Despite increased diversity noted in undergraduate education in recent years (Antonio, 2003), students from non-majority groups continue to be underrepresented in graduate school. Many research studies (Perna, 2000, 2004; Perna & Titus, 2005; Rowan-Kenyon, 2007; Walpole, 2003, 2007b) have used measures of cultural and social capital to increase the explanatory power of the traditional econometric framework in college choice models, but have not used these sociological variables as a primary focus. The purpose of this correlational study was to explore the influence of cultural capital and social capital on the decision of bachelor’s degree completers to enter graduate school and ultimately to degree achievement. The study is an extension of Perna’s 2004 work, which examined similar relationships of cultural and social capital variables via use of the Baccalaureate & Beyond: 93/97 study. Based on Walpole’s findings (2003), variables related to socioeconomic status (SES) were also included in my analysis. The data used to answer the research questions were collected as part of a longitudinal study, the Baccalaureate & Beyond: 93/03. Participants in the Baccalaureate & Beyond: 93/03 study were students in the U.S. who earned a bachelor’s degree during the 1992-1993 academic year, representing a population of 1.2 million individuals (Choy, Bradburn, & Carroll, 2008). My findings revealed that measures of cultural and social capital have a significant influence on graduate school enrollment and degree completion. Among low SES students (as designated by family income) cultural and social capital variables substantially increased the likelihood of graduate degree attainment.

This thesis investigates the management of social capital processes as they are accomplished-understood, experienced and shaped-by owner-managers. The aim of the thesis is to develop a deeper understanding of the management of social capital processes, to achieve a greater congruence between real-life perspectives and experiences and social capital literature. The thesis argues that social capital is situational, and in the economic situation the theory has been bounded by rational choice framing assumptions. The research problem is that claims for the universality of the economic way of looking at life, and for looking at social capital processes are over-stated. Predicated on this insight the research investigates economic notions of rationality, and low and non-rationality, as well as their inter-dependence in the management of social capital processes. The research follows a qualitative approach for data collection, with flexible pre-coding to guide the research where to look, while retaining an inductive openness to emergent data. The research population is drawn from SME owner-managers in the service and retail sectors, who were researched over two years using semi-structured interviews, observation, and by researcher participant observation. The thesis presents a number of contributions to knowledge. First, the thesis offers an in-depth, single source review explicating the meaning of the economic form of social capital, with reference to its intellectual antecedents, conceptual debates and key theoretical authors. The second (emergent research) contribution is to identify the significance of ethics and autodidactic reading for managing social capital processes. The third (theoretical) contribution argues for an expanded social capital perspective, beyond the prevailing and over-confident rational framing assumptions, and also for a new holistic ontological understanding. The fourth contribution is to identify a number of generic processes which can guide the management of social capital processes.

