The peaceful transition from apartheid to a democratised society is one of South Africa’s most impressive achievements. The attainment of these achievements has placed enormous pressure on the country to “shift to a higher gear”, i.e. increasing the number of players who contribute to the economic development of the country, thus building on its’ political success (Thomas, 1996). The ability to become competitive in the global economy will be determined by the capacity to increase the pool of suitably qualified people and the willingness to accept, value and empower the human talent of all South Africans.

The aim of this study was to established whether police officials in Area Soweto understand the affirmative action that is taking place within the SAPS. A literature study on affirmative action was done and a questionnare generated. An imperical study was done by questionnaire on the trans formation that has taken place within the SAPS from 1994 to 2000. The sample of 300 members was taken out of the eight identified police stations in Soweto. It was established that police officials in soweto do no understand affirmative action and its implementation within the SAPS in Soweto. Most of them were uncertain in ther reponse to the questions asked. Recommendations are made for the SAPS to teach members about affirmative action and its consequences within this organisation for affirmative action to succeed. / Penology / M.A. (Police Science)

Le modèle pathologique, inspiré du domaine médical, est actuellement dominant en psychologie. Ce modèle, en laissant peu de place aux aspects positifs de la personne, entraîne des biais importants dans la pratique psychothérapeutique et ceux-ci se manifestent dès le premier acte du psychologue, lors de l'évaluation psychologique. Par ailleurs, les recherches actuelles démontrent que l'évaluation des aspects positifs aurait des impacts bénéfiques tant sur le client que sur le processus thérapeutique. Certaines innovations ont récemment été proposées par l'approche positive afin d'inclure les aspects positifs de l'individu dans l'évaluation psychologique.Le présent projet vise trois principaux objectifs : l'élaboration d'un modèle d'évaluation globale inspiré de la psychologie positive, l'exploration des impacts de ce modèle sur la compréhension clinique, ainsi qu'une observation de ses impacts sur les stratégies thérapeutiques utilisées. Il s'inscrit dans le paradigme qualitatif et est de nature exploratoire. Il consiste en une recherche-action basée sur une méthodologie praxéologique qui vise à contribuer au développement des connaissances sur l'évaluation globale en psychothérapie et au développement d'un savoir professionnel en cours d'action. Au terme de cette recherche, sont ressortis un outil d'évaluation globale et un modèle de compréhension clinique, tous deux inspirés de la psychologie positive.

Crafting Alliances Between A Mexican Agribusiness And The Base Of The Pyramid: An Action Research Into Strategizing By Sergio Quinones-Romandia May 2016 Committee Chair: Lars Mathiassen Major Academic Unit: J. Mack Robinson College of Business More than 4 billion people in the world face hunger every day. In addition to this imperative shortcoming, the world’s poor confront other side effects of poverty as well, including violence, forced mobility, lack of access to education and early death. In a globalized world where capitalism has become the prevailing economic ideology, alleviating poverty can no longer be the exclusive responsibility of governments, richer nations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Today, the private sector must also “take the torch” and contribute to easing the suffering of more than half the world’s population. The Base of the Pyramid (BOP) strategy is an important opportunity for the world’s private sector to create new business opportunities while at the same time helping address and alleviate poverty. However, while the literature describes several study cases, we still have limited knowledge about the process through which managers engage in BOP strategizing. Against this backdrop, this dissertation provides a detailed account of how a Mexican agribusiness: Agroservicios Nacionales, SAPI de CV (ANSA) developed and implemented a BOP strategy to co-create value with its distributors and poor corn farmers. Our Georgia State University (GSU) research team combined Dynamic Capability Theory (DCT) and Option-Driven Strategizing (ODS) and adopted action research to establish close collaboration among the firm’s top directors, a select group of its managers, designated local distributors, and our researcher team members. This dissertation presents a detailed account of the strategizing process, how AgroEstacion was conceived, how it was implemented, and the outcomes and experiences of the overall process. I also discuss the challenges our team faced, how they were resolved, and the opportunities that emerged from the strategizing process. Finally, I describe an Integrated Model that firms can use to strategize BOP opportunities in a way that benefits both their business and the surrounding society. This dissertation also represents the challenges of utilizing DCT in a practical case, following the suggestions of several authors as Teece, Pisano, Shuen, Zollo, Winters and others, from major works of writing that encourage researchers to take this theory into a more aggregate system and apply it in a practical case.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate Sweden’s ability to adopt positive actions based on gender and ethnicity into national legislation, in regard to EU regulations. The possibility to use positive actions is established at an EU level by both treaties and directives. EU-case law narrows the practical use of the measure. Sweden has chosen to implement positive action based on gender but not ethnicity in their national legislation, despite the fact that the allowed extent to use it would have been the same. The purpose is further to gain a deeper understanding of the problems, as well as the beneficiary effects, that positive actions based on ethnicity could lead to. The thesis applies a combination of both legal method and sociology of law perspectives. Intersectional perspectives have been applied in the thesis to obtain further knowledge about the structural discrimination of ethnic minorities in Sweden. The thesis includes an investigation of the legal grounds of positive actions based on gender to enable comparisons but the main focus will be on positive actions based on ethnicity. The Swedish discussion on positive action based on ethnicity is mainly focusing on the problem of compiling statistics on people’s ethnicity, which may be a necessary consequence of the measure to achieve explicitness. The most obvious benefit with positive action based on ethnicity is that it aims to improve the situation on the labor market of disadvantaged groups. People with foreign ethnical backgrounds are systematically discriminated in the Swedish society and since Sweden currently is facing a great migratory movement, the need for measures against systematic discrimination grows. Dividing the population into different categories can lead to segregation rather than integration on the labor market. The problem arises when the will to create opportunities for foreigners contradicts the Swedish fear of categorizing people. Possible solutions with perhaps more long-term outcomes could be to increase employers awareness of the positive economic effects of diversity in the workforce and also to increase awareness among the Swedish population about the systematic discrimination of foreigners to change social norms.

