive speech. We suppose that Nelson Rodrigues\' theatrical language was presented innovative for the time it has shown up to the lights, because the author has shaped it not only on the representation of the currently practiced language, in terms of lexicon and syntax, but also on the replication of speech that causes the effectively practiced verbalization. The used methodology is the Analysis of the Speech, as we start from the evaluation of theatrical plays to study the conversational strategies.

This inquiry was prompted by a desire to understand ‘partnership working’ (DfE, 2012, p.3) with the diverse parental body of a British International School Pre-Nursery based in Bangkok. It was hypothesised that this necessitated the co-construction of a shared understanding between home and school about a child’s learning. Nonetheless, the manner in which this could be achieved was unclear. Consequently, an explorative case study was instigated to gain a greater understanding of home-school interactions within this context. Influenced by Early Years policy and literature, as well as concepts of dialogue and interculturalism, it was hypothesised that involving parents within the redevelopment of a reporting and assessment tool may support the co-construction of a shared understanding about the child as a learner. Accordingly, a series of parental meetings were organised to elicit parental views. The parental meetings were illuminating and prompted the adaptation of a range of tools and artefacts to scaffold parents into a greater understanding of Pre-Nursery pedagogy and to engage them in a learning dialogue with school. At the completion of the study, evidence indicated that the development of a shared understanding between home and school had been achieved. This suggested that integrating conceptions of scaffolding and co-construction within home-school communication enhanced the potential for partnership working. Nonetheless, the complexities of engaging with the diverse parental body found within international education were also highlighted. In addition, the inquiry highlighted the difficulties of sustaining and extending practice innovations. It was concluded that further research may be necessary to fully understand partnership working within this context and to develop the consistent whole school approach deemed necessary to support its implementation.