Cette thèse a pour objectif global l’étude des significations du DD et de la RSE dans le contexte marocain. La projection sur ces concepts, considérés sémantiquement flous et détenant un caractère malléable, génère plusieurs débats autour de leurs significations etic. Le contexte global de notre thèse est la prise de conscience du Maroc, des soucis environnementaux et sociaux entravant le pays et l’ouverture sur les tendances et pratiques nouvelles à l’échelle universelle. Aussi la résolution des problématiques sociales et environnementales et la préparation d’une structure favorable pour l’adoption et l’adaptation avec les mouvements internationaux. La conjugaison de ces événements bouleversera les systèmes économiques et sociaux et permettra l’apparition de nouvelles conceptualisations dépendantes des valeurs et croyances locales. Trois postulats principaux émanent de notre étude. Il s’agit d’abord d’analyser le niveau d’institutionnalisation du DD et de la RSE dans les idéaux ; il est question par la suite de savoir comment les marocains s’approprient ces concepts et d’analyser les différentes significations qui en ressortent en présence des particularités contextuelles locales ; et enfin analyser les perceptions et traductions qui leur sont attribuées dans la sphère managériale. Par une méthodologie qualitative à visée compréhensive basée sur la découverte, nous avons investi notre terrain, pour examiner les significations du DD et de la RSE avancées par les marocains et pour collecter tout matériau susceptible de générer un sens à ces concepts. Nous avons également procédé par altération afin de confronter les données saillantes etic avec les résultats emic pour enfin ressortir les définitions marocaines du DD et de la RSE. / The overall objective of this thesis is to study the significations of SD and CSR in the Moroccan context. The reflection upon these concepts considered semantically vague and of a malleable nature, generates several debates around their etic significations. The overall context of our thesis is shaped by the Moroccan realization of environmental and social concerns that impeding the country and the exposure to new and universal trends and practices. Also solving social and environmental issues and setting up a structure that supports the adoption of and adaptation to international movements. The manifestation of these events will disrupt both the economic and social systems and will allow the emergence of new conceptualizations that depend on local values and beliefs. Three main assumptions arise from our study. First of all, it is about an ideal analysis of the level of institutionalization of SD and CSR; then it is a question of knowing how Moroccans adopt these concepts and analyze different significations that emerge therefrom along with the local contextual particularities; and finally analyze their perceptions and interpretations attributed to them within the managerial field. In order to examine the significations of SD and CSR claimed by Moroccans and to collect all materials that are liable to generate a sense to these concepts, we adopted a qualitative methodology with a comprehensive scope based on the findings. We have also proceeded by alteration in order to combine the salient etic meanings and the emic findings to finally come up with the Moroccan definitions of SD and CSR.

M-PESA (a mobile banking service in Kenya) was introduced to offer a person-to-person money transfer service. Its extensive adoption and appropriation for purposes other than person-to-person transfers has influenced the technology providers (Safaricom) to widen their services beyond their original intentions. M-PESA provides a wide range of financial services including services for people who were previously unbanked. Users of M-PESA can now pay different utilities, those without credit cards can purchase products online, others can repay loans to microfinance institutions, pay insurance premiums, withdraw money from ATMs, use it as Point of Sale Payment and open savings accounts. This research examines the existence of “bi-directional” influences between technology and society by taking M-PESA business users as a case. It specifically investigates how M-PESA as a technology has influenced the business environment in Kenya and how the design of M-PESA has in turn been influenced by its adoption. The research adopts the Adaptive Structuration Theory as the theoretical framework and interpretive case study research as a methodological approach. Interviews with different stakeholders in the industry were used to collect data. Data was analyzed using Diachronic Analysis. The results of the research show that there is a “bi-directional” influence between technology and people as they affect each other over time. Mobile technologies shape the way businesses operate, allowing them to provide new services and improve existing ones. At the same time, usage and adoption trends affect the design of mobile technologies. Over time, technology is adapted to accommodate the new needs of businesses and other needs in the wider community. This research shows that the impact of technology depends not only on its functionality but also on its use and appropriation in society. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Informatics / unrestricted

