Collaborative processes are widely used to harness resources for addressing community problems. Despite their positive potential, collaborative projects can fragment. Sources of fragmentation include participant misperception of facts, difficulties in defining the problem, and misunderstandings among stakeholders. Disruptions from these elements may impede a group's progress in fostering and implementing agreements. Theoretical and empirical research from conflict resolution has shown that discussing participant interests and the use of facilitation techniques can help negotiators engage in innovative problem solving. Interests are participants' underlying needs, concerns, and desires that shape how individuals perceive issues and the stances they take. Less attention has been given to designing multi–party collaborative processes so that participant interests are explicitly defined and addressed. This comparative case study used mixed methods to examine the role of interests on the evolution of five successfully implemented multi-party collaborative cases. The research examined how participant interests were identified, how facilitation techniques were used, and how stakeholders' interests were addressed in each case. Results show that in all cases, identifying participant interests helped participants understand the central problems, seek information, and use creative problem solving. The use of techniques such as clarifying questions and shared learning experiences in the context of regular face-to–face meetings fostered participant understanding of the issues and each others' interests. In four of the five cases, participants' understanding of other stakeholders' interests affected their perspective on the issues, improved understanding of individual barriers, shaped the agreement, and motivated participants to stay committed to the project. Project staff members and participant leaders used facilitation techniques for identifying actors'’ substantive interests and clarifying issues. These techniques addressed participant relationship and process interests. In the cases with higher levels of fragmentation, participant interests were connected to values, individuals used competitive bargaining tactics, and trust influenced the willingness of participants to share interests. Facilitation techniques were crucial for encouraging trust building among stakeholders and for managing disruptions. These findings indicate that managers will increase problem solving capacity in collaborative processes by explicitly using negotiation-–based facilitation techniques to identify and address participant interests.

The following rhetorical criticism is an investigation of two public service announcements released by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Utilizing a composite method derived from Osborn (1994), Brummett (1991) and Burke (1945), this study investigates what it means when to say how others ought to act and why they ought to act that way. This investigation demonstrates how the manipulations of identities, ideologies, and action are the elements used to motivate people to act in affirmation of an identity. Moreover, it demonstrates why the motivated social actions serve as foundations for constructing our social reality. Ultimately, it discovers and clarifies a grammar of edification, how that grammar allows for efficient quotidian management, and, thus, why it serves as a tool for managing everyday meaning in our social world.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture (Prof), 2016 / ‘Africa United in Cultural Diversity’ is what is written in bold on a musical event poster outside Home Affairs, during the 2015 xenophobic riots in Johannesburg. In smaller writing it says ‘Opening the doors of learning and culture from Cape to Cairo ’.This thesis is an exploration of how music can act as a universal medium of engagement in an urban space, where interactions between an African diasporic and the local communities can occur. The thesis discusses the relationship between inclusiveness and civic life through Sociologist Ray Oldenburg’s hypothesis of The Third Place (A place between home and work that is critical to the cohesion of diverse society). I also look at ethnomusicologist Ruth Stone`s work on the development of cultural music traits in Central and Southern Africa. Additional I speak to famed composers and performer of traditional Southern African music Dizu Plaatjies. What emerges from this research is a unifying musical pattern (Keita`s Asymmetric Timeline) that mirrors the qualities of The Third Place in its engagement with the inhabitants of the city and sense of the familiar amongst the general public. My building design process then demonstrates that through the use of these two, a spatial and networked experience of African culture can be created in the city. Informing a place where a dialogue of understanding between an African diasporic and the local communities can begin to occur. This place provides an exciting opportunity for designing the way that production and engagement of vernacular music is used as unifying source in shaping The Third Place as a musical performance venue. / MT2016

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This research project examines the experiences of women who have undergone elective cosmetic breast surgery. Drawing from qualitative in-depth interviews with twenty four women, this study examines why these women were willing to undergo dangerous and invasive cosmetic surgery procedures to change the appearance of their breasts. It is argued that although the women exercised agency in their decision-making, their choices were severely constrained by a culture that rewards women for conforming to feminine beauty norms, and sanctions those who do not. The women’s experiences further reveal that their decisions often “cut both ways.” These women’s decisions “cut both ways,” because while the women acquired personal benefits, these came with significant physical and emotional costs. Finally, it “cuts both ways,” because while these women personally benefited, their decisions result in the reproduction of the current beauty system and uphold the unjust feminine beauty norms on which it is based. / viii, 228 leaves ; 29 cm.

