The objective of this study is to obtain an in-depth understanding of the practical working of property tax administration in Jamaica. It highlights the major enforcement and compliance practices along with how the invisible and underlying interactions of actors in the field shape these practices. It also explores those issues and circumstances along with the existing patterns of interests which have contributed to the continued practice of the central administration of the property tax. The study also emphasizes struggles in the property tax field between the various players: the tax authority, the politicians, the developers, the local authorities, the central government and the taxpayers and how each one uses its capital to maintain or dominate its position within the property tax field. The findings revealed that there were various tensions and struggles among the different players within property tax field in Jamaica. The players in the field used their ‘capitals’ to maintain, dominate and or attempt to make changes to the property tax rules. The findings suggest that some property tax enforcement practices were the means through which these tensions were manifested and resolved or on the other hand, the tax authority attempted to use the current practices as hidden agendas to highlight those tensions in order to stand their ground or obliquely suggest changes or even to demonstrate its tacit support of government policies. The findings also suggest that the non-localization of the property tax may be due to varied political interests, mistrust in the local authorities and also the perception by some players that there’s a lack of capital at the local level to manage the tax. Finally, taxpayers’ used their social, economic and cultural capital to resist enforcement and compliance efforts cheating the government of much needed revenues Property tax although not an important national tax is a critical source of revenue for local communities globally. An increased understanding of the working of the practices is beneficial and has implications for both taxpayers and policymakers. The three research questions posed in my study address and highlight the main property tax enforcement strategies and how the tax authority and policymakers use their capital to shape these practices; the extent to which non-localization of the property tax within the Portmore Municipality is influenced by the political dispositions of the players in the field and thirdly the dimensions of property tax compliance and non-compliance in Jamaica. The questions seek to demonstrate how the combination of the actions and interactions of tax administrators, taxpayers, politicians, developers, government bureaucrats reshape administrative practices in the property tax field which have implications for revenue generation and the provision of services. In keeping with the adoption of an interpretive inductive approach, face-to-face interviews were conducted with tax administrators, policymakers, councillors, mayors, taxpayers, members of civil society, a developer and a tax professional. A theoretical framework is created which combines the major themes and theoretical concepts within three strands of literature: tax administration, fiscal decentralization, and Bourdieu’s theory of practice. The structure provides the explanatory lens through which the findings are presented and interpreted. The study contributes to the tax scholarship through an interpretive methodical approach which gives an additional perspective on property tax administration. It answers the call for well-developed tax research dispelling the notion that tax research is adequately dealt with. This study contributes to the tax literature by demonstrating that taxation isn’t just a technical issue; that the legal framework and administrative framework don’t necessarily coincide with practice; that tax practice is shaped by the actions and interactions of players in the field, making it a social construction; that players use their power to influence property tax practice and that players actions are conditioned by their background. The study also contributes a conceptual framework for property tax practice.

This thesis employs Bourdieu's theory of practice to explore small immigrant business owners' adaptation to the host country's income tax system. In doing this, the thesis applies a sociological perspective in the theorizing and study of their tax compliance behaviour. Drawing on a survey (N=101) and in-depth interviews (N=27) with Bangladeshi family business owners and their tax advisers in the UK, this thesis demonstrates that immigrant business owners' engagement with the host country's tax system is grounded in the sociocultural status they inherit from their country of origin, even though their social class positions in the new society unconsciously condition and impact on how they practise tax compliance. Findings suggest that the power relations inherent in the tax professional-taxpayer relationship act as a critical factor in the reproduction and transformation of immigrant business owners' moral disposition towards compliance with tax laws. The thesis argues that the ways small Bangladeshi family business owners think, feel and act in their approach to tax compliance is likely to differ not only from those of native business communities but also from those of other immigrant communities in the UK.

