One aspect of leadership strategy is the need to account for the core values of the organization. The purpose of this case study was to explore the perceptions of tribal gaming leader strategies toward sustainability, an action that leads to tribal economic development and stability. The conceptual framework of situational leadership theory was used to guide the scope and analysis of this study. Six tribal gaming leaders from Oklahoma participated in a focus group session; 7 additional tribal gaming leaders from the same gaming organization participated in individual interview sessions. Member checking was used to strengthen the credibility and trustworthiness of the interpretation of the participants' responses. Additionally, company documents were reviewed to triangulate the data. Four emergent themes were identified after data analysis: business value, which was attributed to tribal leaders' alignment to their mission; strategic vision, which included their marketing and overall business environment; collaboration, which was evident wherein the tribal gaming leaders utilized internal and external partnerships to improve local communities and maintain competitive advantage; and communication, which was emphasized for its importance as a daily skill for information sharing. This research explored the strategies necessary for tribal gaming leader choices that could have a significant influence on social progress between the organization and society, environmental protection for the surrounding community, and economic growth for the local economy. The findings from this study may contribute to social change by aiding in the organizational strategy to forecasting; these findings may also aid in the overall business value, prosperity of employees, and the local economy.

In order to understand the motivations and driving factors that encourage individuals to join the political sphere, as volunteers, the individual’s stories and background will be examined through an exploratory study without any initial hypothesis. Utilizing qualitative research methods, this study will directly look at the lived experiences of political volunteers that drive campaigns and candidates in Colorado’s 5th Congressional District. A greater understanding for both the factors that compel an individual to enter the political sphere in the first place as a volunteer as well as variables that persuade the volunteer to continually stay active will be analyzed. Results: Based off of 10 different interviews with registered voters in Colorado’s 5th Congressional District, this thesis found significant differences in motivations varying from party affiliations, religious values, as well as relationships with the campaign staff.

This dissertation illuminates how phytosanitary (PS) regulations enable mango exportation from Mexico to the United States. PS regulations are technical and legal measures to prevent plant pests from proliferating or being transported to other places and are important regulatory mechanisms enabling the globalization of agriculture. My case study investigates how PS regulations enable Mexican mango exportation as an aspect of the globalization of agriculture, illustrating the consequences of PS regulations to humans and non-humans. More specifically, three research questions are posed: (1) How does the PS regulation network operate to draw distinctions between pest/non-pest, thereby enabling the export of Mexican mangos to the United States? (2) What values are associated with the PS regulation network, and what are the normative, moral, or ethical implications of the regulations? And, (3) How are the PS regulations in transition in the state of Sinaloa changing economic prospects for mango growers and packers to tap into global mango markets? Theoretically, the analysis draws on a concept called “material politics,” which claims that politics is enacted through not only discursive measures, such as statutes, but also physical embodiment by material beings. Thus, PS regulations are conceptualized as a materially heterogeneous network that establishes boundaries between pest/non-pest, thereby connecting distinct places, such as mango orchards and consumers. The material politics concept also suggests the emergence of socio-material “ordering” effects by regulations, such as values, morals, and norms, as well as unequal economic opportunities. Nine months of ethnographic fieldwork in Mexico, which employed in-depth interviews, (participant) observations, and documentary research, yielded the following findings: (1) PS regulations as a network of governance (re)configured the production of the commodity, “disciplining” humans and non-humans to conform to the global regulatory order; (2) in this network, non-governmental entities played critical roles, fitting squarely with the recent neoliberal political-economic orientation in Mexico; and (3) although the government’s pest eradication program could improve market chances for growers, local political-economic circumstances, including small-scale growers’ dependence on packers for marketing, still left substantial challenges for such economic prospects to materialize.

The U.S. is experiencing the worst recession since the Great Depression. All levels of government have been hit really hard, this is especially apparent at the local level since services provided at the local level are woven into people’s daily life. Thus, how to “do more with less” is more urgent than ever before. The use of privatization came to surface as a sound solution for deficit-plagued governments as it is thought to be more cost effective and outperform the public sector in most cases. This dissertation contains two empirical chapters that examine determinants of privatization and specify the conditions under which it is optimal to buy and under which it is optimal to produce in-house. Chapter two explores determinants that contribute to the use of privatization at the local level in the U.S. This chapter incorporates spatial technique to perform the analysis, which is a different approach from much of the literature. Empirical results indicate that a local government’s sourcing decision is affected by its nearby local jurisdictions. External stakeholders’ involvement contributes to the use of outsourcing, whereas having a limited supply of service providers impedes it. Chapter three applies a transaction cost economics (TCE) framework complemented with a revenue volatility measure to disentangle the mechanisms that drive public services’ outsourcing decisions. Results suggest that, in general, services with higher asset specificity and higher contract management difficulty are less likely to be outsourced, and a robust and competitive market facilitates the use of outsourcing.

