A Singapour, comme dans d'autres pays d'Asie, l'enseignement bilingue généralisé d'une seule langue étrangère a pour effet de faire de l'anglais la langue préférée pour la communication entre les peuples d'appartenances ethnique, linguistique et culturelle différentes. Cela semble empêcher une ouverture vers les autres langues du monde (surtout celles des citoyens-voisins et celles de la région) et une profonde appréciation des cultures qu'elles véhiculent. Et ce malgré l'existence de conditions favorables qui semblent prédisposer le pays au développement du plurilinguisme. Notre projet de recherche étudie la faisabilité de construire, dans le contexte singapourien, les bases d'une réelle ouverture plurilingue et pluriculturelle à l'altérité, par le biais d'un enseignement de type "Eveil aux langues" (Evlang) adapté à ce contexte. Nous voulons aussi nous interroger sur l'utilité et l'intérêt de ce type d'enseignement pour les Singapouriens et sur les représentations qu'ils se font du plurilinguisme. / In Singapore, as in other Asian countries, bilingual education including a single foreign language has the effect of making English the preferred language of communication between peoples of different ethnie, linguistic and cultural origins. This seems to prevent one from being open to the other languages of the world (especially to those of fellow citizens and those of the region) and a deeper appreciation of the cultures they can. And this is despite the existence of favourable conditions that seem to predispose the country for the development of plurilingualism.Our research project studies the feasibility of setting, in the Singapore context, the foundation for a true openness to the languages of the world by means of an education programme adapted from "Éveil aux langues". We would like to evaluate the usefulness and value of this type of education for Singaporeans as well as the representations they make of plurilingualism.

Facebook boasts an audience approximately three times as large as the next most popular social media networks, so it comes as no surprise that brands are devoting substantial resources to engage with their fans on the world’s most widely used social networking site. Television shows are among those brands using Facebook as a platform to connect with consumers, and their potential for fan relationships is unique from those of other brands, but there are, as of yet, no published scholarly articles for driving Facebook fan engagement and loyalty for a television show. This mixed methods study uses an ethnographic content analysis of the Facebook fan page for the series Orange is the New Black in order to evaluate the engagement of various types of posts and compare that information with scholarly research and industry best practices in order to inform an online user survey. The survey of 452 adult fans of TV show Facebook pages revealed which types of posts most engage audiences in ways that fostered engagement, parasocial interaction, and ultimately, viewing loyalty.

This thesis is an investigation into ambiguity and irony in Kierkegaard’s The Concept of Dread [Begrebet Angest]. The frequent ambiguities in Kierkegaard’s texts have been discussed by several scholars, and Kierkegaard’s interest in irony is evident not only from his master’s thesis On the Concept of Irony, but also from his other texts. The irony in Kierkegaard has especially been expounded on by Roger Poole and Jacob Bøggild, who both consider irony to be at the heart of Kierkegaardian writing. Furthermore, the ambiguity in Kierkegaard can also be considered typical for the existentialist line of philosophy in general. Finally, both of these subjects tie in to the difficult subject of Kierkegaard’s ”indirect communication”, a subject discussed at length by Poole. The investigation falls into three parts. The first part is essentially a preparation: the concepts of ambiguity and irony are introduced, as is their relation to each other, and the discussion of these pertaining to Kierkegaard is paraphrased. An introduction to Kierkegaard’s indirect communicationis also provided. The second part constitutes the main body of the thesis. This part consists of a reading of The Concept of Dread with special attention brought to the ambiguities of this text. These ambiguities are numerous and in most cases fundamental concepts in the book’s line of reason including things such as dread itself, sin, guilt and the demonic. This reading follows the basic layout of the book itself, interspersed with remarks and topics discussed by other scholars, notably Jonna Hjertström Lappalainen and Gordon Daniel Marino. At the end of this part, the ironic readings of Poole and Bøggild are discussed in relation to the more “direct” reading proposed previously. Such readings put even greater emphasis on the ambiguity, as the text in its entirety is ambiguous. The third part is a tentative discussion of the conflicting accounts of Bøggild, Poole and Hjertström Lappalainen, and an attempt at reconciling these into a coherent view of The Concept of Dread. It is argued that ambiguity, while not equatable with indirect communication, is nonetheless a necessary prerequisite for communicating without compromising the individual’s subjective and concrete experience of the human condition. Finally, the Kierkegaardian notion of absolute freedom as discussed by Hjertström Lappalainen is considered in relation to the “existential concepts” fundamental to existentialist philosophy and, once again, the necessity of ambiguity is shown. The task of the ambiguous or ironic text is then to communicate the subjective, that which cannot be grasped in language, making necessary a certain “emptiness” or openness with regards to the central concepts.

