A critical re-examination of the liberal peace is conducted to explore the ways in which certain ideas around peace have come to dominate and to be regarded as “common sense”. The foundation of my critique comes in the personalisation of peacebuilding through the stories of people who are the intended beneficiaries of its actions. This thesis seeks to open up and challenge the current measures of success and the location of power by introducing voices and experiences of Mende people located in the Southern and Eastern provinces of Sierra Leone. I have attempted to open up a reflexive space where simple questions can be re-examined and the location of recovery can be seen as a space influenced, shaped and performed in the context of diverse influences. I draw on my personal experience living in Bo, Sierra Leone for two months in 2014 and local level actors' subjective reflections on individual and communal notions of recovery, post-conflict. My findings are reflected in “building blocks” that uncover a partial story of personal perspectives on recovery. The story suggests a de-centred and complex “local” within the existing context and realigns the understanding of subject and agency within peacebuilding. This collection of experiences, stories and encounters reshapes the notion of peace as an everyday activity with the aim of improving well-being on a personal level. It is also a part of the peacebuilding process that exists outside of the traditional organisational lens. My main contribution has been in allowing alternative space(s) of peacebuilding and peace-shaping to have a platform that is not restricted by the confined epistemic “expert” community toward an understanding of “progress” as an experiential and subjective process of recovery. This approach sought to challenge the current site of legitimacy, power and knowledge, and in order to achieve this aim I drew on a new methodological toolkit and the absorption of key concepts from other disciplines such as managerialism and the sociological concept of the “stranger”. My research offers an opportunity to observe and utilise information sourced from the creativity and spontaneity of the everyday lived experiences of Sierra Leoneans and ordinary phenomena connected with this.

Esta tese teve por objetivo investigar a reflexividade como componente estratégico na prática de Gestão de Recursos Humanos (GRH) e na contribuição crítica da Psicologia das Organizações e do Trabalho (POT) frente aos desafios da alta modernidade. Tomando como referencial a Sociologia de Anthony Giddens, os atores são capazes de elaborar, no contexto das relações sociais em que estão inseridos, as condições da sua própria ação e a do outro, confrontando aquilo que a organização diz ser da forma como é compreendida. Ao mesmo tempo, o estudo revelou que os atores esperam poder contribuir e agregar valor para a organização, pela dimensão cognitiva que possuem. Isso porque os atores produzem reflexão sobre os processos nos quais estão envolvidos, queira a empresa ou não, construindo experiências pessoais com alta potencialidade de informações e conhecimentos para a GRH realizar o auto-monitoramento contínuo, identificar gaps existentes e aperfeiçoar as práticas adotadas que podem ser, assim, reconstituídas ou reorganizadas. O presente estudo, tomando como objeto de investigação empírica o processo interno de seleção de pessoas de uma empresa, analisou o quanto o conhecimento produzido pelos atores, uma vez ignorados diante da ênfase dada aos sistemas técnicos especialistas, fechados à participação pela ausência deliberada de espaços dialógicos, pode levar a perdas de referenciais e sentido, levando a uma situação denominada neste estudo como labirinto organizacional. O estudo conclui que um processo interno de seleção de pessoas vai além da escolha do candidato mais habilitado para exercer uma determinada função, pois é capaz de revelar também a forma de ser da própria organização, seu auto-retrato, na visão dos diversos atores envolvidos no processo. O quadro teórico elaborado com os conceitos de Giddens foi aplicado, neste estudo, às experiências elaboradas pelos atores quando questionados. A pesquisa demonstrou a condição e o potencial dos atores de transformarem a estrutura existente, como um Teseu contemporâneo que entra no labirinto com um projeto, agente ativo no uso reflexivo da razão como fio lógico para si que move os seus passos dentro da organização. Trata-se da experiência oposta à figura do Minotauro, submetido de forma passiva aos limites impostos pela estrutura. Ligar essas experiências é um exercício de construção que remonta ao hipertexto, como contra-labirinto, que conecta experiências e oferece um sentido para o agir organizacional. O resultado da investigação sobre a visão dos candidatos e psicólogos selecionadores mostrou que criação e análise das práticas, exploração e leitura das experiências vividas, potencializa a reflexividade institucional como condição para modernização das organizações ao fortalecer o papel dos atores como agentes ativos / This thesis aimed at investigating reflexivity as a strategic feature of Human Resources Management (HRM) linked to the critical contribution of Work and Organizational Psychology (WOP) within the facing up to the high modernity organizational challenges. Grounded in the Anthony Giddens Sociology, it scrutinized actors capacity to elaborate the conditions related to their own and others actions within the social contexts they are settled in by withstanding organizational narratives about what is being done by management. Additionally, it analyzed actors expectations of their own contribution to the organization by adding value through the offering of their own cognitions to the organization. Their expectations stem from their reflexivity on the processes they are involved in through which, be recognized or not by the enterprise, they produce a wide range of knowledge and information potentially fertile for the accomplishment of HRM selfappraisal, the identification of existing gaps and the amelioration of its practices. Taking the process of personnel selection as the target of scrutiny, this study analyzed the extent to which the knowledge produced by organizational actors is ignored by the organizational preference for the information produced by expert systems which are hemmed in to any kind of participation due to the lack of dialogical spaces. This situation produces loss of meaning and of references thus creating a kind of organizational maze. The empirical findings disclosed that an internal process of personnel selection goes beyond the choice of the most competent applicant for a particular position since it is enabled to disclose the way the organization works and its self-portrait according to actors views. Actors experiences were matched to the theoretical framework. Yet the findings confirmed actors potential competence to contribute to the transformation of the existing organziaitonal structure, as contemporary Teseus enter into the maze having a project as an active agents enabled to apply reflexivity by using the logical thread to move within the organization. Actors experience withstand Minotauros situation which was passive within the boundaries imposed by the maze structure. The scrutiny of those experiences hints at the hypertext as a sort of counter maze since it relates and offers meanings to the organizational action. Finally, the findings which emerged from the comparison of applicants with psychologists views put into light the potentiality of the analysis of procedures and the reading of experiences to enhance institutional reflexivity as inputs for organizational development since it gives momentum to actors roles as active agents