L‟analyse des expériences vécues par les personnes vivant le VIH offre une meilleure compréhension de la manière de vivre de celles-ci et du poids de la maladie qui touche simultanément les dimensions physiques, affectives, sociales et économiques des personnes directement ou indirectement concernées.La perte d‟utilité sociale à cause des stigmates, des exclusions et de la souffrance dus aux effets des traitements ou de la maladie constitue un coût dont les effets sur les trajectoires de maladie se traduisent par une régression de la qualité de vie des personnes séropositives. Le VIH, marqueur de la vulnérabilité du capital santé, du capital économique et du capital social, implique des efforts de gestion par les personnes atteintes, des contraintes de ressources pour faire face aux difficultés liées à la maladie. Dans cette situation, le capital social s‟impose comme alternative d‟investissement pour améliorer la qualité de vie avec le VIH.L‟objectif de ce travail est donc d‟étudier à travers l‟analyse des cas des personnes séropositives au VIH, leur investissement dans le capital social pour répondre aux exigences imposées par une vie avec une maladie chronique, stigmatisante, précarisante et transmissible.La méthodologie utilisée est une série de deux enquêtes (d‟un an d‟intervalle entre juin 2010 et décembre 2011) par entretiens approfondis auprès de trente personnes séropositives, habitant la ville de Marseille et ayant volontairement accepté de participer à l‟étude.La définition du capital social adoptée est celle de la théorie de l‟économie générale des pratiques de Pierre Bourdieu qui explique les actions et les intérêts des individus. Tout ceci, sans exclure la portée analytique de ce concept en santé publique sous ses trois formes à savoir le bonding, le bridging et le linking respectivement pour le soutien social, l‟appui ou la participation communautaire et l‟intervention institutionnelle. Le cadre conceptuel retenu, est le plus à même d‟être en cohérence avec la définition choisie. C'est-à-dire la théorie des functionnings et capabilities d'Amartya SEN qui montre les conditions d'analyse et d'optimalisation du bien-être général à partir de l'autonomie fonctionnelle du malade et la liberté de ce dernier de choisir ses modes de vie pour le gain de son utilité sociale.Les résultats de cette recherche montrent les traits originaux de l‟expérience individuelle avec le VIH. Ils vérifient l‟hypothèse selon laquelle le choc de l‟annonce de la séropositivité a été vécu comme la mort en sursis avec remise en cause toute idée de construire un projet d‟avenir pour les personnes infectées avant les années 1996 à cause de l‟absence des thérapies efficaces. En outre, ce travail soutient que les inégalités sociales et les difficultés vécues par les personnes séropositives sont en partie dues à la reproduction des facteurs de précarisation issus de leur milieu de vie dans l‟enfance. Ensuite, l‟investissement dans le capital social comme stratégie mise en oeuvre pour vivre normalement avec le VIH, bien que variant selon les ressources de chacun, constitue une option efficace d‟accès aux soins, à l‟information et à la prévention, tout en contribuant à l‟amélioration de la qualité de vie des personnes infectées. / The analysis of the experiences of people living HIV provides a better understanding of the way of living of the weight of the disease affecting at the same time the dimensions physical, emotional, social and economic of the persons directly or indirectly concerned.The loss of social utility because of the stigma, the exclusions and suffering due to the effects of the treatments or disease is a cost which the effects on the trajectories of disease result in a regression of the quality of life of people living with HIV. HIV, marker of the vulnerability of the capital health, social capital and economic capital, involves management efforts by individuals, constraints of resources to deal with the difficulties associated with the disease. In this situation, social capital is required as an alternative investment to improve the quality of life with HIV.The objective of this work is therefore to study through the analysis of the cases of HIV-positive people to HIV, their investment in the share capital to meet the requirements imposed by a life with a chronic illness, stigma, precarisante and communicable.The methodology used is a series of two surveys (one year interval between June 2010 and December 2011) by extensive interviews with thirty HIV-positive people, who live in the city of Marseille and who voluntarily agreed to participate in the study.The definition of social capital is that of the theory of Pierre Bourdieu practices general economy that explains the actions and interests of individuals. All this, without excluding the analytical scope of this concept in public health in its three forms namely the bonding, the bridging and linking respectively for social support, support or community participation and institutional intervention. The conceptual framework chosen, is the most likely to be in line with the chosen definition. That is the theory of functionnings and capabilities of Amartya SEN that shows conditions analysis and optimization of well-being from the functional autonomy of the patient and the freedom of the latter to choose its modes of life to gain its social usefulness.The results of this research show the original features of the individual experience with HIV. They verify the hypothesis that the shock of the announcement of seropositivity was experienced as death in conditional release in question any idea to build a project for the future for those infected before the 1996 because of the lack of effective therapies.In addition, this work supports social inequalities and the difficulties experienced by the HIV-positive are partly due to the reproduction of from insecure factors of the living environment in childhood. Second, investment in social capital as strategy implementation to live normally with HIV, although depending on the resources, is an effective option of access to care, education and prevention, while contributing to the improvement of the quality of life of infected people.