This dissertation explores how female-born or female-bodied gender variants perform and represent their masculinities in American performance art and drag king shows. A drag king refers to a woman or female-born person who performs their gender as fluid, usually wearing masculine costumes and make-up. I focus on how race, ethnicity, and class are involved in performing female masculinities on stage, and how the intersections of other social vectors produce myriad differences in terms of stakes, styles, and forms of masculinity. I examine how female-born queer performers foreground the constructed nature of masculinity, and how they redefine established categories of gender and sexuality through performance. I argue that queer performances of female masculinities deconstruct the heteronormative gender binary and embody alternative configurations of sex, gender, class, race, and sexuality. In my first chapter, I address Peggy Shaw's Menopausal Gentleman (1997) and To My Chagrin (2003). I examine how she portrays aging white butch masculinity, sexuality, and emotion, through the reinterpretation of menopause and musings on her own whiteness. My second chapter provides a critical reading of kt shorb's [sic] of chicks, dicks, and chinks (2005) and D'Lo's Ramble-Ations (2006). Investigating the effeminization of Asian masculinity and multicultural racial performativity, I illuminate how Asian-American female masculinities are differently constituted in the interplay between class, ethnicity, diaspora, and cultural identities. In my third chapter, I analyze the 6th (Chicago, 2004) and 8th (Austin, 2006) International Drag King Extravaganza showcase performances. I describe how they reveal the theatrical nature of masculinity, and how they mark race, class, and ethnicity. In addition, I discuss how they valorize gender fluidity and multiplicity, staging queer desire and pleasure. Throughout this dissertation, by offering complex illustrations of masculine genders of the female body or the gender-ambiguous body, I contend that female-born gender variants disrupt the equation of masculinity to maleness through their theatrical performances of masculinities. I conclude that performing female masculinities can foster the critical artfulness of gender by engaging in social criticism of gender, class, race, ethnicity, and sexuality.