L’aérosol est une technologie omniprésente dans notre quotidien (mousse à raser, laque capillaire, insecticide, chantilly…), sans cesse critiquée et concurrencée par de multiples alternatives, elle comporte dans son script même différents risques à contenir. Cette thèse part de ce constat pour poser une question concise : comment la technologie aérosol et l’industrie qui la produit parviennent-elles à se maintenir depuis les années 1950 ? Pour répondre à cette question la thèse développe une analyse diachronique du développement de l’aérosol et de son industrie en mobilisant une instrumentation méthodologique adaptée. L’enquête part du principe qu’il n’existe pas « une industrie » mais des industries situées en fonction des lieux et des temporalités qui sont le fruit d’un travail menant à des recompositions successives des collectifs industriels. Pour suivre les recompositions conjointes de la technologie aérosol et de son appareil productif, l’enquête ne suit pas un objet technique spécifique mais mobilise la notion de principe technologique permettant ainsi à l’analyse d’articuler plusieurs moments critiques du développement de la technologie aérosol. Chaque moment critique constitue ainsi une forme d’épreuve spécifique au cours de laquelle l’industrie adopte une modalité réflexive adaptée. Outre l’apport méthodologique permettant d’articuler des questionnements en Sciences and Technology Studies, en sciences politiques, en la sociologie des risques, en sociologie des marchés et en histoire industrielle, les principaux résultats de la thèse consistent à caractériser des configurations problématiques. Chacune d’entre elles met en évidence les relations entre une façon de composer avec les risques associés à la technologie aérosol, une manière de prendre en compte des critiques spécifiques, un mode d’intervention des autorités publiques et des modalités différentes de la réflexivité industrielle. / Aerosol dispenser is a pervasive technology in our everyday life (shaving foam, hairspray, insecticide, whipped cream ...), yet constantly criticized and in competition with multiple alternatives. Its very script comprises various risks. The thesis starts from this observation to ask a concise question : How have aerosol technology and the industry producing it managed to persist since the 1950s? To answer this question, the thesis develops a diachronic analysis of the development of the aerosol and its industry by mobilizing an adapted methodological instrumentation. The empirical work supposes that there is no single "industry" but several industries based on sites and temporalities. These industries are the outcome of works leading to the successive recompositions of industrial collectives. In order to follow the joint reconstructions of aerosol technology and its productive apparatus, the thesis does not follow a specific technical object but mobilizes the notion of technological principle enabling the analysis to articulate several critical moments in the development of aerosol technology. Thus, each critical moment constitutes a specific form of trial in which the industry adopts an adapted reflexive modality. In addition to a methodological contribution proposing to articulate several scholarly fields such as Science and Technology Studies, political science, the sociology of risk, the sociology of markets and industrial history, the main results of the thesis consist in characterizing problematic configurations, each of them highlighting the relations between a way of dealing with the risks associated with the aerosol technology, a way of taking into account specific criticisms, a mode of intervention of public authorities and various modalities of industrial reflexivity.

