Thesis (MA(MW)--University of Pretoria, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 258-275).

Thesis (doctoral)--Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 234-244).

We live in an age of rapid change. The advance of science and technology, throughout history, has culminated in periods of transition when social values have had to adapt to a changed environment. Such times have proved fertile ground for the expansion of the imagination. Utopian literature offers a vast archive of information concerning the relationship between scientific and technological progress and social change. Alterations in the most basic machinery of society inspired utopian authors to write of distant and future worlds which had achieved a state of harmony and plenty. The dilemmas which writers faced were particular to their era, but there also emerged certain universal themes and questions: What is the best organisation of society? What tools would be adequate to the task? What does it mean to be human? The dividing line on these issues revolves around two opposed beliefs. Some perceived the power inherent in technology to effect the greatest improvement in the human condition. Others were convinced that the organisation of the social order must come first so as to create an environment sympathetic to perceived human needs. There are, necessarily, contradictions in such a division. They can be seen plainly in More's Utopia itself. More wanted to see new science and technique developed. But he also condemned the social consequences which inevitably flowed from the process of discovery. These consequences led More to create a utopia based on social reorganisation. In the main, the utopias of Francis Bacon, Edward Bellamy and the later H. G. Wells accepted science, while the work of William Morris, Aldous Huxley and Kurt Vonnegut rejected science in preference for a different social order. More's Utopia and Bacon's New Atlantis were written at a time when feudal, agriciTfural society wasbeeing transformed by new discoveries and techniques. In a later age, Bellamy's Looking Backward and Morris's News From Nowhere offer contrary responses to society at the height of the Industrial evolution. These four authors serve as a prelude to the main area of the thesis which centres on the twentieth century. Wells, though his first novel appeared in 1895, produced the vast bulk of his work in the current century. Huxley acts as an appropriate balance to Wells and also exemplifies the shift from utopia to dystopia. The last section of the thesis deals with the work of Kurt Vonnegut and includes an interview with that author. The twentieth century has seen the proliferation of dystopias, portraits of the disastrous consequences of the headlong pursuit of science and technology, unallied to human values. Huxley and Vonnegut crystallised the fears of a modern generation: that we create a soulless, mechanised, urban nightmare. The contemporary fascination with science in literature is merely an extension of a process with a long tradition and underlying theme. The advance of science and technology created the physical and intellectual environment for utopian authors which determined the form and content of their visions.

To expand the research base concerning terrorism this study connects terrorist incidents on a global scale with economic and noneconomic institutional factors. Whereas most terrorism studies use social disorganization theory or anomie theory as their theoretical bases, this study uses institutional anomie theory (IAT) to examine the influence of economic and noneconomic institutions on terrorist-incident counts in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. The research employs the following five sources that are linked together: The Global Terrorism Database (GTD), World Bank Database, data from the University of Texas Inequality Project (UTIP), the United Nations (UN), and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) Regression models examine the influence of inequality on counts of terrorist incidents for the decades of 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s net of controls. OLS models also examine the extent to which the influence of inequality on terrorist-incident counts is mediated by the strength of the noneconomic institutional structures of health care and the family. Results from ordinary least squares regression analyses show that for the time period of 1970 to 1979 there was a nonsignificant, negative association between inequality and terrorist-incident counts and neither health care nor number of divorces was a mediating factor. For the time period 1980 to 1989 a significant, positive association existed between inequality and terrorist incident counts, supporting the hypothesis that countries with higher levels of inequality will have higher counts of terrorist-incident counts. However, in the 1980s neither health care nor family mediated the effects of inequality on terrorist-incident counts. For the time period 1990 to 1997 a statistically significant, positive association was found between inequality and terrorist-incident counts as well as successful mediation by health care on the effects of inequality on terrorist-incident counts, which supports the hypothesis that the influence of inequality on terrorist-incident counts will be mediated by noneconomic institutional structures. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Greater knowledge of specific populations? perception of the capacity for change will assist leadership practitioners in the design and implementation of effective leadership programs. These leadership programs will hopefully prepare students to lead effectively in a rapidly changing society where a strong capacity for change is needed. This study examined three specific populations of undergraduate students who participated in the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership in 2006. The three populations of interest were first generation college students, transfer students and male students. The purpose of the study was to determine the self-perceived capacity to adapt to change for selected college student populations based on the Social Change Model of Leadership (Appendix A). A second purpose was to determine differences in this self-perceived capacity to adapt to change between and among these selected college student populations. Responses to the 10 individual items of the Change Scale (MSL) were measured and analyzed to determine if any significant differences and/or interactions existed in the data. The results of this study inform the design of both Academic and Student Affairs student leadership development programs to enhance the leadership development of these selected student populations. The research design for the study included the use of descriptive statistics, a correlation matrix to examine the relationships of the 10 individual items of the change scale, and a 3X10 MANOVA. These tests and measures were utilized on all three independent variables (generational status, transfer status and gender) and the 10 individual items of the change scale within the Socially Responsible Leadership Scale. This study identified distinct differences between/among the three populations of interest and provided numerous recommendations for practice such as tapping into the unique life experiences of transfer and first generation college students to learn more about their stronger capacity for managing change and specifically recruiting students from the three populations of interest to assist in the delivery of change-related curriculum within leadership programs. Another recommendation was made for leadership practitioners to utilize the Social Change Model of Leadership development to help with the development of leaders who will share a commitment to positive change at the individual, group and community levels.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Department of Sociology, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Diplomarbeit--Universität Trier, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 115-122).

Thesis (M.A.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2002. / Restricted until October 2003. Bibliography: leaves 169-180.

Thesis (MA(Sos.))--Universiteit van Pretoria, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-80).