Today, many developing countries are embarking on ambitious programmes to develop large computer-based information systems within their public administration to promote socio-economic development. However, the overall objectives of these investments remain unfulfilled. Success and failures of information systems are largely determined by the performance of organizational members associated with the development and use of information systems. Performance of these members is primarily determined by individual competencies and the environment in which the activities of these members are taking place. Information systems related education and training to create competent individuals has always been a matter of great concern to almost all developing countries. However, public administration in developing countries is an intensely political affair. Organizational politics very often give birth to a number of macro and micro environmental conditions, which constrain certain courses of action of competent individuals. Therefore, individuals, however competent, cannot perform to the best of their abilities. This invariably results in information systems that are ineffective and inefficient. Systematic empirical studies that can increase our understanding of this domain are virtually non-existent. The current research aims to rectify this issue. The research methodology adopted for the current research assumes that organizational members, when involved in a particular activity in a particular context, interpret the situation, and act accordingly. Researchers, by immersing themselves in the members' world can understand their actions. Focusing on two cases within the public administration of India and adopting a hermeneutic approach, the study interprets the actions of different organizational members associated with the implementation of information systems. By relating the performance of these members to the strengths and weaknesses of the information systems, the study makes broad recommendations. Findings of the study reveal that Indian policy makers and implementers have always given significant consideration to information systems related education and training. However, on the other hand, the very factors that India has been trying to address through successive administrative reforms since national independence happen to be the same factors that constrain the performance of competent individuals.

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This discussion is written in a descriptive manner, firstly because of the nature of the phenomenon investigated as the appropriate quantitative metric has yet to be invented, secondly because of the importance of the cybernetic-systems approach to some of the more critical questions facing man, the importance that the average layman understands this approach and the questions tackled in this investigation. These critical questions concern the converging trends in socio-economic evolution that mankind is facing. Some of these trends are physical, some are socio-mental. The physical trends are more obvious; the accelerating cost of raw materials, the rapid decline in available raw materials on a per capita basis, the exploding population, the increasing disparity in the ability to generate wealth both within developed and developing countries as well as between them, new attitudes towards consumption and work, the increasing integration of the world into one socio-economic system, increasing life span and population bulges, technological advance, environmental deterioration, morale and moral degeneration and regeneration, cultural and social decay and expansion, deforestation, ideological resolution and conflict, economic waste and efficiency, and information and noise explosion. This discussion focuses upon the flow of socio-economic systems as directed and influenced by information flows and communication channels and how in consequence these converging trends are and can be optimally dealt with. "Extensive, concious attempts to direct a complex society in a viable, adaptive manner have only just begun in modern history, and much remains to be learned to avoid the mistakes of the past. An intimate understanding of the workings of the sociocultural level of complex adaptive system is essential." Walter Buckley.

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In this dissertation I argue that the notion of environmental justice is recognised by section 24 of the Constitution, forms part of our law, and could play a role in South African socio-economic rights litigation as a transformative tool. I assert that because environmental justice recognises the intrinsic links between the distribution of basic resources and the environments in which poor people continue to find themselves in post 1994 South Africa, it has the ability to enhance and strengthen the enforcement of socio-economic rights. Environmental justice can do so by, among other things, focussing the court‟s mind on questions of justice and equity in the context of previous unjust environmental decision-making. In chapter 1, I explore the origins of environmental justice as a conceptual framework and as a movement that first emerged in the United States, and was subsequently embraced in the early post-apartheid era in response to immense environmental injustices experienced by South Africa‟s poor black majority as a result of apartheid. I discuss how many of these injustices not only „linger on‟ in post 1994 South Africa, but have also arguably become more entrenched, representing a failure on the part of the hopeful environmental justice movement of the early post-apartheid era. I highlight some of the reasons for this failure, which include the fragmented nature of the environmental justice movement, changes in government policy in relation to environmental issues, and the inadequate implementation of environmental laws intended to ensure public participation. In spite of these set backs, I argue in chapter 2 that there remains room for environmental justice to play a role in transformative constitutionalism. I then demonstrate that, despite environmental justice having been incorporated into our law, it has failed to capture the imagination of lawyers engaged in socio-economic rights litigation. Sustainable development and human rights discourses have thus far been the dominant voices in socio-economic rights litigation, at the expense of environmental justice, and its transformative potential. In chapter 3, I analyse Mazibuko v City of Johannesburg, which concerned the right to free basic water under section 27 of the Constitution. In my analysis of Mazibuko, I align myself with those who criticise the court‟s approach as anti-transformative. I do so by demonstrating that the court ii „technicised‟, „personalised‟, „proceduralised‟ and so, „depoliticised‟ the applicants‟ challenge to the government‟s policy. In this way, the court endorsed the „commodification‟ of water, and a „neo-liberal paradigm‟ towards access to basic water. I point to how linking environmental justice to the right to access to basic water could have encouraged the court to adopt a more redistributive and transformative approach. Finally, in chapter 4, I conclude by considering the future role of environmental justice in socio-economic rights litigation to enhance the ability of the environmental right to challenge poverty and effect transformation in the lives of poor people in South Africa. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / Public Law / Unrestricted