In this mini-dissertation the ongoing battle between the self and late-capitalist society is explored as a theoretical response to the notion of the fragmented subject in relation to postmodernism. Frederic Jameson links the schizophrenic subject and postmodern culture explicitly to societal changes in Western economies: this author's tradition outlines a main part of my theoretical stance within this mini-dissertation. Jameson, decisive in his criticism of current popular culture that has formed as a result of postmodernism, conveys a key dystopic viewpoint in his association of schizophrenia with postmodernism and late-capitalism. This sentiment is echoed in this mini-dissertation, as it is my belief that capitalist consumption habits and pastiche are interrelated in current popular visual culture, simulating a schizoid experience which consumers in turn mirror when formulating a sense of self. An essentially fragmented (postmodern) viewpoint with regard to postmodern visual culture is argued, and is aligned with Jameson's perspective on how subjects form identities within late capitalism, with pastiche and consumption labelled as the main causes of the contemporary societal problem of fragmentation. The main contention of the study is thus that contemporary consumption practices, through the stylistic acceptance of pastiche, are the current causes of fragmentation within the self. This naturalisation of postmodern montage and pastiche, in my opinion, effectively disorientates consumers, as similar techniques that are adopted in consumer culture are applied to identity formation, thus contributing to a sense of egolessness, a key characteristic of schizophrenia. Focus is placed on visual examples that highlight postmodern techniques of nostalgic image recycling, aligned to similar postmodern identity models, with parallels drawn between the fragmenting individual and the consuming individual. As exceedingly discontinuous processes of change occur through capitalist consumption habits that are emblematic characteristics of the postmodern condition, it is thus my belief that current postmodern visual culture contributes to an overall fragmented experience of the individual, where consumer practices are negatively affecting identity construction, and thus spurring on further cultural fragmentation and social disintegration. Copyright / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Visual Arts / unrestricted

El siguiente trabajo de investigación tiene como principal objetivo dar un primer alcance al análisis de la apropiación de la gráfica chicha como comunicador de identidad en campañas publicitarias en el Perú. Para ello se inicia contextualizando el nacimiento y los cambios que ha tenido el estilo chicha, los primeros usos y el motivo por el cual fue creado en el mercado social peruano. Cabe resaltar que, tras los años, algunas marcas del territorio peruano recurrieron al uso de esta gráfica popular como imagen para sus campañas publicitarias, pero ya no solo como un tema de estética, sino insertando un mensaje de identidad cultural y con insights de distintos sectores de la sociedad local. Los casos específicos que serán analizados son las campañas “Más peruano que…” de la Marca Perú y “¿Sabes qué pasa cuando un peruano escucha cumbia? de la marca Oro, y para darle un previo sustento a ello, en el presente trabajo se analiza estudios y artículos que tienen como casos centrales la gráfica chicha, la publicidad popular y el sentimiento de identidad cultural en campañas publicitarias en el Perú. Algunas definiciones que se harán presentes durante la lectura serán vínculos entre los signos culturales y el diseño gráfico, apropiación de elementos culturales en la publicidad, mensaje de identidad en las campañas y el uso de elementos gráficos chicha en las marcas. / The following research work deepens and its main objective is to give a first scope of the analysis of the appropriation of the chicha graphic as an identity communicator in advertising campaigns in Peru. To do this, it begins by contextualizing the birth and the changes that the chicha style has had, the first uses and the reason why it was created in the Peruvian social market. It should be noted that over the years some brands in the Peruvian territory resorted to the use of this popular graphic as an image for their advertising campaigns, but not only as a theme of aesthetics, but also inserting a message of cultural identity and with insights from different sectors of the local society. The specific cases that will be analyzed are the campaigns "More Peruvian than ..." of the Peru Brand and "Do you know what happens when a Peruvian listens to cumbia? of the Oro brand, and to give prior support to it, in this paper we analyze studies and articles whose central cases are chicha graphics, popular advertising and the feeling of cultural identity in certain Peruvian campaigns. Some definitions that will be present during the reading will be links between cultural signs and graphic design, appropriation of cultural elements in advertising, identity message in campaigns and the use of chicha graphic elements in brands. / Trabajo de investigación

Resiliency is a critical factor in educational success; the gap exists in the research regarding the effect of resiliency in the educational success of African American female students. The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological research (IPR) study was to explore and describe the lived experience of single-gender education through African American female student alumnae to capture and distill their shared experience of educational resilience and competence. Framework drew on gender-relevant education, social capital, racial identity and socialization. Research perspective that participants were viewed consisted of critical race feminism theory and competency versus deficit or risk perspective. Research questions focused on how African American female student alumnae of single-gender educational settings described their experiences in and out of school as they relate to resiliency and competence. The IPR design consisted of 3 interviews per participant; 1 focused on the past, 1 focused on the present, 1 integrated past and present experiences. Interpretive phenomenological analysis was used to analyze data. Results showed the components that factor into the African American Academic Achieving Female (A4F) include racial identity and socialization, gender relevant education, support systems within cultural and social capital, Guts, Resilience, Initiative, Tenacity (GRIT), Cultural (Re)Appropriation Unity (CRU), personal spiritual relationship. Recommendation for the A4F framework to be used as a foundation to foster growth of the A4F. Social change implication is understanding how African American female alumnae of single-gender schools describe their shared experience of A4F on their lives to foster social change for the African American students.