This paper explains the position of the principle of transparency in the EU up to the year 2010. (Including the changes made by the Lisbon treaty.) The question to answer is: how could transparency develop into a general principle without being mentioned explicitly in the legislation? It was also out to try to see what the future of transparency might look like. In the conclusion it was found that openness and transparency was not something fixed, but an evolving concept. If it was encoded into a single written principle, it could hamper the institutions‟ adaptation to the developing case-law. In the end I concluded that with will and trust, transparency could continue to grow in the future.

Bassora se situe au fond du golfe Arabique. L’Irak ne possède qu’une modeste bande littorale sur le golfe Arabique, d’une longueur de 58 km, qui lui permet de donner sur le monde. Cette côte a une influence importante sur le commerce local comme sur le commerce extérieur de l’Irak étant donné qu’elle accueille les navires chargés de marchandises venant de divers pays, ainsi que l’exportation du pétrole. Cette situation a créé beaucoup d’opportunités comme elle a suscité des périls. Durant les deux dernières décennies, les ports irakiens ont connu une forte concurrence de la part des ports de pays voisins (Koweït, Jordanie, Syrie, Arabie Saoudite, Iran, Émirats Arabes Unis) qui ont fait des progrès et des développements remarquables, alors que, au contraire, la performance et l’efficacité des ports irakiens ont diminué au cours de la même période à cause des guerres des années 1980-2000 (avec la 1ère, la 2e et la 3e guerre du Golfe). Parmi les causes qui ont affaibli et causé un grand tort aux ports irakiens, il faut relever en particulier le blocus économique qui a été imposé à l’Irak durant 13 ans. Ce qui a incité le pays à utiliser les ports des pays voisins, tels que le port commercial d’Aqaba, pour importer et exporter des marchandises. Suite à l’ouverture économique de l’Irak après 2003, le pays a eu besoin de ports efficaces et efficients pour accueillir les navires avec des services attractifs et une bonne qualité de service. L’amélioration de leur compétitivité est alors devenue une nécessité. La thèse positionne la problématique irakienne dans le champ scientifique de la géographie des transports, dont elle utilise les concepts. Elle se place dans le champ général de l’émergence pour inscrire le cas particulier de l’Irak dans une réflexion qui vise à démontrer que, malgré un contexte encore dominé par des facteurs négatifs, la rationalité du monde des transports et de la logistique peut imposer un scénario de croissance sinon de développement durable. Par conséquent, cette étude vient révéler les possibilités des ports irakiens actuels. Elle s’intéresse aux problèmes et aux obstacles qu’ont connus les ports irakiens, ainsi qu’à l’analyse de leur compétitivité actuelle et à leurs perspectives d’avenir. De grands travaux sont nécessaires. L’organisation interne des ports doit également être revue. En construisant le port de Fao, qui est une étape essentielle pour l’amélioration de la compétitivité de l’Irak et en réponse aux exigences du commerce mondial, le pays relève la tête. Son but est d’entrer dans la compétition, non seulement en revoyant son schéma portuaire, mais également en développant des stratégies d’arrière-pays et de corridors multimodaux. Ainsi, avec Bassora-Fao, et en dépassant les seules logiques pétrolières, l’Irak peut retrouver une place dans le monde. / Basrah in the bottom of the Arabian Gulf. Iraq possesses a small 58km-coastline in the Arabian Gulf which gives the country a strategic view of the world. This side has a vital influence on the Iraqi local market as well as the global one since imports goods from various countries and mainly exports oil. Such a condition has triggered great opportunities, but it has unfortunately caused perils. During the last two decades, Iraqi ports have witnessed a tough competition with neighbor countries’ ports (Kuwait, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, United Arab Emirates) who have been through noticeable development and progress while , the performance and efficiency of the Iraqi ports decreased during the same period because of the wars Iraq has conducted between 1980-2000 (1st , 2nd and 3rd Gulf war) . One of the causes which has weakened and caused shortcoming to the Iraqi ports is the economic blockade which has been imposed on Iraq for 13 years. This eventually forced Iraq to resort to neighbor countries’ ports goods such as the commercial port of Aqaba in order to import and export. Due to Iraqi economic prosperity after 2003, the country was in urgent need of affective and efficient ports that would enable it to host ships with attractive and high-quality services. Enhancing their competitiveness has thus became of great importance.This paper locates the Iraqi problematic in the scientific field of the geography of transport of the concept of which is seeks to rely on. It is framed within the emergency context to to include the particular case of Iraq in a reflection which aims to demonstrate that, despite a context still dominated by negative factors, the rationality of the world of transport and logistics can Impose a scenario of growth if not of sustainable development. Therefore, this survey proposes to reveal the possibilities of actual Iraqi ports It aims to study both the problems and obstacles that the Iraqi ports have witnessed and the actual actual competitiveness and for their future perspectives. A huge amount of work isis, accordingly, deemed necessary.The internal organization of ports needs to be examined. With the building of Fao port, which is an essential step towards the enhancement of Iraq’s competiveness and a response to the requirements of global market, Iraq holds its head high. Its goal is to enter the competition, not only by reexamining its port schema , but , in fact , by developing backcountry strategies and multimodal corridors. Furthermore, with Al-Basrah –Fao and through going beyond the oil logics alone, Iraq can find a maritime opening on the world.