The thesis focuses on the networking topic. The networking is defined and compared to other terms that are often used as a synonym, e.g. social capital. Three contexts are researched. The first study aims networking online, its specifics, advantages and possible risks. The second part studies selected correlations of networking activities of University of economics alumni. The third study searches out the networking activities and standards of Czech managers in the field of finance. The results are connected with the possible usage in both fields, the one of university education and management too.

Magister Artium - MA / Cape Town has arguably the most diversified urban agriculture sector across the country. Nevertheless, the desired gains of urban agriculture are barely realized. The organization of urban agriculture, specifically the nature in which urban farmers are organized in relation to supporting actors, is identified as a significant factor in influencing the success of the activity. Surprisingly, the literature on the organization of urban farmers and supporting actors in Cape Town is scanty. It is on this basis that this study aimed to investigate the organization of urban farmers and their relationship with supporting actors in Mitchells Plain. Informed by the social capital theory, a case-study approach was employed where both the qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis were utilized to meet the study objectives. A random sampling technique was used in the selection of the 60 respondents for a questionnaire survey. Purposive sampling was employed to select the key informant respondents which included knowledgeable urban farmers, Non-Governmental Organization officials, a Research official and a Provincial Department of Agriculture official. Secondary data collection was achieved through a systematic review of scholarly literature and policy documents. The statistical software IBM SPSS 25 was employed to process and analyze quantitative data through descriptive and inferential techniques. For qualitative data, thematic analysis was conducted to process the transcribed interviews whilst a hermeneutic approach was used to analyze secondary data. The study findings show that urban farmers are organized into loose and largely fragmented informal networks within Mitchells Plain. Although these forms of networks in their current state are beneficial to household farmers, community farmers require more formal networks to operate optimally and receive resources beyond non-governmental organization assistance. Moreover, the study discovered a lack of meaningful coordination of activities between the supporting actors involved in urban farming initiatives which militate against the success of urban agriculture activities in the community. Consequently, the study recommends that supporting actors need to develop functional partnerships to enhance the impact of urban agriculture activities. Also, community farmers are encouraged to affiliate with formal networks while household farmers simply need to enhance informal networking amongst themselves to improve activity coordination and resource access from supporting actors.

Waterpipe smoking (WPS) is a global epidemic. The prevalence of WPS threatens to surpass cigarette smoking in certain parts of the world. Although current WPS interventions have had some effect in creating awareness of the dangers of WPS, these interventions alone have not succeeded in reducing WPS among university students, despite them knowing the harmful effects of WPS. Since WPS is seen to be a social event, a more holistic perspective of reducing WPS through linking health psychology with social factors encountered such as emphasizing the influences of the collective group and social connections on individual smoking behavior. Thus, social capital is a useful concept, which focuses our attention on an important set of resources inherent in relationships, networks, associations and their norms; all of which have been given insufficient priority in the health literature. The aim of this research was to examine what cognitive and structural bonding social capital factors contributed towards the understanding of WPS behaviors. Thus, this study explored three questions: How has exposure to previous WPS campaigns and/ or interventions influenced participants behavior towards WPS? What was the association between structural factors of WPS and bonding social capital among university students in relation to WPS? What was the association between cognitive factors of WPS and bonding social capital among university students in relation to WPS? A qualitative evaluation using three focus group interviews were used to answer the questions. The study design followed an abductive approach. The data was analyzed using thematic content analysis. Results from the study suggested that even though there have been numerous health interventions to reduce WPS, such as education in schools, posters at the university and TV documentaries, people continue to smoke the waterpipe, despite knowledge of the dangers of WPS smoking. Instead, participants attributed their frequent smoking behavior to groups collectively influencing each other to smoke. Factors of hygiene, homogenous group composition (in terms of race, age and/ or education) and the type of organizational setting (familiar vs. unfamiliar), played a role in the way social relations and interactions influence permeability and mobility of WPS groups, reinforcing structural bonding social capital. Factors of cognitive bonding social capital were also highlighted, where prior contact and gender played a role in setting out conditions of exclusion. Cognitive bonding social capital, along with the structural aspects, is a useful way to understand how these connections may be linked to population health, especially in WPS. Thus, health promoters need to invest more energy into developing programs and policies that take into consideration the social dimensions within the broader context of the university, which social capital may have to offer, contributing to a more critical approach to health psychology when designing interventions and cessation programs.