<p>Genom kvalitativa intervjuer med barn i förskoleklass och genom enkätundersökningar hos pedagoger har jag fått svar på mina frågeställningar som handlar om pojkar, flickor och deras leksaksval då det gäller teknikbaserade leksaker. Syftet var att försöka se om det fanns skillnader i valet och användandet av dessa leksaker och i så fall försöka tydliggöra dem, och dessutom ta reda på varför barnen är olika i sina leksakspreferenser.</p><p>Resultatet påvisar att för barnen i denna förskoleklass är konstruktionsleksaker ett frekvent val i verksamheten. Alla barn leker med dessa leksaker, dock skiljer sig preferenserna åt beroende på om man är flicka eller pojke, både i hemmet och i förskoleklassen. Hur barnens preferenser uppkommer finns det delade meningar om, dock är huvudteorin enligt de forskarna/författare jag tagit del av, socialt betingat.</p><p>Pedagogiska slutsatser är att som pedagog måste man arbeta på ett målmedvetet sätt då det gäller leksaker och genus, man skall alltid ha med sig att leken har stor betydelse i barnens utveckling.</p><p>Nyckelord: genus, leksaker, preferenser, teknik</p> / <p>Through interviews with children in preschool class and through inquiries by questionnaire with their teachers, I have received answers of my question at issue about boys, girls and their choices of technical toys. The purpose was to see if there were any differences in choosing and using these toys, and also to find out if and why the children have different preferences.</p><p>The results indicate that for the children in this preschool class the choice of construction toys is common in the activities. All the children play with these toys, but still there are different preferences among girls and boys, both at home and in preschool class. There are differences in opinion among earlier researchers what causes boys and girls to differ in preferences of toys, but the main theory is still that gender differences depend on the family and the community.</p><p>Pedagogical conclusions are that as a teacher of young children, you have to work with awareness when it comes to toys and gender. You must never forget the important role toys play in the development of the children.</p><p>Keywords: gender, technical, toys, preferences</p>

<p>För att öka ungdomars intresse för teknik är det viktigt att det finns goda förebilder av båda könen för elever att identifiera sig med. Därför har jag gjort en kvantitativ analys av två läroböcker i teknik för skolår 6-9.Böckerna är publicerade 1995 resp. 2005 och är skrivna av samma författare. Analysen har ett genusperspektiv och frågeställningarna är följande:</p><p>Har bildmaterialet förändrats så att könen är mer jämt representerade i antal och typ av sysselsättning? Har textmaterialet förändrats så att könen är mer jämt representerade i antal och typ av sysselsättning? Har tillgången på förebilder för båda könen ökat i den senaste upplagan av boken?</p><p>Resultatet är att könsfördelningen är mycket ojämn till männens fördel och ojämlikheten är större i text än i bild. Ojämlikheten har även ökat mellan de båda upplagorna, främst på grund av den kraftigt ökade förekomsten av män i den senare upplagan. Dock har det skett en kvalitativ förändring mellan upplagorna så att fler människor, både kvinnor och män visas som verkliga, yrkesverksamma individer i den senare upplagan.</p> / <p>To further young people's interest in technology as a curriculum subject and/or career choice, the presence of good role models of both sexes is essential. This caused my investigation of two highschool technology textbooks from a gender perspective. The textbooks were published in 1995 and in 2005 and are written by the same author. The analysis is of a quantitative nature and concerns both immages and text material.</p><p>The results are mainly that there is a substantial inequality in the representation of the sexes, where males are overrepresented in both images and text material. When compairing both editions of the textbook, inequality has increased in the most recent edition, mostly due to the substantial increase of males in the text matierial in the 2005 edition. However, there has been a qualitative change, where more people, both men and women (mostly men, though) are mentioned, and shown, as individuals with technical occupations.</p>

<p>In the Zimbabwean past, farming societies utilized mineral resources for their own use and for exchange to local and regional populations, as well as to markets beyond African borders. Successful agriculture was constrained by environmental hazards, principally unpredictable and often inadequate rainfall. Farming communities managed this predicament in various ways. It is likely that some groups used mineral resources found in the vicinity of their settlements to produce materials or items to exchange. The social contexts that defined the nature of mineral production and exchange altered between the mid-first and mid-second millennium AD, as social ranks emerged and political and economic systems became increasingly complex. The thesis is a commentary on how the motivation of society to broaden its resource base, to improve the benefits to households and to society in general, contributed to the emergence of leaders and, ultimately, of an elite class. The focus of the research is on iron and copper production because the author has examined gold production thoroughly in a previous study. Four published papers outline the history of iron and copper production in Zimbabwe. The papers provide case studies of the scale and social context of iron and copper production and exchange.</p>