Orientador: Roberto Nardi / Banca: Jorge Megid Neto / Banca: Alberto Villani / Banca: Regina Célia Baptista Belluzzo / Banca: Fernando Bastos / Resumo: Buscou-se identificar origens, evolução, tendências e perspectivas da pós-graduação em Ensino de Ciências no Brasil para contribuir com a visibilidade da sua constituição e instituicionalização enquanto campo científico que apresenta características e cultura própria, além dos seus impactos na produção do conhecimento na área educacional do páís. Por meio de procedimentos metodológicos que envolveram o desenvolvimento de trajetória de pesquisas: bibliográfica, documental, campo e teórica, perseguiu-se esse objetivo, mediante a apropriação de aportes teóricos e, em especial, sob a ótica da teoria de Pierre Bourdieu. Isso permitiu identificar, descrever e conduzir à compreensão de conceitos relacionais presentes e à descrição da existência, constituição e institucionalização da área em foco no Brasil; procedendo-se também à identificação do espectro que a envolve, influenciado por marcos contextual de natureza econômica, social, política e cultural, com destaque à pesquisa, produção intelectual e à comunicação científica. Os resultados obtidos refletem as relações entre a teoria e a prática que se fazem presentes na pós-graduação em foco e que a distinguem como uma área do conhecimento de relevância no contexto brasileiro. Desse modo, pode-se concluir que: tem caráter multidisciplinar e uma historicidade própria no cenári educacional; sua representatividade está fundamentalmente apoiada nos programas de pós-graduação, em suas temáticas de formação de massa crítica e profissional, linhas e grupos de pesquisa e, ainda, na produção científica decorrente. Embora esteja consolidada e institucionalizada perante organismos como a Capes, ainda se ressente da existência de uma cultura da informação e da criação de uma Rede de Informação Especializada para o compartilhamento adequado do conhecimento gerado pelos seus agentes ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This study througt to identify the origins, trends and perspectives of the Science Education area in order to contribute to the visibility of its constitution and institutionalization as a scientific field that presents its own characteristics and culture, besides its impact on the production of knowledge in the educational field in the country. Through methodological procedures involving the development of the trajectory of bibliographic, documental, field and theoretical researches, we have tried to reach this objective, through the appropriation of theoretical subsidies, in particular, under the perspective of the Pierre Bourdieu's theory. This has allowed us to identify, describle and lead to the understanding of present relational concepts and institutionalization of this specific field in Brazil; and also the identification of a spectrum that surrounds this field, influenced by contextual limits of economic, social, political and culture nature, with emphasis on research, intellectual production and the scientific community. The results reflect the relations between theory and practice that are present in the field of Science Education and distinguish it as field of knowledge of great relevance in the Brazilian context. Thereby, we can conclude that: the field of Science Education has a multidisciplinary character and its own historicity in the education scene; its representationis fundamentally supported by graduate programs, in its formation thermes of critical and professional mass, lines and research groups and in the scientific output. Although this field is consolidated before institutionalized organizations such as CAPES, it still needs information culture and the creation of a specialized information network for the sharing of the adequate knowledge created by its agents ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:31:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-07-26Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:42:11Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 feres_gg_dr_bauru.pdf: 4575100 bytes, checksum: 1cc45d9e87cbf1f7d04206f199e71f16 (MD5) / Buscou-se identificar origens, evolução, tendências e perspectivas da pós-graduação em Ensino de Ciências no Brasil para contribuir com a visibilidade da sua constituição e instituicionalização enquanto campo científico que apresenta características e cultura própria, além dos seus impactos na produção do conhecimento na área educacional do páís. Por meio de procedimentos metodológicos que envolveram o desenvolvimento de trajetória de pesquisas: bibliográfica, documental, campo e teórica, perseguiu-se esse objetivo, mediante a apropriação de aportes teóricos e, em especial, sob a ótica da teoria de Pierre Bourdieu. Isso permitiu identificar, descrever e conduzir à compreensão de conceitos relacionais presentes e à descrição da existência, constituição e institucionalização da área em foco no Brasil; procedendo-se também à identificação do espectro que a envolve, influenciado por marcos contextual de natureza econômica, social, política e cultural, com destaque à pesquisa, produção intelectual e à comunicação científica. Os resultados obtidos refletem as relações entre a teoria e a prática que se fazem presentes na pós-graduação em foco e que a distinguem como uma área do conhecimento de relevância no contexto brasileiro. Desse modo, pode-se concluir que: tem caráter multidisciplinar e uma historicidade própria no cenári educacional; sua representatividade está fundamentalmente apoiada nos programas de pós-graduação, em suas temáticas de formação de massa crítica e profissional, linhas e grupos de pesquisa e, ainda, na produção científica decorrente. Embora esteja consolidada e institucionalizada perante organismos como a Capes, ainda se ressente da existência de uma cultura da informação e da criação de uma Rede de Informação Especializada para o compartilhamento adequado do conhecimento gerado pelos seus agentes... / This study througt to identify the origins, trends and perspectives of the Science Education area in order to contribute to the visibility of its constitution and institutionalization as a scientific field that presents its own characteristics and culture, besides its impact on the production of knowledge in the educational field in the country. Through methodological procedures involving the development of the trajectory of bibliographic, documental, field and theoretical researches, we have tried to reach this objective, through the appropriation of theoretical subsidies, in particular, under the perspective of the Pierre Bourdieu's theory. This has allowed us to identify, describle and lead to the understanding of present relational concepts and institutionalization of this specific field in Brazil; and also the identification of a spectrum that surrounds this field, influenced