Cette recherche interroge le problème auquel se trouvent confrontés les chercheurs qui, en Relations Internationales, dénoncent la domination « occidentale » au sein de cette discipline. Afin de promouvoir le dialogue et la diversité à l’échelle globale, ils défendent l’intérêt d’une démarche réflexive contre les pratiques de fermeture et de hiérarchisation exercées, selon eux, par les chercheurs « mainstream » « positivistes ». Vingt ans après les débuts du programme réflexiviste cependant, l’émergence d’une autocritique sème le doute sur les capacités de ce projet à produire une alternative aux pratiques académiques qu’il dénonce: les chercheurs réflexivistes en Relations Internationales reproduisent-ils la « domination occidentale » qu’ils révoquent ?Pour mener à bien cette recherche, nous avons analysé la publication internationale en Relations Internationales comme une situation d’énonciation à laquelle nous participons en tant que chercheuse réflexiviste. Une enquête socio-historique, menée sur l’internationalisation des chercheurs en RI en Inde et au Brésil, ainsi que l’analyse de différents corpus composés des discours des agents sur lesquels portent notre enquête (les chercheurs « réflexivistes », les chercheurs « mainstream », et les chercheurs indiens et brésiliens), représentent nos sources principales.Conformément aux soupçons formulés par l’autocritique, notre travail met en avant l’eurocentrisme de la thèse de la domination occidentale. Il révèle en outre la naturalisation particulière des rapports sociaux produits par le réflexivisme du fait de son ambition émancipatrice. Cependant, contrairement à cette critique de la critique, nous percevons comme un point positif la prise en compte, par les réflexivistes, de leur participation aux processus de hiérarchisation académique. En effet, notre expérimentation montre que l’acceptation de notre participation aux rapports sociaux que nous étudions a représenté la condition nécessaire pour transformer nos propres rapports sociaux, dans le sens de la diversité et du dialogue académique que nous recherchons. / This research focuses on the problems faced by International Relations scholars who denounce the « Western »-domination of their discipline. In order to promote academic dialogue and diversity, they defend the use of reflexivity against the parochial and discriminative practices allegedly conducted by those they designate as the « mainstream » « positivist » literature. Twenty years after the beginning of the movement, self-criticisms have emerged among the reflexivists. This self-critical appraisal suspects reflexivism of not being able to produce an alternative to the academic practices it denounces; are reflexivist scholars merely reproducing the « Western-domination » they denounce?In order to complete this research, I have analysed International Relations international publication processes as a situation of utterance in which I participate as a reflexivist researcher. A socio-historical investigation on the internationalisation of International Relations in Brazil and India, as well as a textual analysis composed of the discourses of the different academic groups under investigation (the reflexivists, the « mainstream », and the Indian and Brazilian International Relations scholars) represent my main sources of analysis. In accordance with the self-criticism suspicions, my research puts forward the eurocentrism of the « Western-domination thesis ». It also highlights how the fact that reflexivism poses as « critical » generates a specific status quo. However, contrary to this critique of the critique, I consider that, by taking into further account their participation in academic discriminative processes, reflexivists are engaging an encouraging dynamic for reflexivism in International Relations. Indeed the experimentation I conducted through this PhD shows that the acceptance of our participation in the social dynamics we study represents a necessary step toward transforming our social relations in favour of more academic dialogue and diversity.