Bien que le best-seller existe au Quebec depuis des annees, il n'a suscite qu'un faible interet parml les critiques litteraires. Il y a l'exception notable de l'equipe du CRELIO (Centre de Recherche en Lltterature Quebecolse) de de l'Universite Laval, dont font partle Denis Saint-Jacques, Claude Hartin et d'autres, qui, depuis 1982, a fait du best-seller son domaine de recherche. Ces chercheurs ont limite leur champ de recherche aux best-sellers les plus populaires entre 1970 et 1982. Puisque les recherches faites par le CRELIO ne couvrent que les best-sellers parus pendant les annees soixante-dlx, j'al voulu examiner le best-seller quebecois des annees quatre-vingt, en particuller, Le Matou (1981), Les Filles de Caleb (1985 et 1986) et Les Tisserands du pouyoir (1988) qui ont tous connu untel succes qu'ils peuvent etre consideres comme ~best-sellers quebecois des annees quatre-vlngt. De quel type de succes s'agit-il? S'agit-il d'un succes comme par exemple celui du MATOU d'Yves Beauchemin, d'un succes programme grace aux relations publiques, mettant en valeur l'usage extensif de la presse et des medias, beneficiant de l'accuell chaleureux requ en France avant d'etre lance au Quebec, ou celui des FILLES DE CALEB d'Arlette Cousture, d'un succes inattendu, qui depasse toute strategie de marketing, OU celui des TISSERANDS DU PQUVOIR de Claude Fournier, d'un succes qui est peut-etre base sur !'adaptation du livre a l'ecran (film et serie televisee), le scenario ayant precede le livre? / Thesis / Bachelor of Arts (BA)

The existence of socially-patterned health (with poorer health generally being experienced by those in more disadvantaged circumstances) is widely recognised. Social differentials have been observed for (inter alia) respiratory disorders, and for cardiovascular disease. One possible explanation for social inequality in these areas of health posits a mediating effect of housing conditions: disadvantaged individuals may face greater exposure to residential hazards (such as dampness), which may in turn adversely influence cardiorespiratory health. However, few studies have examined a complete posited causal chain linking socioeconomic position (SEP) with health via housing. Using pre-existing data, this study constructed detailed representations of the social and residential experiences over adult life (15 to 60 years) of a sample of elderly British people. Both measures of accumulated exposure (to disadvantage, and to housing hazards), and explicit trajectories of social and residential experience, were derived. Construction of trajectories required the development of methods for condensing individuals’ diverse experiences into higher-level groups, in the interests of analytical tractability. Relationships between the derived measures of lifetime exposure and a range of outcomes expressing aspects of cardio-respiratory health in old age were assessed. No persuasive evidence was observed to support the hypothesis that lifetime residential exposures may mediate the relationship between SEP and the health outcomes examined. In addition to testing this specific conceptual model, the study examined how exposure to social disadvantage and to residential risks varied over adult life, identifying distinctive features of the exposure experience which could not readily be captured by the infrequent sampling of SEP commonly featured in health inequality research. The respective merits of such ‘sparse’ sampling and the more intensive sampling used in the study were compared. It was concluded that fully exploiting the additional information captured by intensive sampling requires confronting a number of methodological challenges. Because of this, it is argued that the collection of detailed information on exposures over time does not automatically confer genuine advantages over the hitherto dominant approach of sampling at only a small number of time points. Future development of lifecourse epidemiology will require further debate over how lifetime exposure (to both social and environmental risk factors) can most effectively be represented in quantitative analysis.

