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This thesis presents research on an amateur composer-oriented Bach choir. Its main purpose is to study the development of musical identities and musical preferences of choir members as they take shape through the collective learning process of rehearsing and performing large-scale choral music. The study analyses how the choral participation and performance creates a certain type of ‘choral capital’ (a combination of social and cultural capital within the choral setting) and how the choristers reconstruct and relate to the composer (J.S. Bach) by creating ‘choral identities’ linked to the composer-orientation of their choir. This study is based on an interdisciplinary approach, seeking concepts and ideas from different fields of study – primarily sociology and music sociology (music in everyday life and the concepts of social and cultural capital in the amateur choral setting) but also music psychology regarding concepts of musical and vocal identities, history of music (especially Bach scholars, previous biographical writings about J.S. Bach), music and education (choral singing as informal music education) and interdisciplinary studies on music, health and well-being. The methodological approach of this research consists of a grounded theory based, single case study where the case was the Croydon Bach Choir in London performing J.S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor, using participant observation (where I sang with the choir for one semester) and qualitative interviews as main research methods and gathering demographic background data on choir members via paper-based survey. Whereas significant research on music performances has been conducted, so far choral research, where the direct participation of the researcher as a member of the choir is used as one of the main research methods, is still quite rare. Results indicate that participants develop socio-musical identity both through their choral participation in general, performance experiences and early music consumption in the family household and the emphasis of the importance of choral singing as a fulfilment instead of pursuing a professional career. Through choral singing, participants developed ‘choral capital’ through a) the effects of collective learning on their musical taste and preferences (thus broadening their musical taste and preferences and reconstructing the composer) and b) the well-being factor of collective singing and communal learning through the process of rehearsing and performing the Mass in B Minor. Furthermore, findings indicated that participants construct Bach as a genius and a devout Lutheran, an image that relates to the romantic image of Bach presented in the late 19th – early 20th century biographical writings on the composer. Thus in general, their choral activities form a valuable addition to their social and cultural capital (´choral capital´), which they use as a source of well-being in everyday life. In addition, participants create a certain ‘choral identity’ by relating to the composer-orientation of their choir; the promotional label of Bach as a synonym for quality choral singing and the emphasis of challenging repertoire.

Title: Risk capital calculation in invesment life insurance Author: Bc. Tomáš Coufal Department/Institute: Department of Probability and Mathematical Statis- tics Supervisor of the master thesis: Mgr. Josef Lukášek Supervisor's e-mail address: Josef.Lukasek@allianz.cz Abstract: Unit linked insurance is a modern and flexible life insurance product. The last decade was marked by the raising popularity of unit linked insurance. The discussions conserning the impact of the new directive Sol- vency II on the life insurance business focus mainly on the traditional life insurance. This paper examines the issue of the calculation of the risk capital for unit linked insurance. Analysis of the impact of different death guaran- tees, forms of premium payment, time to maturity and dynamic policyholder bahaviour on the risk capital is presented. Keywords: Unit linked insurance, Solvency II, Risk capital, Solvency capital requirement

This thesis examines the emergence of the organization, the Glasgow UNESCO City of Music, following the award of the title UNESCO City of music to Glasgow in 2008 from a Bourdieusian perspective. Bourdieu's concepts of field, habitus, and particularly capital are used to interrogate the negotiation of symbolic capital (Bourdieu, 1986) in the field of music in Glasgow. The thesis examines how the members of the organization–viewed their organization's position in the field of music in Glasgow and their attempts to secure its legitimacy in a field with established players. It shows how agents ‘work' to negotiate for the positions they want, or need, in order to establish the legitimacy, and thus the position, of an organization through the acquisition and use of capital. Although cultural capital is a core constituent of an organization's original position in the field of music the dominant and influential position of economic capital means that it is the symbolic capital associated with being granted funding rather than cultural capital, which influences and thus legitimate organizations in the cultural field. In its discussion of capital the thesis contributes to the literature on institutional work and organizational legitimacy.

Moral Hazard and the Agency Costs thereof have long been accepted arguments in venture finance theory and have therefore long been accepted shortcomings in the venture capitalist / entrepreneur relationship. In psychological experiments ??? including economic ??? it has been shown that human beings prefer to act in a reciprocal manner that reduces any inequity in a relationship. Humans who expect to receive an unfair and inequitable position in a relationship, will take steps to rectify that position. Specifically, if a venture capitalist expects the entrepreneur to unfairly extract private benefits from the investee company post investment by the venture capitalist, then he or she will impose costly controls and monitoring mechanisms in place to prevent that. All relationships that impose controls and monitoring mechanisms are inefficient, as opposed to Advising the investee which draws upon the skills of the venture capitalist and is generally efficient. The venture capital industry is comprised of intelligent and professional people who can recognise inefficiency easily. Indeed, this is how they make poorly managed companies into profitable trade sales or IPO???s. The online survey completed for this thesis poses questions that attempt to show that venture capitalists and entrepreneurs are not locked in an antagonistic relationship where each merely acts in a self interested way. This thesis concludes that venture capitalists and entrepreneurs do work in a reciprocal relationship recognising the substantial efficiency gains to be made by doing so.

Under capitalist mode of production urban processes gain specific features and meanings. Fundamental is the relationship between processes of capital accumulation and the production of built environment. In this context, the capital switching theory claims that as profit levels are lowered, the probability that higher levels of capital tending to enter the property sector increases. In the first stage of a two-staged research, a macro-analysis on construction activities in Turkey limited to post-1980 period indicates that there no counter-cyclical relationship prevails between productive sectors of the economy and construction activities. It is observed that the state intervention and its supportive policies regarding the production of built environment are the dominant determinants in the Turkish case. Based on these findings, a second focus was on the relationships between the state and capital engaged in the production of urban built environment. Various forms of state intervention, mostly as examples of deregulation and liberalization of planning controls and urban development legislation are identified at this stage. The major findings lead to the conclusion that urban processes are open to the profit-oriented and speculative efforts of political actors as well as the economic actors. Hence the necessity of development of counter-strategies and policies as parts of planning and urban development system verified.

Moral Hazard and the Agency Costs thereof have long been accepted arguments in venture finance theory and have therefore long been accepted shortcomings in the venture capitalist / entrepreneur relationship. In psychological experiments ??? including economic ??? it has been shown that human beings prefer to act in a reciprocal manner that reduces any inequity in a relationship. Humans who expect to receive an unfair and inequitable position in a relationship, will take steps to rectify that position. Specifically, if a venture capitalist expects the entrepreneur to unfairly extract private benefits from the investee company post investment by the venture capitalist, then he or she will impose costly controls and monitoring mechanisms in place to prevent that. All relationships that impose controls and monitoring mechanisms are inefficient, as opposed to Advising the investee which draws upon the skills of the venture capitalist and is generally efficient. The venture capital industry is comprised of intelligent and professional people who can recognise inefficiency easily. Indeed, this is how they make poorly managed companies into profitable trade sales or IPO???s. The online survey completed for this thesis poses questions that attempt to show that venture capitalists and entrepreneurs are not locked in an antagonistic relationship where each merely acts in a self interested way. This thesis concludes that venture capitalists and entrepreneurs do work in a reciprocal relationship recognising the substantial efficiency gains to be made by doing so.

Uni,, Diss.--München, 2002.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Los Angeles, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 359-366).