This is a systemic practice doctorate where research is undertaken through a social and relational constructionist lens (McNamee and Hosking, 2012) under a broader umbrella of systemic qualitative research practice. A philosophical orientation to inquiry is taken, offering a way of exploring encounters, and specifically conversations in practice, in an embodied relational and dialogical way from within the experience. This locates me as an active participant alongside other active participants, and self- and relational reflexivity feature centrally within a systemic approach to practice and inquiry. The specific inquiry focus is on embodied, reflexive processes as I engage with others in everyday conversations on issues that matter to different professional and non-professional individuals and community groups; it is a complex ecology. Systemic, embodied, relational concepts are explored through a lens that sees inquiry as philosophically informed. This acknowledges the professional, personal and multiple contexts that inform both the doing and being in each conversation within practice and inquiry. The multi-versa of individuals and groups, professional and non-professional are examined through attention to moments of conversation portrayed through vignettes and dialogical excerpts. I try to capture a sense of the living dynamic of each of the interactions through attention to my multi-vocal inner dialogue and the multiplicity of felt experiences within these conversations where I am moved, stirred, unsettled and fully embodied: I become the case study in the ebbs and flows of this experience. How I inform these processes, and how I am informed by the responses of others, comes under close scrutiny. Attention is given to reciprocal responses, my internal dialogue, as I respond to what has gone before, external moves within these relational unfolding conversational encounters, how the conversation is experienced by those involved, and how we move on together. This inquiry focuses on embodied relational processes within the multiple complex dynamic of these conversations, unpacking our ways of ‘going on’ together (Wittgenstein, 1953). Autoethnography (Finlay, 2002; Ellis, 2004; Etherington, 2004), self- and relational reflexivity (1992), Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) (Pearce, 1994), and the process of writing itself are some of the concepts employed to enter this complexity. The unique additional inquiry tool introduced, alongside these, is the personal metaphor of rock climbing. This is chosen because of the fit I consider it has within a conceptual frame of relational embodiment, emphasising the ‘I’, a systemic practitioner and climber, as an embodied being with other embodied beings in conversation. I enter this process of inquiry with openness to enable change and to be changed, and I hope to challenge some established ideas about research. I consider the extent to which the metaphor illuminates embodied, self- and relationally reflexive processes in the context of systemic inquiry. The usefulness and application of this metaphor is tested as an embodied reflexive tool. I explore whether ways of thinking about and understanding embodied relational and dynamic processes can be extended. New features that come to light in the process of this inquiry are explored and the insights that may emerge, along with possible contributions to systemic inquiry and practice, are considered. The wider use of metaphors emerging through the dialogue that people offer to describe experience and to capture a sense of lived moments opens further potential for new learning. The reflexive scope and use of metaphor generally is discussed at the end, along with personal and professional learning from the process of writing and inquiry. I propose a new lens to reflexive inquiry that is suited to systemic practice, embodied reflexive inquiry in which I draw attention to embodied reflexive detailed features within interactions between people. This has wide-ranging applications in systemic and other contexts, including community settings, systemic therapy, training and supervision and across different professional networks, and is explored here. My hope is that this inquiry will to add to the growing field of systemic inquiry texts.