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Various research sources indicate that effective sensory functioning is critical to the optimal development of a child. However, the influence of problems that are associated with poor socio-economic circumstances, as well as the differences between the genders and groups from different socio-economic backgrounds with regard to sensory functioning and motor development, is not clear. The aim of this study was to determine the possible significant relationship between problems that are associated with poor socio-economic circumstances and the sensory development of five to six year old children from these backgrounds. The study also attempted to compare the sensory development of five to six year old children from poor socio-economic backgrounds on the one side and those from good socio-economic backgrounds on the other. Further aims of this study were to analyse the possible differences between motor and sensory development of five to six year old boys and girls in poor socio-economic circumstances, as well as to determine the possible significant relationship between the general motor and sensory development of five to six year old children in poor socioeconomic circumstances. Fifty families were selected from three hundred families in the Thusano project by making use of a stratified random sampling procedure. All the five to six year old children belonging to these fifty families were selected for the purposes of this study as the QNST test can only be used for analysis on children from the age of five years. The total group that were selected from this poor socio-economic background consisted of twelve girls and eight boys (N= 20). A control group was made up of children from better socio-economic backgrounds and consisted of five girls and six boys between the ages of five and six years (N=11). The children were all evaluated according to the "Peabody Developmental Motor Scales - 2" (PDMS-2) to determine their motor development. The "Sensory Input Systems Screening Test" and the "Quick Neurological Screening Test II" (QNST) were used to evaluate their sensory development. The children with poor socio-economic circumstances were also evaluated by means of a questionnaire to determine aspects related to the birth process, medical history and education of the mother. With regard to aim 1, it is apparent from the results, which were obtained by using 'Statistica', that there are significant differences in the sensory development of children from poor socio-economic circumstances and good socio-economic circumstances when the QNST test was taken into account. The six tests showing the significant differences in the two groups are the two tests for tactile input ('palm shape' and 'hand-cheek'), the tests for auditory input ('sound'), the tests for pro-prioceptive input ('arm-leg extension') and the two tests for vestibular input ('finger-nose' and 'one leg stand'). However, no significant difference was found between the two groups with regard to the Pyfer test. When focussing on aim 2, the results indicated significant relationships between certain problems that are associated with poor socio-economic circumstances and the sensory development of children. With regard to aim 3, it is apparent from the results of t-testing (p≤ 0.05) that the motor skills of girls are better when compared to boys. Significant differences were found in favour of the girls with regard to the gross-motor percentile, the gross-motor grading, the total quotient and the total motor percentile where the girls did better than the boys. With regard to the sensory development, a t-test showed that the girls performed significantly poorer than the boys in the test for visual tracking, while the boys performed significantly poorer than the girls in the tests for spatial orientation ('finger-nose') and bilateral integration ('repetitive hand movements'). With regard to aim 4, correlation analysis indicated that there was a relationship between sensory, general and fine motor development in the group as a whole, while a discriminant analysis showed that visual perception contributed most to the overall motor developmental levels of the group. No relationship was, however, found between the gross-motor and sensory development of the group. These results substantiate that the motor en sensory development of children living in poor socio-economic conditions are hampered by their environment, and that they should receive additional attention to try to prevent deficiencies in this regard. / Thesis (M.A. (Human Movement Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.