In the first chapter of this thesis it is shown that Hume has not denied a "real connection" between physical causes and effects. It is argued that Hume is not mainly concerned with the ontological status of causal necessity. His main contention is epistemological; he aims to explain the grounds we have for asserting causal connections. When we look for the grounds of casual interference we find nothing but constant conjunction, which accounts for the mental determination to pass from an impression to the idea of its usual attendant. But it does not follow from this psychological theory that Hume denies "real connections" between physical objects and events. On the contrary, he is committed, as the texts reveal, to admitting that there is a "real connection", although he denies that we have any insight into the nature of that connection. Chapter two is intended to settle the dispute over the status of Burne's two definitions of "cause". It is shown that thev are not incompatible, and it is only when both the definitions are taken together that Hume's analysis of causation is complete. In chapter three a detailed defence is undertaken of Hume's claim that we do not know causal connections a priori and that the inference from past experience to future prediction is not rationally justifiable. Although predictions of future events can not be rationally defended, Hume does not reject them, but gives them a naturalistic, psychological explanation. By considering all relevant factors it is shown that Hume's analyses of causation are quite consistent and not subjectivist in the sense often attributed to them. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

The purpose of this study is two-fold: (1) to determine the casual factors of delinquency which are the responsibility of the school, and (2) to discover possible procedures for combating delinquency, so far as it is immediately possible, in the Cleburne Public School System.

Le jeu casual est un phénomène majeur de l’industrie vidéoludique, pourtant il reste peu étudié et mal considéré. Les quelques définitions scientifiques recensées présentent des divergences importantes, ainsi qu’un décalage par rapport aux jeux produits. Les modèles théoriques en design de jeu, centrés sur le gameplay, semblent inadéquats face à ce phénomène. En utilisant le modèle du praticien réflexif de Donald Schön, l’objectif de notre recherche est d’apporter un nouvel éclairage sur le jeu casual grâce au savoir professionnel des designers de jeux. Notre approche est qualitative, d’inspiration phénoménologique : nous avons recueilli l’expérience de huit designers de jeux par l’intermédiaire d’entretiens semi-dirigés proches du récit de pratique. Nos résultats montrent que les concepts utilisés dans les modèles vidéoludiques traditionnels restent pertinents pour définir le jeu casual, mais demandent à être retravaillés afin de rendre compte des mutations de l’expérience de jeu. Ainsi, un challenge dans un jeu casual n’est pas un obstacle mais une opportunité d’action pour le joueur. De plus, la progression se fait par la variation des challenges plutôt que par l’augmentation de la difficulté. Ensuite, certains concepts qui semblaient pertinents pour définir les jeux casual, tels que la fiction positive, ont été rejetés par nos participants. Enfin, notre étude a permis de rassembler des informations sur le rôle du designer de jeu casual et le contexte dans lequel il exerce, ce qui permet d’expliquer certaines causes de la vision péjorative du jeu casual. / Casual games are one of the main phenomena in the video game industry, but remain under-explored and are not highly regarded. Scientific definitions are scarce, inconsistent, and often disconnected from actual games. Further, theoretical models for game design, centered on gameplay, often fall short in defining casual games. The objective of this study is to use Donald Schön's model of the reflective practitioner to shed a new light on casual games through the collection of professional knowledge of game designers. This study follows a qualitative approach with phenomenological inspiration. Eight one-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with casual game designers who were asked to provide a narrative of their professional practice. Results show that traditional game design concepts remain relevant for understanding and defining casual games, but need to be reworked in the light of new experiences and contexts in gaming. Namely, challenge is no longer synonymous with obstacle, but should be considered as an opportunity of a player’s action. Progression should be based on the variation of challenges instead of increasing difficulty. In addition, participants rejected some concepts that were previously considered appropriate for defining casual games, like positive fiction. Finally, this study provides insight into the role of casual game designers and the context of their work, which can help explain the often negative perception of casual games.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T18:23:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Silmara Parise Barosa.pdf: 292799 bytes, checksum: eddb06ac810214162de05d3f6460cd04 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-05-27 / This research examines the casual conversation of children between the ages of five and six within social interactions in pretend plays. Herein, I show how a number of researchers face pretend play, its relevance to the child´s development and the importance of this experience to the nuclear self I attempt, at first, to point out the importance of social interaction, in this context, to the improvement of the child´s linguistic skills; secondly, I try to highlight the lexicogrammatical choices made by these children when setting the limits between reality and fantasy, those that reveal their pragmatic competence. For this reason, I fall back upon the theoretical frame of Functional Systemic Linguistics (Halliday 1994), with special emphasis on the interpersonal metafunction and also on casual conversation (Eggins & Slade, 1997). The analyses embrace the acts of speech, lexicogrammatical choices and pragmatic competence. The results suggest that five-to-six-year-old children are capable of providing information exchange and posing challenges for the negotiation of power during pretend play, and that the fantasy context is propitious for interaction practice, without the presence of an adult. Note the intertext that sets a new social and cultural context based on the relationship of values and beliefs that the interactants bring from their family circle. The construction of the social self involves the recognition of social roles and the assignment of these roles among the participants. The marking of the reality and fantasy reference frames is realized through verbs in the present and past tenses in all the analyzed texts, and the findings of Musatti & Orsolini (1993); Lodge (1979); Kaper (1980); James (1982) e Van Gessel-Hotcker (1989) corroborate it. In addition, the analyses show the children´s competence concerning the use of pragmatic features of language when it comes to the structural dimensions related to the turn-taking dynamics; social, as the mutual intention to topics of conversation; cognitive, as the interactants communicative intention; and linguistic, as the use of speech markers, verbs, and pronouns to connect / Este trabalho examina a conversa casual de crianças de 5 a 6 anos de idade em contextos de interação social na brincadeira de faz-de-conta. Mostro como os vários pesquisadores encaram a brincadeira de faz-de-conta, sua relevância para o desenvolvimento infantil e a importância dessa experiência para a formação do eu nuclear. Tento, em um primeiro momento, destacar a importância da interação social nesse contexto para o crescimento das habilidades lingüísticas da criança; em um segundo momento, tento ressaltar as escolhas léxico-gramaticais feitas pelas crianças ao marcar os limites entre a realidade e a fantasia, aquelas que denunciam sua competência pragmática. Para tanto, recorro ao arcabouço teórico da Lingüística Sistêmico Funcional (Halliday 1994), com especial enfoque na metafunção interpessoal, e também sobre a conversa casual (Eggins & Slade, 1997). As análises abrangem os atos de fala, as escolhas léxico-gramaticais e a competência pragmática. Os resultados sugerem que as crianças da faixa etária de 5 a 6 anos são capazes de proporcionar a troca de informações e oferecer desafios para a negociação do poder durante o jogo de faz-de-conta, e que o contexto de fantasia é propício ao exercício da interação, sem a presença do adulto. Note-se o intertexto que redesenha um contexto social e cultural baseado na filiação dos valores e crenças que os interactantes trazem do ambiente familiar e que constituem o contexto em que ocorrem as interações. A construção do eu social, envolve o reconhecimento de papéis sociais e a atribuição desses papéis entre os participantes. A marcação dos enquadres de referência da realidade e da fantasia é realizada pelo tempo verbal no presente e no pretérito, em todos os textos analisados, e corroboram os achados de (Musatti & Orsolini (1993); Lodge (1979); Kaper (1980); James (1982) e Van Gessel-Hotcker (1989) em uma perspectiva interlingüística. As análises revelam, ainda, a competência das crianças quanto ao uso de aspectos pragmáticos da linguagem nas dimensões da estrutura discursiva, como a dinâmica de tomada de turno; social, como a atenção mútua aos tópicos da conversa; cognitiva, como as intenções comunicativas dos interactantes; e lingüística, como o uso de marcadores de discurso, verbos, e pronomes para conectar as idéias

