Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 42-44).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2010. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 158 p. : ill. (some col.), col. maps. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 136-144).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 42-44).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 42-44).

Abstract The purpose of this research was to gain a more profound understanding of the emergence of the business opportunities, and to enhance the development of entrepreneurship theory in relation to this context. This research is to understand two issues: How does a business opportunity emerge? What makes it possible? This dissertation builds a conceptual framework of the process of creating the Business Opportunity and concentrates on three interrelated sub-processes emerging in it: Business Ideation Process, Business Modeling Process and Business Planning Process. The Business Ideation is defined as creating an idea of the business opportunity with a clear focus on the customer, consideration, connection, and/or commitment. The Business Modeling Process is the conceptual model of the future business opportunity consisting elements such as: value creation; firm’s internal source of advantage; position in the marketplace; profit making; and entrepreneur’s perspective. Finally, the Business Planning Process is the implementation plan of the conceptual business opportunity. The scientific choices are based on the critical realism that highlights reality simultaneously as existing independently of its observers and acknowledges the role of an actor (the entrepreneur) as being constrained by it as well as being able to change it. Furthermore, this dissertation treats the process of creating the business opportunities as creative process based on the idea of a personal (or everyday) creativity and the method of creative problem solving. The results indicate that the nature of the process of creating the Business Opportunities, the BOC process, allows all people to be treated as entrepreneurs if they play the role of the entrepreneur by interacting (more or less creatively) with business ideating, business modeling and business planning processes. Hence, the creative problem solving method utilized in every sub-process will free the entrepreneur from the restraint of the dominant insight of the opportunity that sees it as a true vision of the future business venture. Here, the business opportunities are created during the process. Furthermore, the results show a keen interplay between the process of creating business opportunities and their exploitation. Hence, the BOC process appears to be an essential part of the overall entrepreneurial process.

The central argument of this text is that the liberal subject is constitutively rather than coincidentally or contingently exclusionary. From this initial premise, I explore the conceptual and practical inadequacies of liberal articulations of multicultural justice, many of which I argue can be traced back to this exclusionary subject. When making this critique, I frame my analysis around the scholarship of Canadian philosopher Will Kymlicka, whose articulation of a distinctly liberal defense of the value of cultural belonging has shaped much of mainstream theoretical debate on multiculturalism both within Canada and elsewhere. Although Kymlicka’s work has faced a multitude of critiques from within and without liberal theory, he is widely recognized as the most prominent liberal defender of multiculturalism, and his work has been particularly influential within related discussions of national unity, multicultural accommodation, and national identity in Canada. I have chosen, then, to focus my critique of liberal multiculturalism on Kymlicka specifically for two reasons. Firstly, due to his prominence within the field and, secondly – and more importantly – because of the instrumental relationship between subject and culture which Kymlicka defends throughout his work. Despite this critical focus, what is primarily at stake in such a project is a rearticulation rather than a rejection of multiculturalism. While my arguments are based fundamentally on a critical interrogation, and ultimately a rejection, of liberal articulations of multicultural justice, within my project I also offer an alternative model of multiculturalism conceived as a vital form of epistemic cooperation. Such an alternative defense of multiculturalism is rooted in a commitment to the value of everyday experience, a more dialectically formed and culturally embedded sense of self, and finally, a critical and substantive awareness of context, both contemporary and historical. In making this positive case for a more radical form of multiculturalism expressed through intercultural dialogue/negotiation and a widening of the public sphere, I challenge dominant understandings of the value of multiculturalism defended within liberal theory and the mainstream of Canadian Political Science (CPS). / Thesis (Ph.D, Political Studies) -- Queen's University, 2013-05-29 14:51:51.628

Visionen med tunnelbygget i Hallandsåsen var att det skulle generera vinster på olika plan, men det kom mer att handla om snabba problemlösningar som inte alls blev tidseffektiva. Tunnelkommissionen analyserade problemen och släppte en slutrapport där lösningar föreslagits. Syftet med denna uppsats är att sammanfatta kritisk realism som en vetenskapsteori vars ontologiska och epistemologiska grunder skiljer sig från andra och som därmed behandlar teoretiska och praktiska aspekter annorlunda inom forskning. Därefter ska kritisk-realistiska angreppssätt analyseras i relation till Tunnelkommissionens slutrapport för att sedan kunna se om någon av dem reflekterar svagheter eller styrkor i olika anseenden. Resultatet av undersökningen visade att Tunnelkommissionen har svagheter i deras ställningstagande mot förståelser av grundläggande faktorer och endast finner lösningar som ur ett kritisk-realistiskt perspektiv skulle anses vara temporära. Kritisk realism däremot har svagheter i den bemärkelsen att det är svårt att komma fram med specifika tillvägagångssätt som reflekterar deras ontologiska och epistemologiska grunder i praktiken. Däremot visar denna undersökning att kritisk realism också förmedlar nya insikter inom forskning genom att förmedla nya grundläggande ställningstaganden.

