The EAAB (Estate Agency Affairs Board), a statutory body for the South African real estate industry, introduced an extensive Code of Conduct in 1992. The research conducted will serve to determine whether this Code of Conduct is effective in ensuring ethical behaviour by real estate agents. Both qualitative and quantitative research was undertaken, whereby it was determined that there is indeed a level of unethical behaviour amongst real estate agents, that a majority of such agents were unable to interpret specific clauses in the Code of Conduct, and that there was no clear correlation between support for the Code of Conduct and moral intent. Qualitative interviews highlighted the various roles that stakeholders do and should play in training and enforcement of the Code of Conduct, and their insights helped provide the basis for recommendations to the Estate Agency Affairs Board on improving the effectiveness of the EAAB Code of Conduct. Key recommendations to the EAAB were that a revision of the Code of Conduct was needed, entry requirements into the industry should be more stringent, a professional image for the industry should be promoted, and improved communication between the EAAB and stakeholders, improved enforcement and higher penalties, and an extensive training and education programme on Ethics and the Code of Conduct were needed. A Ten Element Model for an Effective Code of Conduct was proposed that detailed ten key themes arising from the research which could also be applicable in other industries. The forces and importance of communication, debate and consultation between society and industry, through regulatory bodies and/or professional associations provided the foundation for the development and revision of the Code of Conduct. To ensure effectiveness, the Code of Conduct needed to be supported by an ethical culture, professionalisation of the industry, support and understanding of the Code of Conduct by stakeholders, exposure, education and training on the Code of Conduct and Ethics, enforcement, penalties and consumer education.

In spite of educational expansion, a considerable number of individuals are not able to participate in upper secondary and higher education in Mexico. The main purpose of this thesis is to examine the factors influencing individuals’ opportunities to make higher educational transitions in Mexico. These transitions are: participation in upper secondary education, completion of upper secondary education and progression to higher education. A parallel objective is to investigate the predictors of persons’ institutional location in the upper secondary level. It is argued that the majority of the international studies in the field of educational transitions, as well as most of the studies conducted for Mexico in this area, have focused on examining the chances of entering an educational level but less attention has been paid on examining the opportunities of concluding a given level of education. This dissertation explores the chances of completing upper secondary education and it incorporates school dropouts in the analysis of educational transitions. Another important purpose is to conduct interdisciplinary theoretical work. A theoretical framework composed of the capability approach, sociocultural reproduction theory and contemporary sociological perspectives on inequalities in education is used to operationalize key concepts and to provide possible explanations of persons’ decisions to participate in upper secondary and higher education. From the capability approach, human agency, preferences and rationality have influence on educational decision-making. From Bourdieu’s sociocultural reproduction theory, educational choices are not freely made because they are determined by cultural and socioeconomic constraints. Furthermore, drawing on the integrative theoretical framework several hypotheses are formulated and some of them are empirically tested using national survey data for Mexico: The School Dropouts Survey, 2011. The investigation adopts a quantitative methodology which includes the estimation of binomial and multinomial logistic regression models. This study found that the effects of ascriptive factors such as social and ethnic background, gender and geographical location vary for each school transition. In addition, some of these factors contribute to predict person’s location in academic and vocational pathways of upper secondary education. Nevertheless, individuals’ capacity to attain higher levels of schooling is not completely determined by structural-related aspects. This thesis found that agency and capability dimensions such as freedom to choose school, aspirations and persons’ preferences towards education are not only intrinsically valuable but instrumentally relevant for making higher educational transitions. Furthermore, the type of institution attended and academic performance matter for entering and completing upper secondary and for attending higher education. This thesis concludes that the degree to which structural factors, agency and capability dimensions and school experiences make an impact on individuals’ educational trajectories is significantly affected by specific institutional arrangements at each stage of education. Finally, the empirical evidence of this thesis has a number of important implications for educational policies in Mexico.

This paper argues that credit ratings have contributed to the current financial crisis. In United States, the previous “reputational model” as well as the current proposals aimed at reducing reliance on rating agencies, enhancing competition and increasing transparency is not sufficient to improve the integrity of rating agencies. This paper suggests that imposing stricter liability on rating agencies is necessary. The proposal to eliminate the exemption of NRSROs under Section 11 of the Securities Act is necessary but not sufficient for holding rating agencies accountable. The first amendment defense always shields rating agencies from legal liability, while the absence of a common standard make it hard to impose liability for negligent ratings. Finally, this paper suggests that the courts should not award the rating agencies First Amendment protection and consider the distinguished characteristics of rating agencies, when examining the professional liability of the agencies.