Government of Canada communications professionals work in an increasingly challenging environment, characterized by an intrusive 24/7 media cycle, a frenetic pace of evolving communication technologies, layered accountability requirements, political tension, and waning public trust. Scholars call on professional communicators to help rebuild public trust, which is intrinsic to a healthy democratic government. The Three-dimensional Model for Transparency in Government Communication developed by Fairbanks, Plowman and Rawlins (2007) serves as the theoretical framework for investigating the Government of Canada’s approach to transparent citizen-focused communications from the perspective of communications professionals. The model’s adaptability to the Government of Canada context is tested through 23 qualitative semi-structured interviews with Government of Canada senior communications advisors, managers and executives. The data is analysed using constant comparative thematic analysis. The findings demonstrate that Government of Canada communicators strongly value transparency. Furthermore, the key components of the transparency model – communications practices, organizational support and provision of resources – encapsulate the factors that influence the practice of transparent citizen-focused communications by the Government of Canada. The study concludes by offering recommendations for future research and practical applications.

Le commerce mondial joue un rôle de plus en plus important dans les évolutions économiques des pays ainsi que le montre l’apparition du concept de mondialisation. L’avènement des crises économiques modifie le contenu des relations commerciales. Quelques aspects de la libéralisation commerciale et de l’intégration économique des pays sont étudiés ici ; on a envisagé leurs évolutions en prenant en considération les crises. Le commerce international est étudié théoriquement et empiriquement ; la partie théorique (premier chapitre) concerne les définitions générales, les concepts et l’histoire du commerce et de la mondialisation, les analyses empiriques (deuxième et troisième chapitres) sont relatives à cinq pays européens (France, Grèce, Portugal, Slovénie, Espagne) du point de vue de leurs situations commerciales et économiques, ainsi que des effets de la crise sur eux. On a d’abord mesuré les niveaux d’ouverture commerciale et d’intégration financière de ces pays, puis on a précisé l’effet de la crise sur leur niveau d’intégration. Le lien entre les déficits intérieur et extérieur des pays a été étudié, une première fois avec l’analyse simultanée de l’impact de l’investissement sur les deux déficits, une deuxième fois par l’analyse des effets du taux de change, du taux de chômage et de la dette publique sur eux. A l’aide de ces analyses, on a pu vérifier que les activités commerciales et financières internationales des pays jouent un rôle significatif dans la propagation d’une crise extérieure à un pays donné. / The world trade plays an increasingly important role in countries’ economic evolutions as it has been demonstrated by appearance of the concept of globalization. The occurrence of economic crises modifies the content of commercial relationships. Some aspects of trade liberalization and economic integration of countries are studied here and we have considered their evolutions with respect to the crises. The international trade is studied theoretically and empirically. The theoretical part (first chapter) concerns general definitions, concepts and history of trade and globalization. The empirical analyses (second and third chapters) are related to five European countries (France, Greece, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain) and consider their commercial and economic situations, as well as the effects of crises on them. We have firstly measured the levels of trade openness and financial integration of these countries and then we have specified the effect of the worldwide crisis on their integration level. The linkage between countries’ domestic and foreign deficits has been studied; firstly with a simultaneous analysis of investment impact on the two deficits, and secondly by the analysis of the effects of the variations of exchange rate, unemployment rate and public debt on them. Using these analyses we were able to verify that the countries’ international commercial and financial activities play a significant role in spreading a foreign crisis to a given country.