Job creation remains a critical challenge for South Africa. Despite strong achievements in macro-economic stability and increases in employment, the growing labour force has outstripped the capacity of the labour market to absorb young people. The state of the country’s skills base, rendered inadequate by the legacy of apartheid, contributes to sustained inequalities in the labour market. This impacts on the capacity of the economy to grow in an increasingly competitive global environment. In this context, Vocational Education and Training (VET) is viewed as an important mechanism for building the necessary intermediate technical skills to support key sectors of the economy. However, international experience demonstrates that expanding the VET system and developing human capital more broadly will not in itself lead to increased job creation. The alignment of skills supply and demand can only be achieved through a well-developed understanding of the factors that support or inhibit the transition of young people into the labour market. This study investigates these factors through the lens of social capital theory. Through tracing 1,532 individuals who graduated from FET Colleges in the Gauteng province in 1999, the study interrogates the role of bonding and bridging social capital in supporting the transition into colleges and from colleges into the labour market. The findings show support for the three hypotheses: 1) Poor socio-economic family contexts appear to offer little information from which to make effective educational choices. Young people generally make such choices on the basis of perceived long-term value of post-school education rather than short-term economic considerations. 2) FET colleges are ineffective agents of bridging social capital and therefore have limited impact on the rate of employment, in particular the rate of relevant employment. 3) Personal networks are critical, but in impoverished environments are ineffective for finding meaningful employment on initial entry into the labour market. Therefore, restricted social networks have the potential to further entrench social inequality. The study contributes to a greater understanding of the challenges facing youth in navigating through the transition from school to work and the implications for FET policy in pressurising colleges to create access to effective social networks for their students and thereby meaningfully contribute to job creation.

This study aims to shed a light over the challenges, possibilities and problems regarding renovation and rehabilitation of the million program housing. Many million program housing is in acute need of restoration and the monetary cost is high since the housings represent one fourth of the Swedish housing. This will be from a social sustainability perspective and investigate how different parts of the property owners incorporate social sustainability during their changes and modifications in their projects. While visiting these strategies and looking into the social sustainability a issue is also due to see if there is any overall dialog between companies in order to share information and experiences. Qualitative methods were used to conduct this study, even more specific interviews with following thematic analysis. The results found that the strategies for public utility and private housing differs when it comes to renovation million program housings. They operate in different practical methods and has difference in the ambitions of social sustainability. Three actors from different branches in the million program housing is interview to contain different perspectives to widen the reach and deepen the analysis on how the problems and strategies should be perceived and what they struggle with and find promising for the future.