This paper argues that credit ratings have contributed to the current financial crisis. In United States, the previous “reputational model” as well as the current proposals aimed at reducing reliance on rating agencies, enhancing competition and increasing transparency is not sufficient to improve the integrity of rating agencies. This paper suggests that imposing stricter liability on rating agencies is necessary. The proposal to eliminate the exemption of NRSROs under Section 11 of the Securities Act is necessary but not sufficient for holding rating agencies accountable. The first amendment defense always shields rating agencies from legal liability, while the absence of a common standard make it hard to impose liability for negligent ratings. Finally, this paper suggests that the courts should not award the rating agencies First Amendment protection and consider the distinguished characteristics of rating agencies, when examining the professional liability of the agencies.

Labour-intensive agricultural industries in Canada, and most recently in Saskatchewan, have become reliant on a foreign labour source as a means of ensuring survival within the structure of the global agricultural economy as domestic sources have declined or become too expensive. This study considers Anthony Giddens structuration theory in the examination of the hiring practices of producers operating within the apiary sector in Saskatchewan (1984). I argue that the inability of Saskatchewan apiarists to attract and retain an adequately sized and reliable labour force has caused producers to seek temporary foreign workers. In-depth interviews with producers were conducted in order to determine their reasons for shifting their recruiting and retention efforts to include foreign labour. Qualitative analysis of these interview data suggests that Saskatchewan producers have concluded that their only option is to take advantage of the opportunity to source labour from outside of the Canadian market.

This thesis examines the feminine coming-of-age stories in The Mill on the Floss and Hard Times and seeks to redefine coming-of-age for Victorian girls as a movement into personal agency. The traditional bildungsroman has been defined in a way that largely excludes the experiences and stories of girls born during the early nineteenth century. Because these girls lacked the options and choices of their male counterparts, it becomes important to redefine what coming-of-age means when there are limited opportunities for personal growth. The middle-class Victorian woman led a largely prescribed existence and her well-being and security was often directly and indirectly tied to the status and conduct of the men in her life, usually her father. Given this, this paper also explores the father’s role in his daughter’s coming-of-age story and how he influences the choices she makes in her life.

Nietzsche’s view of the self and will seems to culminate in a naturalistic account of human agency. If we understand Nietzsche as primarily a naturalist who thinks philosophy should more or less be modeled on the sciences whose investigations are restricted to empirical observation and whose explanations, like causal explanation, are natural (rather than supernatural), then ascribing a naturalistic account of human agency to Nietzsche is appropriate. However, I argue that attributing a naturalistic account of agency, or any account of agency to Nietzsche, misunderstands Nietzsche’s skepticism. I attempt to demonstrate the primacy of Nietzsche’s skepticism by showing how “his” naturalistic “account” of agency is best understood as an instrument in the service of his purely critical and deflationary project. To show the instrumental character of his “account,” I show how the account is used to oppose traditional notions of agency without itself becoming Nietzsche’s theory of agency.

Labour-intensive agricultural industries in Canada, and most recently in Saskatchewan, have become reliant on a foreign labour source as a means of ensuring survival within the structure of the global agricultural economy as domestic sources have declined or become too expensive. This study considers Anthony Giddens structuration theory in the examination of the hiring practices of producers operating within the apiary sector in Saskatchewan (1984). I argue that the inability of Saskatchewan apiarists to attract and retain an adequately sized and reliable labour force has caused producers to seek temporary foreign workers. In-depth interviews with producers were conducted in order to determine their reasons for shifting their recruiting and retention efforts to include foreign labour. Qualitative analysis of these interview data suggests that Saskatchewan producers have concluded that their only option is to take advantage of the opportunity to source labour from outside of the Canadian market.

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This research is based on the frame of main body of An Integrated Reference Framework for Public Management written by Wang, Ming-Shan including the relationship with four spheres-economy, society, politics and government as well as the management level of V.C.S. (value, capacity, support) by Moore. In the public affairs realm, policing social order is one of the important fields. Good social order is a basic cornerstone in a democratic society as well as a vital supportive power for economic development. The police are not only the ones who enforce the policies but are also public managers. With the modernization, diversity and democratization of the society, the police transfer its role from authoritarian to egalitarian, from safeguarding the people to serving the public, from condescension to quality. Through this transferability, it produces enormous impacts on the effectiveness of official enforcement. Economy, society, politics, government are four variables which influence each other as well as effect social order. Under high economic development, contrasting behavior or transaction behavior gradually increase; in society, with people's interaction, partnership conflict and media's support, it produces multi-society learning; in politics, legislators who are elected by the voters in a democracy era have the rights to make laws related to social order as well as effective policing enforcement by examining the budget. In the government, the police department is on of the government organizations and each measure taken by the government will have an effect on the social order. There are still arguments on the role for the police department related to serve the people or control crime. In this research, enforcing the law is the born-duty for the police and serving people is also the common responsibility for all official divisions. Therefore, the public values of the police should combine the two. Promoting the intelligence of the police, emphasizing on-job training, enhancing professionalism; politicians give up the myth of resultant numbers, eliminate the culture of hiding reported cases, the government really invest the police, the most important thing is to give them lawful support. In this way, the public will experience the police are our police.