This thesis sets out to do mainly two things. On the one hand, I wish to provide an overview of scholarship on natural metalanguage. On the other, I want to tackle some of the most interesting problems that emerge from the recent literature on the subject. As far as my first goal is concerned, I discuss the origin of the term and the notion of 'metalanguage' in logic (Ch 1); I review and criticise the various theories of mention or quotation (Ch 2, 4, 5) because these are the main theoretical upshot, in the area of the study of natural languages, of the logicians' discussions of metalanguage. As for the second goal, I discuss the problems linked to the reference of quotational sequences (Ch 4); I devise a typology of metalinguistic utterances (Ch 6), based on a conception of semantics and pragmatics that is set out in Ch 3; I examine where a natural metalanguage "fits" with respect to the rest of the language and review a number of concerns regarding, notably, the infiniteness of the lexicon (Ch 7); I explore some of the issues raised by complex cases of alleged simultaneous use and mention (Ch 8).

<p>The aim of this study is to analyze the construction of research culture and collaboration within the research studio Tools for Creativity, one node in the larger Interactive Institute. This studio is an arena that in today’s society is associated with boundary crossing, dynamics and variability: An environment with high-tech equipment, a staff equipped with diverse skills, and a flexible approach with the ambition of developing innovative tools based on ICT to strengthen human creativity. The present thesis is divided into four main parts. In Part One, culture as analytical framework is presented. This is followed by a presentation of field work, data and field site, the studio Tools for Creativity, and its employees. This includes a discussion of the methods of participant observations and deep inter-views. In the theoretical framework overview, perspectives used in this thesis is presented, including the so-called “new research landscape” debate, a background to this thesis. The introduction concludes with a chapter whith a reflexivity discussion including the making of the research self during field work and in the written text. In Part Two, entitled “Technology”, the informants’ definition of technology in relation ICT and the prototypes produced is ana-lyzed. The concepts “enlightenment optimism” and “romantic uneasiness” are presented as theoretical entrances to the chapter. This is the background for an analysis of the future- and speed-oriented discourse that characterizes the informants’ perception of technology. The aim of using technology to support human creativity, challenge presence and facilitate multi-cultural communication is further discussed. This is juxtaposed with another aspect of technol-ogy, namely the informant’s critique of technology’s impact on mankind, humanity and society. Part Three, “Re-search”, deals with interpretations and negotiations of the concept of research and the researcher conducted by the informants at Tools for Creativity. First, the concept of “boundary object” is presented followed by its use order to analyze the construction of research and the researcher in a multi-disciplinary arena like the studio. An important part of the making of the researcher is the trading of skills in the attempt of legitimizing the individuals’ efforts at conducting research. Here, focus is the negotiation of research as an activity between individuals representing the sciences and the arts, as well as those with formal education and autodidacts. Attempts to manage a broader research concept are placed in relation to academic quality demands. In this analysis, the point of departure is Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of symbolic capital. Here, gender is included as symbolic capital. Part Four is called “Reflections” and contains a discussion of the study and reflections concerning field work. This is followed by a summation of what happened to Tools for Creativity and Interactive Institute after finished field work.</p>