by contextual limits of economic, social, political and culture nature, with emphasis on research, intellectual production and the scientific community. The results reflect the relations between theory and practice that are present in the field of Science Education and distinguish it as field of knowledge of great relevance in the Brazilian context. Thereby, we can conclude that: the field of Science Education has a multidisciplinary character and its own historicity in the education scene; its representationis fundamentally supported by graduate programs, in its formation thermes of critical and professional mass, lines and research groups and in the scientific output. Although this field is consolidated before institutionalized organizations such as CAPES, it still needs information culture and the creation of a specialized information network for the sharing of the adequate knowledge created by its agents ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Adolescent students’ perceptions of parental influence in relation to mathematics education is an under-researched area, since most studies in this area focus on parental involvement in primary mathematics. This research study aims to fill this gap in the literature by exploring adolescent students’ perceptions of parental influence on their dispositions towards studying mathematically-demanding courses in Higher Education (HE). This study employs mixed research methods to investigate students’ perceptions of parental influence with a survey (N=563) and semi-structured interviews with six students and their parents. Additional interviews were conducted with three immigrant families in Cyprus. The study builds on Bourdieu’s theory of reproduction of social inequalities and extends some concepts of Bourdieu’s theoretical framework to discuss parental influence. The main findings of this research study are reported in three journal papers whilst the papers are under review for publication. The first paper of the thesis reports the analysis of the quantitative data of this study by combining Rasch analysis with statistical modelling. The statistical analysis showed that parental influence is not statistically significant for predicting students’ mathematical dispositions in some models, when other background variables are included in the models. However, further statistical analysis showed that the effect of parental influence is mediated through students’ choice of mathematics course and their mathematical inclination. The non-statistical significance of parental influence in some models was interpreted as a ‘misrecognition’ after Bourdieu (1980). The same phenomenon was noted in the second paper of the thesis, where students and their parents ‘denied’ parental influence during their interviews. This was again interpreted as ‘misrecognition’ and parental influence is conceptualised as a form of ‘symbolic violence’ that parents exercise on their children. Arguably, parents possess more capital in the family field and their influence on their children’s educational choices might be unconscious, thus students’ misrecognise their parents’ influence but they draw significantly on their family’s capital to make their choices for future studies in HE.Lastly, the third paper of the thesis explored cultural differences in students’ perceptions of parental influence in England and Cyprus; stronger perceptions of parental influence were identified in immigrant students’ interviews compared to indigenous students in both countries. Bourdieu’s (1977) concept of ‘hysteresis’ was adapted to theorise this phenomenon. Arguably, while immigrant students’ habitus adjust to the new field, students become more reflective on their parents’ influence because of the reflexivity the hysteresis effect entails. In all three papers Bourdieu’s theoretical framework was used to operationalise students’ mathematical dispositions and to interpret the findings of this study. The main contributions to knowledge of this study is the operationalisation of students’ mathematical habitus; the new theoretical conceptualisation of parental influence as a form of symbolic violence in the family field and the extension of the hysteresis effect to interpret immigrant students’ stronger perceptions of their parents’ influence.

This thesis contributes to our knowledge on the emergence of environmental entrepreneurs. The study is guided by the research question, “how do UK environmental entrepreneurs start to form their distinctive environmental entrepreneurial thinking” and analyses the development of the environmental entrepreneurial mindset in the UK, through a theory of practice perspective. Based on a three-stage data collection process (preliminary focus group, semi-structured interviews and life stories), the study (1) conceptualises the construction of the environmental entrepreneurial mindset, (2) investigates the experiences of constraints for practice and (3) analyses differences in habitus and constraints on the basis of the sampling dimensions, type (social environmental and commercial) and gender (male and female). The study was undertaken under a social constructivist perspective and follows the naturalistic paradigm (Guba, 1978). The rigour (or trustworthiness) of the qualitative approach has been established according to perspectives by Mason (2001) and Guba and Lincoln (1985). The empirical basis of the study is comprised of a three stage design of discursive interviews, involving overlapping collective (focus group) and individual (life stories, in-depth interviews) data collection techniques, with a partly gathering structure (through semi-structured questions). A preliminary focus group identified key themes relevant to the study’s objectives and the concepts of the theory of practice (field, capital, and habitus). Three life stories refined the themes and analysed them within the context of entrepreneurs’ lives. The two stages enabled the development of questions targeting themes for the in-depth interviews and the cross case content analysis. For sampling purposes, the Maximum Variation Sampling (MVS) strategy was employed, which enabled identification and analysis of common and divergent themes (Miller & Crabtree, 1999) and by over-coming the limitations of the sample size, it provided a conditional representativeness. The findings show that environmental entrepreneurs accumulate divergent forms of cultural, social and economic capital, which shapes their entrepreneurial and environmental mindsets, triggering the creation of a disposition (habitus) towards setting up an environmental enterprise. Studying the formation of the environmental entrepreneurial mindset addresses a relevant knowledge gap and offers theoretical and methodological contributions. It also confers implications for practice, with a particular reference to entrepreneurial education and policymaking.