[pt] Esta tese busca explorar a dinâmica do processo de aprendizado organizacional e melhorar o entendimento sobre o desempenho da organização, identificando os alicerces que suportam a construção e o desenvolvimento dos ativos intangíveis e considerando o crescimento do capital social, além de propor um arranjo teórico que permita uma melhor abordagem para a perspectiva de aprendizado e crescimento do Balanced Scorecard - BSC. Com a atual dinâmica, extremamente mutável e surpreendente, dos ambientes de negócios, o entendimento e a implementação de uma organização de aprendizado são condições essenciais para que elevados níveis competitivos sejam alcançados, devido à sua maior habilidade em criar ou explorar ativos intangíveis, sustentando a capacidade de sobrevivência por longo prazo com patamares excelentes de desempenho. Assim, os mecanismos de avaliação, conjugados com o conseqüente aprimoramento ou inovação dos produtos, processos, padrões e práticas de gestão, tornam-se essenciais. Muito embora a metodologia BSC venha sendo adotada por diversas organizações como solução para a realização de uma avaliação integrada do desempenho, buscando a medição da transformação dos ativos intangíveis nos resultados, ela apresenta lacunas em relação às teorias de aprendizagem organizacional aceitas e não se aprofunda em direção às raízes desses aspectos, notadamente humanos. Mediante o estudo de organizações referenciadas como excelentes para se trabalhar e organizações praticantes de BSC, pôde-se verificar a existência de correlação positiva do nível de confiança e de aprendizado com resultados excepcionais, demandando nova revisão dessa metodologia de avaliação do desempenho, a fim de adequá-la às questões essenciais para a gestão comprometida com resultados sustentáveis na nova Era do Conhecimento. Com base na análise realizada é proposta uma nova abordagem para o modelo BSC que permita explicitar essa essência, intrinsecamente humana, que serve de alicerce para a cadeia de geração de valor que culmina nos resultados organizacionais. / [en] This doctoral dissertation explores the organizational learning process dynamics in order to improve the understanding of the organizational performance formation, identifying the foundations that would support building and developing the intangible assets, considering the growth of the social capital, but also considering a theoretical concept to a better approach of the learning and growth perspective of the Balanced Scorecard - BSC. With the current dynamics of business-oriented environments, which seems changeable and extremely surprising, the understanding and the implementation of a learning organization are key factors to achieve high competitive levels, due to the greater ability in creating or exploring intangible assets that supports the organizational surviving for a long time with excellent performance levels. Thus, the appraisal mechanisms, associated with the consequent improvement or innovation of the products, processes, standards and management practices, have become essential. Although, the Balanced Scorecard - BSC methodology has been adopted for many organizations as a solution for the accomplishment of an integrated performance evaluation, including the measurement of intangible assets´ transformation into results, the BSC still presents gaps as it is related to the notorious accepted theories of organizational learning and, besides it, the BSC does not go beyond deeper inside the mainly human roots of those aspects. It was possible to verify the positive correlation of the trust level and the learning level with exceptional results, by the study of organizations known as excellent to work and others known as practitioners of BSC. These findings are claiming for a new revision into this performance evaluation methodology in order to adjust it to those essential questions for the management´s commitment with sustainable results in the new Knowledge Age. Finally, a new approach for the BSC model is proposed, as a way to explicit the human essence which serves as foundations of the value chain that ends into organizational results.

Abstract Background: Female entrepreneurship in China is a practice which scholars have explored severally in recent years. Just as many Asian countries, the role of Chinese women has been undermined for a longer period. However, the 20 th century marked a positive turn in Chinese culture. The rate of discrimination and seclusion of women from economic empowerment started reducing significantly. Today, Chinese women are struggling to compete effectively with their male counterparts in entrepreneurial sector. The purpose of having women empowerment on the market economy is to generate more income to the country. Also, the practice lessens the rate of unemployment and high rate of dependency in China. Hence, it is apparent that the entrepreneurial actions in China are motivated by a number of factors that are presented in the paper. Purpose: The primary aim of the study is to determine influential and motivational factors for female entrepreneurs in China. Methods: The research has employed a qualitative research approach to determine influential factors and motivating aspects of female entrepreneurship in China. Random sampling tactic has been chosen as the methodology to discover data of women that have succeeded in the country. This approach can help to analyze a broader population of women entrepreneurs in China. Meanwhile, a semi-structured interview was involved in collecting data so that first-hand and unbiased information is obtained from interviewees. Findings: From the study of the influential factors and motivation for female entrepreneurs in China, it has been noted that the process of entrepreneurship among the current female entrepreneurs in the country can be categorized as either passive or initiative. While looking at the passive entrepreneurship among the female entrepreneurs, it is noted that those people are driven by the daily needs of their families. On the other hand, initiative entrepreneurship relies much more on human capital and social capital. The zeal and motivation that they possess lead them to developing far-sighted enterprises, hence contributing to the economic development of the country.