This discussion paper looks at the connections between economies and ecosystems, or more generally biophysical reality. The term "economies" is used, rather than "the economy", because of the prevalent false claim that there is only one type of economic system that is possible. We outline how the ecological crises is linked to the dominant drive for economic growth and the tendency to equate growth with progress and development; common even amongst those apparently critical of the need for continued growth in the materially rich countries. The unreality of mainstream economics is epitomised by the accolades given to those justifying mild reformist policy in response to human induced climate change in order to continue the pursuit of economic growth. We emphasise the structural aspects of economies as emergent from and dependent upon the structure and functioning of both society and ecology (energy and material flows). Finally, that the structure of the global economy must change to avoid social ecological collapse, poses the questions of how that can be achieved and what sort of economics is necessary? We explain the need for: (i) a structural change that addresses the currently dysfunctional relationships between economic, social and ecological systems, and (ii) an economics that is interdisciplinary and realist about its social and natural science relations. / Series: SRE - Discussion Papers

Chronic pain has been identified as a major and underestimated health care problem, with extensive individual, social and economic ramifications. It has been estimated that the annual economic cost of chronic pain in Australia exceeds AU$34 billion. The available epidemiological evidence suggests chronic pain is a relatively common health problem in Australia which is a significant public health issue. Chronic pain is a complex phenomenon which is not easily defined. However, it is important to consider the ways in which chronic pain is conceptualised, as this can have significant implications for the individual in terms of how they think about their pain, and the way they are treated within the health care system and the broader society. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, pain was predominantly considered a symptom of a biological problem in the body. Absence of physical disease was thought to indicate pain was the result of aberrant psychological processes. However, chronic pain proved resistant to this ‘mind-body’ approach, and the lack of efficacy of many biomedical interventions, combined with an apparently increasing prevalence of chronic pain, pointed to the inadequacy of purely biomedical approaches to pain treatment. The latter part of the twentieth century saw the recognition of pain as a multidimensional experience influenced by the interaction of numerous biological, psychological and social factors. Consequently, the biopsychosocial model of health, which emphasised such a ‘holistic’ perspective, gained substantial recognition in the pain management domain, and was endorsed as the preferred model of pain management. This has contributed to the development of new approaches to chronic pain treatment, particularly in the area of cognitive behavioural therapy and the establishment of multidisciplinary pain centres. There is evidence, however, that the ‘promise’ of the multidimensional conceptualisation and treatment of chronic pain has not been realised in the daily lives of people with chronic pain. Review of the literature indicates a tendency for research and practice to focus on the biological and psychological aspects of chronic pain, while minimising social environmental factors, such as the health care system and cultural belief systems regarding pain, which may also be significant. This thesis proposes that in order to more comprehensively respond to the complex phenomenon of chronic pain, it is necessary to further develop the social domain of the biopsychosocial model. A study was conducted to explore and describe individual experiences of living with chronic pain, as a basis for improving knowledge about the influence of the social environment on the individual. The thesis focuses not only on the individual descriptions of living with chronic pain, but also on the inter-relatedness between the individual and their social environment. Further, this thesis uses a process of critical interpretive analysis to identify aspects of the social environment which can exert a constraining or enabling effect on the individual with chronic pain. The thesis draws on critical realism theory, particularly the morphogenetic approach developed by Archer (1995), to guide the analysis process and to develop potential strategies for addressing identified social disadvantages. The integration of the individual stories of living with chronic pain with an interpretive analysis process, and the underlabouring philosophical perspective of critical realism, provided the framework to investigate the influence of the social environment on individual experience of living with chronic pain. In this thesis, a journey metaphor is used as an overarching framework to tie together the three principal themes identified through the analysis of the interview transcripts. The themes focused on the biomedical, psychological and cultural paths that participants followed in search of understanding and cure for their pain; the social suffering they experienced through lack of understanding and legitimation of their condition; and the identification and development of strategies for living with chronic pain. The thesis highlights the critical importance of focusing not only on the individual with chronic pain but also on the social environment within which the individual lives, and the ways in which these domains intersect and influence each other. The social environment was found to condition the individual and others in society, including health care practitioners, in relation to how they think and behave regarding pain, which in turn can have enabling or constraining consequences for the individual with pain. In particular, cultural beliefs about ‘normal’ pain, and the material structures of the health care system and employment and work places, were found to have a potentially negative impact on the individual with pain. It is concluded that these aspects of society will continue to exert constraining influences on people’s lives until the focus of policy and practice is expanded to include not just the individual with pain, but also the social environment in which they live. To address this, a number of policy and practice improvements are suggested.

This paper considers the philosophy of science that is central to Critical Realism (CR). Following a discussion of the foundational transcendental arguments of the movement, it reviews stratification, emergence, and the possibility of a unity between the natural and the social sciences. CR is broadly contrasted with other versions of scientific realism, empiricism, and idealism. the philosophy of psychology is considered as a test case in which critical realism can be demonstrated to be a workable theory of science. Specifically, a theory is propsed of social psychology that would be scientific in virtue of meeting the standards of a critical realist view of science. / i, 95 leaves ; 28 cm.