Just like in other national legislatures in recent years, women have increased in numbers in Uganda, owing mostly to the introduction of affirmative action policies. These measures are regarded as fast track approaches to counter previous historical injustices and imbalances. However, these developments, which also reflect transposition in the social positioning of women from a marginal and probably limited outlook, to a broader, public and visible status in the public sphere, come with various challenges. The constraints are attributed to lack of adjustments within the organizational norms and procedures. Thus the main questions addressed by the study are: What happens when this previously less represented group becomes part of the mainstream? What are the implications in information access, information communication and information use? How can this inform us about the overall process of integration and social transformation? What information possibilities can women exploit to gain a more central place in mainstream politics? One of the assumptions is that access to and use of information is essential to full integration and in occupying a dominant position in the political environment which would consequently transform governance. The thesis is based on qualitative in-depth interviews and observations of legislators and non legislators with strong connections to Parliamentarians’ tasks. The findings reveal that a legislator’s versatility, world outlook and social positioning within the Parliamentary structures greatly improves ability to acquire and use information and possibly a legislator’s capability to influence national policy making. Women face challenges at two levels; the social and political context. There are possibilities of change through their own network. / Akademisk avhandling som med tillstånd av samhällsvetenskapliga fakulteten vid Göteborgs universitet för vinnande av doktorsexamen framläggs till offentlig granskning kl. 13.00 tisdagen den 29 september 2009 i sal E310, Högskolan i Borås.

Ce mémoire présente une recherche qualitative de type exploratoire portant sur la collaboration parents-intervenants dans le contexte de l’action éducative en milieu ouvert (AEMO) auprès des enfants en danger au Sénégal. Le but de la recherche est d’identifier et de promouvoir un ensemble de conditions ou de pratiques favorables à une approche de collaboration avec les parents sénégalais. Les objectifs spécifiques poursuivis sont d'abord de décrire du point de vue des parents, l’expérience de collaboration vécue avec les intervenants dans un contexte d'AEMO. Ensuite il s’agit d'identifier non seulement les pratiques des intervenants qui nuisent ou qui favorisent la collaboration mais aussi les actions des parents qui lui nuisent ou favorisent. Enfin, il est question d'une part, d'identifier les conditions externes (obstacles et facteurs favorables) qui influencent cette collaboration et d’autre part, d'élaborer des recommandations pertinentes pour favoriser l’intervention axée sur la collaboration des parents dans le contexte de l’AEMO au Sénégal. L’étude a été effectuée au Sénégal auprès de dix parents participants. Les données ont été recueillies à partir d'entrevues individuelles semi dirigées. L'instrument de collecte des données est un guide d'entrevue. L’analyse de contenu thématique des données recueillies a permis de mettre en exergue, des pratiques des intervenants et des actions des parents qui favorisent ou qui nuisent à la collaboration reliées tantôt à des dimensions d’ordre relationnel, tantôt à des dimensions en lien avec le processus d'intervention. Elle a en outre révélé des facteurs externes qui favorisent et d'autres qui font obstacle à cette collaboration. Les résultats de la recherche confirment beaucoup d'écrits occidentaux portant sur la collaboration parents-intervenants. Ils ont aussi permis de rencontrer les objectifs fixés au départ à savoir de comprendre du point de vue des parents sénégalais dont les enfants sont en danger, comment se vit la relation de collaboration parents-intervenants.