No description available.

The Writers’ Union of Canada was founded in November of 1973 “to unite Canadian writers for the advancement of their common interests.” Drawing on extensive archival collections – from both the Writers’ Union and its member authors – this dissertation offers the first critical history of the organization and its work, from pre-founding to the early 1990s, arguing that the Writers’ Union has fundamentally influenced Canadian literature, as an industry, as a community, and as a field of study. I begin by tracing the contextual history of the organization’s founding, interrogating how union organizing, celebrity, and friendship underpin the organization’s work. Chapter One discusses the Writers’ Union’s programs, reforms, and interventions aimed at ‘fostering’ writing in Canada as I argue that the Union was instrumental in building a fiscal-cultural futurity for CanLit. In Chapter Two, I consider the role that women played in this important work, as I highlight the labour of female Union members and the all-female administrative staff, who maintained and supported the organization’s work through its first twenty years. In Chapter Three I draw attention to the stories of, perspectives of, and experiences of BIPOC authors in relation to the Writers’ Union. While the Writers’ Union’s involvement in race relations is often positioned as having ‘begun’ with the Writing Thru Race conference in 1994, this chapter uses the archives to reveal a much longer trajectory of racialized conflict within and around the organization, providing important context for the very controversial and public battles about appropriation and race that would explode in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Throughout this work, I look to see how institutional narratives are deployed and upheld, and to what ends; how successful advocacy work is often effaced and forgotten; how institutional structures function; and how their boundaries and intentions are challenged and developed over time. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The Writers’ Union of Canada was founded in November of 1973 “to unite Canadian writers for the advancement of their common interests.” Drawing on extensive archival collections – from both the Writers’ Union and its member authors – this dissertation offers the first critical history of the organization and its work, from pre-founding to the early 1990s. I argue that the Writers’ Union has fundamentally influenced Canadian literature – as an industry, as a community, and as a field of study – as I consider how unionism, literary celebrity, and friendship underpinned the organization’s work. This dissertation recuperates and comments on the important volunteer labour of Writers’ Union members in the service of literary labour, gender equity, and racial equity over the organization’s first twenty years.

No description available.

Throughout the last decades the linear urban development in Stockholm can be retraced to the idea of supply and demand, society’s view on the elimination of risk, while increasingly detaching from natural processes. This thesis offers a critical evaluation of the socio-economic situation of space production, while trying to argue for a new semantic recodification of urban organisational processes while reconnecting to a socio-biodiverse narrative. Through the research, the defining parameters and actors of space production and urban planning are examined on their participational, circular and inclusive potential. Motivated by the need to renegotiate the current narrative of architecture, the site of exploration is Bergs Hamn in Nacka, an industrial oil cistern park built in the 50s. The project aspires to find new ways of thinking and communicating architecture within and outside of the academic field through architectural and theoretical actions and interactions, writing and dreaming about space as a fluid and changeable matter.

The title of this study is Blues & the Political: Identity, Conflict & Feminist Resistance in the Stockholm Informal Blues Music Network. The aim of this study is to examine struggles over power, the construction of identity and the role of the meanings of blues within the Stockholm blues music network from a feminist and intersectionalist perspective. The overarching research question is how the informal network could be seen as political in the sense of a societal struggle over power. Three major power struggles were identified in the interviews with white female blues musicians.   The first struggle takes place between female musicians and older men where conflicts about representation, recognition and authenticity are articulated. A major conflict is about how the blues should be played. Most of the interviewed musicians see themselves as playing modern blues, whereas the older men mostly are portrayed as “organizers”, “blues police”, or “puritans” with a conservative view of blues, and thereby discursively excluding the blues women from the genre, causing negative affect, mostly expressed by cursing. Especially younger blues women are contesting the concept of blues as a twelve-bar structure. Paradoxically, they all partly see it as a very significant element of blues, which indicates a masculine hegemony influencing their minds. Feminist resistance is expressed through irony, anger, debate, lyrics, and performance. Two out of seven musicians do not express a feminist ideology and several express fatigue and resignation. One of them, however, said that taking to the stage is almost enough as a form of resistance. In this way all musicians are ‘claiming space’.   The second power struggle takes place between younger and older musicians, where the younger ones can be seen as part of reproducing a hegemonic masculinity rendering the older blues women invisible. The third struggle concerns cultural appropriation. Black female musicians are said to be not good enough, not welcome because of critique of cultural appropriation or excluded because of their association with jazz, as the white musicians construct jazz as opposed to blues. Although the younger musicians partly express feelings of understanding towards their opponents and there is consensus about the importance of representation in general, the older blues women are more inclined to see accusations of appropriation as racism.