<p>The first aim of this work has been to analyse and understand the ways in which a group of ANC-women politicians reason about bridewealth/<i>lobola</i> – an institution about which they express differing views, in particular about whether or not it is oppressive to women. The main body of the empirical material is based on 27 interviews conducted in South Africa in the period 1996-1998. </p><p>One finding of the study is that there are <i>explicit defining</i> discourses on <i>lobola </i>as well as more <i>implicitly </i>expressed understandings. The explicit discourses make a distinction between ’good <i>lobola</i>’ – which is expressed in a family-related discourse as ’a bond between families’ – and ’bad <i>lobola</i>’ which is expressed in, for instance, an economic discourse about ’the purchase of women’. The family-related discourse is interpreted as part of a discursive strategy to create <i>spaces for action</i> with respect to relations of gender-related power. (Re)definitions of <i>lobola</i> may be used not only to counter men’s abuse of monetary <i>lobola</i> but also to counter ’traditional’ gender meanings associated with <i>lobola</i>. Furthermore, explicit discourses on <i>lobola</i> are interpreted as a ‘political discourse’ which is formed both in relation to pragmatic ‘political realities’ but also in relation to hegemonic Western discourses. The political discourse on <i>lobola</i> in connection with ‘African identity’ constitutes a discursive strategy to provide <i>discursive space</i> in order for ’Africans’ to be able to (re)interpret a cherished but also controversial institution. </p><p>A second aim of the study has been of a self-reflexive character. It consitutes a critique of a ‘doing gender’ theoretical perspective as well as an attempt to transcend the ‘actor/structure dichotomy’ in sociological analysis. </p>

This dissertation examines landscape as a concept for analysis and interpretation in film studies by considering the New Hollywood cinema in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Contextualized within the contested notion of nationhood at the time as well as the concern among filmmakers to probe the properties, practices and traditions of American cinema, this was also a period when landscape underwent widespread redefinition as a field of artistic and academic practice. From the outset an aesthetic and pictorial concept, landscape is understood as consisting of a number of interacting ideas and systems of representation which are addressed in terms of intermedial relations. Not something to be encountered or discovered and fixed on canvas or film, landscape involves an ongoing process of construction, appropriation and transformation. Departing from a discussion of the historical role landscape has played in cultural practices of self-representation and self-definition, this study is concerned with how it can be turned against itself and used as a point of departure for adversary and antagonistic views of national myths and media. The organization is roughly chronological, based around a series of reconsiderations of key films, mainly focusing on road movies and genre-revisionist work of the period. Rather than a repository of stable identities and values, each chapter shows how landscape can be advanced in a process of reflecting on attempts to impose meaning, order and linearity. Taken together, Out of Site argues that an engagement with the surfaces and depths of landscape enables new perspectives on the interrelations between the highbrow and the popular, aesthetics and ideology. Bringing attention to how story patterns and audience expectations are displaced, landscape is examined for the questions it raises regarding representational and narrative strategies, the formation of identity and memory, and our own habits of reading.

<p>The aim of the research was to establish the factors relevant to the delivery of education support to the Khomani San school community, and to propose a model for appropriate education support to the Khomani San school community. In order to reach this aim I strove to answer the following questions: What ethics need to be considered to guide research with this indigenous community? What are the key policy guidelines for education support services in South Africa? Is there a link between community psychology and education support services in the South African context? How are education support services understood and currently delivered to the Khomani San school community? What suggestions can be proposed for relevant education support services delivery to the Khomani San school community? </p>

The first aim of this work has been to analyse and understand the ways in which a group of ANC-women politicians reason about bridewealth/lobola – an institution about which they express differing views, in particular about whether or not it is oppressive to women. The main body of the empirical material is based on 27 interviews conducted in South Africa in the period 1996-1998. One finding of the study is that there are explicit defining discourses on lobola as well as more implicitly expressed understandings. The explicit discourses make a distinction between ’good lobola’ – which is expressed in a family-related discourse as ’a bond between families’ – and ’bad lobola’ which is expressed in, for instance, an economic discourse about ’the purchase of women’. The family-related discourse is interpreted as part of a discursive strategy to create spaces for action with respect to relations of gender-related power. (Re)definitions of lobola may be used not only to counter men’s abuse of monetary lobola but also to counter ’traditional’ gender meanings associated with lobola. Furthermore, explicit discourses on lobola are interpreted as a ‘political discourse’ which is formed both in relation to pragmatic ‘political realities’ but also in relation to hegemonic Western discourses. The political discourse on lobola in connection with ‘African identity’ constitutes a discursive strategy to provide discursive space in order for ’Africans’ to be able to (re)interpret a cherished but also controversial institution. A second aim of the study has been of a self-reflexive character. It consitutes a critique of a ‘doing gender’ theoretical perspective as well as an attempt to transcend the ‘actor/structure dichotomy’ in sociological analysis.