Submitted in partial fulfillment for Masters in Fashion, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2016. / In my practise-based action research self-study I have developed ways in which to improve my practice as a bridal-gown designer in a highly-competitive and import-driven bridal-gown market. My earnest intent was to improve my practice using action research methods whilst simultaneously developing a solution through critical reflection and practice-based approaches as an economically-sustainable designer of bespoke, cost-effective, competitively-priced bridal gowns. I realised the potential for professional influence and positive economic growth through entrepreneurial thinking, not only for me but for others; it was this which cemented a sense of values in me as an action researcher. I have displayed a healthy marriage between equally important views of practice as theory and the theory as practice. I explored relevant literature that would validate my practice and aid in answering my critical questions, which became evident as validation chapters in my study. Carrying out internships with three bridal gown designers opened my eyes to the real world of business, a sense of theory as practice, where I could see, first-hand, the effects the import industry had on local designers and what they were doing to survive. The conceptualisation of foundational bridal blocks was a solution to save time in my own creative process so that I could produce cost-effective bridal gowns at a competitive price, in a sustainable manner. Once I had explored and created my own interpretation of the foundation block concept that transformed into a small collection of bridal gowns, I used the foundation blocks as a starting point to design bridal gowns for ‘real’ bridal clients. My study is personal in nature; by way of using self-study methods and also the personal ‘one-on-one’ connection I have with my ‘real’ bridal clients. I extended this ‘personal factor’ by holding a public exhibition to which I invited my friends, family, the public and my peers to view and give critical feedback on my work as a bridal gown designer. / M

Much research has been conducted about the diffusion of nonviolent civil resistance and its various mechanisms, with a majority of the attention being paid to diffusion on a global level via external pressure and normative imitation. There is little research, however, about the mechanisms that occur on a much narrower field via individual-level communications, which lead to individuals learning from surrounding ideas and adapting them to fit their situation. Using the case study of the independence movement of the late 1980s in the former Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, I provide a nuanced analysis of these communications between the former republic and its neighbors, specifically Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, all of which were going through their own independence movements at the same time. I address the importance of these individual-level communications to the movement's success and ultimately conclude that without them, the diffusion of nonviolent civil resistance into Ukraine would not have occurred and the movement would not have proven to be successful in bringing down the Soviet regime.

The general performance of learners in mathematics in most secondary schools in South Africa is not encouraging. Statistics reveal that there is a general poor performance in mathematics and related science subjects especially in those schools located in previously disadvantaged communities. There is just a need for appropriate interventions of the significance of mathematics in present society which is now characterised by high information and technology thrust. The objective of the study was to investigate the impact of the tutorial intervention programme on the performance of a grade eleven mathematics class with a view to improving the mathematics performance of these grade 11 learners. The selection of the action research based method was premised on the idea that it would help the researcher to improve his tutoring practice as well as contributing to better learner performance. Data was collected through the use of qualitative research methods. These involved observation, the utilisation of focus group discussions of learners, and in-depth interviews with randomly selected learners and other mathematics colleagues. A careful mix of learners of different learning abilities was made so that high performers would assist those whose performance was lower. In each group of five at least two high performers were included. Findings of the study point to the effectiveness of the tutorial process, justifying its adoption on a long term basis. In general, it can be concluded that the tutoring strategies used by the researcher had a positive effect on the knowledge retention of the learners. This conclusion was arrived at from an observation of improved test results over time, the learners' views in the questionnaires as well as those of peer observers. / Magister Educationis - MEd