This dissertation explores Mobile Media Technologies (MMT’s) namely, cellphones, laptops and MP3 players, and their prevalence in public space as well as how they are being used within the space. Much of my research analyses the impact of MMT’s on social behaviour and the extent to which they can be seen as the harbingers of a new “postmodern” form of social organisation. My research is predominantly an observational study which is conducted within the postmodern space of the shopping mall. Through my research I discuss the multiple spaces within the shopping mall environment and I explore how humans behave, interact and construct their identities within this space; these ideas are evaluated in terms of the “modern” and the “postmodern” paradigms. “Postmodernity” and “modernity” are not mutually exclusive and as a result there are ambivalences in terms of how individuals relate to how MMT’s are being used in public space. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The interface between science and technology and the society has led to the notion of science as a social contract, in which scientists, politicians and the general public are called upon to acknowledge the urgency of using all fields of science and technology to address human needs. Science and technology is used as an instrument of change for a better quality of life and sustainable development for the present and future generations. The object of science and technology policies is to achieve specific development objectives. It is thus imperative to adopt science and technology policies that support the national development strategies. It is also important to set up science and technology structures to facilitate the proper functioning of the science and technology system. Competitiveness constitutes one of the most important challenges facing Southern Africa today. With globalization and the expansion of world trade competition, it has become more difficult for Southern African enterprise to keep up with the pace of technological developments. In the light of these challenges, most countries are driving towards the adoption of a national system of innovation (NSI) to encourage the interaction of policies, research and development, human resource development and industrial development. The study is induced by major science and technology set backs, which are common across countries in Southern Africa namely, poor co-ordination mechanisms, poor science and technology infrastructure and a lack of funding. The study provides background information on the theoretical framework of the concept of NSI. For the research method, a qualitative research design was followed with content analysis of existing documents. Published documents were used to provide information on the three countries, which were used as case studies namely Malawi, Namibia and South Africa. The main focus of the case studies is on the following: an outline of the policy goals of each of the three countries, the concept of the NSI as it is expressed by each of the countries and the science and technology structures in the three countries. The study identified poor co-ordination of science and technology activities as the key problem of all three countries. The structures differ slightly and in particular, the placement of the management of science and technology determines the efficiency of the system. The South African NSI is well established as its network is strengthened by the National Advisory Council for Innovation and the National Research and Development Strategy. Next is Namibia which has a system in place, while Malawi is still at the initial stages of setting up its NS!. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die koppelvlak tussen wetenskap en tegnologie en die gemeenskap het gelei tot die siening van wetenskap as 'n sosiale kontrak waarin wetenskaplikes, politici en die algemene publiek versoek word om te erken dat dit nodig geword het om alle vertakkinge van wetenskap en tegnologie aan te wend om menslike nood te verlig. Wetenskap en tegnologie word gebruik as 'n instrument om verandering teweeg te bring ter bevordering van 'n beter kwaliteit lewe en volhoubare ontwikkeling vir die huidige en toekomstige generasies. Die doel van 'n wetenskap en tegnologiebeleid is om spesifieke ontwikkelingsdoelstellings te verwesenlik. Dit is dus noodsaaklik dat hierdie beleid in ooreenstemming met die nasionale onwikkelingsstrategieë ontwerp moet word. Dit is ook belangrik om wetenskap en tegnologiestrukture in plek te stel wat die effektiewe funksionering van die sisteem kan vergemaklik. Mededingbaarheid is een van die grootste uitdagings wat Suider Afrika tans in die gesig staar. Met globalisering en die uitbreiding van wêreldhandel het dit moeiliker geword vir Suider Afrikaanse ondernemings om in pas te bly met tegnologiese ontwikkeling. In die lig van hierdie uitdagings stuur die meeste lande in die rigting van 'n Nasionale Sisteem vir Innovasie (NSI) om interaksie tussen beleid, navorsing en ontwikkeling, menslike hulpbronontwikkeling en industriële ontwikkeling aan te moedig. Wat aanleiding gegee het tot hierdie studie is die wetenskap en tegnologieprobleme wat algemeen voorkom in die lande in Suider Afrikaanse, naamlik onvoldoende koërdinasie meganismes, swak wetenskap en tegnologie-infrastruktuur en 'n gebrek aan fondse. 'n Kwalitatiewe navorsingsontwerp is gevolg waarin analise van die inhoud van dokumente as navorsingsmetode gebruik is. Die studie verskaf agtergrond-inligting oor die teoretiese raamwerk van die NSI konsep. Gepubliseerde dokumente is gebruik om inligting te verskaf oor die drie lande wat as gevallestudies dien, naamlik Malawi, Namibië en Suid-Afrika. Die hooffokus van die gevallestudies is soos volg: 'n raamwerk van die beleidsdoelstellings van elk van die drie lande, die konsep NSI soos toegepas deur elkeen en die wetenskap en tegnologiestrukture in elk van die betrokke lande. Die studie het swak koërdinasie van wetenskap en tegnologie-aktiwiteite as die sleutelprobleem van aldrie lande geïdentifiseer. Die strukture verskil effens van mekaar en veral die plasing van die wetenskap en tegnologiebestuur bepaal die effektiwiteit van die stelsel. Die Suid Afrikaanse NSI is goed gevestig omdat sy netwerk versterk word deur die Nasionale Adviesraad vir Innovasie en die Nasionale Navorsing- en Ontwikkelingstrategie. Volgende is Namibië wat 'n sisteem in plek het, terwyl Malawi nog maar in die beginstadium is van die daarstelling van hul NSI.

Yang, Jing. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-135). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter Chapter 1: --- Introduction --- p.p.1 / Chapter Chapter 2: --- Literature Review --- p.p.14 / Bodies --- p.p.15 / Spaces --- p.p.19 / Bodies-Spaces --- p.p.23 / "Fantasy, Organization & Gender" --- p.p.28 / Chapter Chapter 3: --- Methodology --- p.p.36 / Data Collection --- p.p.36 / Date Analysis --- p.p.41 / Chapter Chapter 4: --- Fantastic Bodies-Spaces / The ACG Fantasy of Maid --- p.p.43 / Geographical Location & Imaginary Location --- p.p.46 / Inventing Names & Dressing Up --- p.p.50 / "Home, Sweet Home" --- p.p.57 / Fantastic Bodies-Spaces --- p.p.61 / Chapter Chapter 5: --- Organizational Bodies-Spaces / "Maid Date, A Profit-Organization" --- p.p.66 / White Maid Date & Black Maid Date --- p.p.67 / Redrawing the Boundaries Between Home and Work --- p.p.70 / Working as Professionals --- p.p.74 / Supervision --- p.p.79 / Organizational Bodies-Spaces --- p.p.82 / Chapter Chapter 6: --- Gendered Bodies-Spaces / Display of Femininity & Male Gaze --- p.p.87 / Butler's Day --- p.p.93 / Gendered Bodies-Spaces --- p.p. 100 / Chapter Chapter 7: --- Conclusion --- p.p.103 / Appendix --- p.p.117 / Reference --- p.p.122

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