A tese versa sobre o problema da verdade em Merleau-Ponty e sua oposição à verdade como adequação, portanto, à ontologia clássica dualista e, nesta via, sobre a arte como acesso à verdade, no percurso desencadeado pelo filósofo, e o que daí decorre em relação à instituição de uma ontologia. A arte, pois, como expressão da trama do ser por dentro - não imitação, re-apresentação ou fuga e, neste sentido, testemunho e rebento de uma reversibilidade irredutível (do expresso e da expressão, do signo e do sentido, do corpo e do espírito, de mim e de outrem, da palavra e do silêncio) no que toca à experiência do ser. Traços estes que circunscrevem a verdade no crivo da abertura e da coexistência e, com isto, do inacabamento da linguagem, da ação e do pensamento, compreendida, em última instância, como coesão sem conceito e, deste modo, não adequação. Com este foco, voltamo-nos inicialmente para a reformulação do problema da verdade nos termos de uma efetiva conduta interrogativa cujo solo é a existência enquanto jogo de imanência e transcendência; em seguida, para a ontologia da obra de arte e a intersecção com a filosofia e, deste modo, para a expressão inacabada da verdade; e, por fim, para o mundo sensível e, neste sentido, para a verdade na instância pré-reflexiva. / This thesis deals with the problem of truth in Merleau-Ponty and his opposition to truth as adequacy, therefore, to the classical dualist ontology and, in this way, to art as access to the path opened up by the philosopher and what comes out from this in relation to the institution of an ontology. Hence, art as expression of the being´s weave inside itself not imitation or reapresentation or flight and, in that sense, a proof and a bud of an irreducible reversibility (of what is expressed and the expression, the sign and the meaning, the body and the spirit, the self and the other, the word and the silence) as far as the experience of the being is concerned. These traces circumscribe truth in the riddle of openness and coexistence and so the unfinishiment of language, of action and thought understood, in the last instance, as cohesion without concept and, in that way, no adequacy. On this view, we turn away initially towards the reformulation of the problem of truth in terms of an effective interrogative conduct whose ground is existence while a game of immanence and transcendancy; besides, of the ontology of the work of art and the intersection with philosophy and therefore the unfinished expression of truth; and, at last, to the sensitive world and, in that sense, to truth in the pre-reflective instance.

Kreativitet mäts vanligtvis på två sätt. Divergent Tänkande (DT), som återspeglar flexibilitet och originalitet, och kreativ effektivitet, som beskriver en persons kreativa livsprestationer. Kreativitet är robust förknippat med intelligens och personlighetsdraget Öppenhet. Intelligens har visat sig vara förknippat med kortare responstid och högre tidsmässig precision i timing-uppgifter. Då tidsmässig precision alltså är förknippat med intelligens, och intelligens i sin tur med kreativitet, frågade vi hur kreativitet är relaterat till Tidsprecision. Resultaten visade att DT inte var signifikant korrelerat med någon annan variabel. Kreativ effektivitet var däremot signifikant korrelerat med Öppenhet och Tidsprecision. En samtidig multipel regression med Tidsprecision, Öppenhet och intelligens som prediktorer förklarade 28% av variansen i kreativ effektivitet, men bara Öppenhet hade ett signifikant bidrag. / Creativity is typically gauged in two ways. Divergent Thinking (DT), which reflects flexibility and originality, and creative effectiveness, which describes a person’s creative life achievements. Creativity is robustly associated with intelligence and the personality trait Openness to expirence. Intelligence has been shown to be associated with shorter response time and higher temporal precision in timing tasks. Since timingprecision is thus associated with intelligence, and intelligence in turn with creativity, we asked how creativity relates to timingprecision. The results showed that DT was not significantly correlated to any other variable. However, creative effectiveness was significantly correlated with Openness and timingprecision. A simultaneous multiple regression with timingprecision, Openness, and intelligence as predictors explained 28% of the variance creative effectiveness, but only Openness had a significant contribution.