This thesis is an ethnographic study of Taulli, a “Peruvian peasant community” (PPC) in the highland region of Ayacucho. PPCs are a paradigmatic type of Andean community with distinctive communal features and great historical significance. The thesis offers a detailed case study that contributes to an understanding of the maintenance, current role, and functioning, of these communities in the early Twenty-first Century. Additionally, this case study reassesses key theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of Andean cultures, defending the ongoing validity of community ethnographies and many aspects of 1960s-80s research in the Andean region (particularly its “long-termist” approaches). Specifically, the thesis examines the current role that the community (as a PPC) plays for the Taullinos -such as its respective advantages and disadvantages- in a context where far-reaching social change coexists with rich local traditions. On the one hand, it is argued that the community has become a channel through which Taullinos acquire access to new services and benefits, largely resulting from increased state intervention through unprecedented development-related initiatives. Despite their limitations and mixed results, it is shown how these initiatives partially adapt to and reinforce the local PPC status. The combination of this state intervention and other factors of change, especially emigration, are deepening local integration into national society and have brought remarkable improvements to the quality of life of Taullinos. Nonetheless, such processes are also hampered by severe problems and challenges, largely linked to a legacy of social exclusion and discrimination. On the other hand, it is argued that the community and local traditions continue to offer Taullinos a strong sense of identity and social cohesion, and some important practical advantages, in the context of social change. In particular, through their participation in the local communal organisation and ritual celebrations, which are key foci of this study. Furthermore, it is demonstrated how local traditions are dynamically reinvented to serve as a primary channel through which Taullinos experience and accommodate change. Therefore, although the local communal system is demanding and has many limitations, Taullinos unanimously accept and identify with it, and with the PPC status that guarantees its continuity.

Les développements théoriques de l'économie (néo-)institutionnelle ont gagné récemment le débat sur le développement. En même temps, le rôle des institutions est progressivement intégré dans l'analyse des stratégies de développement. Notre recherche dont le champ empirique est le cas de la microfinance en Haïti s'inscrit dans cette optique. Elle part de l'idée que le changement économique et social à la base du développement implique l'articulation d'un ensemble d'actifs matériels et immatériels. Le développement apparaît alors comme étant le processus sinon le résultat de la mobilisation d'un ensemble de capitaux. Aussi, nous avons cherché à montrer que les institutions économiques qui structurent les interactions entre les individus constituent une forme de capital : le capital institutionnel. Appliquée à l'analyse de l'intermédiation microfinancière en Haïti, le capital institutionnel s'est révélé un élément déterminant dans la mise en oeuvre des stratégies de développement. Il apparaît comme un apport des organisations de microfinance. Il agit sur les comportements des bénéficiaires des services microfinanciers et se traduit par des conséquences économiques et sociales mesurables. A la lumière de preuves empiriques, nous sommes parvenus à la conclusion suivante : le capital institutionnel compte, à la fois comme outil analytique et comme actif véhiculé par les acteurs pour guider les comportements dans le sens du changement souhaité. / Theories in (New) Institutional Economics won recently the development debate. Meanwhile, the role of institutions is being taken into account progressively in development strategies analysis. Our research in Haitian Microfinance follows the same logic. Its fundamental idea is that development implies economic and social change and this is the result of a pattern of material and immaterial assets. Then, development is viewed as the process or outcome from the interaction of several capitals. In this study, we show that economic institutions structuring relations between economic agents are constitutive of a form of capital: the institutional capital. With an analysis based in the Haitian microfinancial intermediation, we find that institutional capital is a determinant condition for development strategies implementation. In microfinancial intermediation, institutional capital is a production of microfinance organizations. It influences users' behaviors of microfinancial services and generates economic and social outcomes. The main conclusion of our study using empirical evidence is the following: institutional capital matters, either for analytic purpose or as an asset used by economic agents to modify behaviors for change.

In this thesis, I attempt to construct a historical overview of the development of Milwaukee's black middle class. Furthermore, I attempt to develop the connection between the migratory movements of African-American's from the South, and the living conditions that materialized in Milwaukee that precipitated the Civil Rights Movement.