Le jeu casual est un phénomène majeur de l’industrie vidéoludique, pourtant il reste peu étudié et mal considéré. Les quelques définitions scientifiques recensées présentent des divergences importantes, ainsi qu’un décalage par rapport aux jeux produits. Les modèles théoriques en design de jeu, centrés sur le gameplay, semblent inadéquats face à ce phénomène. En utilisant le modèle du praticien réflexif de Donald Schön, l’objectif de notre recherche est d’apporter un nouvel éclairage sur le jeu casual grâce au savoir professionnel des designers de jeux. Notre approche est qualitative, d’inspiration phénoménologique : nous avons recueilli l’expérience de huit designers de jeux par l’intermédiaire d’entretiens semi-dirigés proches du récit de pratique. Nos résultats montrent que les concepts utilisés dans les modèles vidéoludiques traditionnels restent pertinents pour définir le jeu casual, mais demandent à être retravaillés afin de rendre compte des mutations de l’expérience de jeu. Ainsi, un challenge dans un jeu casual n’est pas un obstacle mais une opportunité d’action pour le joueur. De plus, la progression se fait par la variation des challenges plutôt que par l’augmentation de la difficulté. Ensuite, certains concepts qui semblaient pertinents pour définir les jeux casual, tels que la fiction positive, ont été rejetés par nos participants. Enfin, notre étude a permis de rassembler des informations sur le rôle du designer de jeu casual et le contexte dans lequel il exerce, ce qui permet d’expliquer certaines causes de la vision péjorative du jeu casual. / Casual games are one of the main phenomena in the video game industry, but remain under-explored and are not highly regarded. Scientific definitions are scarce, inconsistent, and often disconnected from actual games. Further, theoretical models for game design, centered on gameplay, often fall short in defining casual games. The objective of this study is to use Donald Schön's model of the reflective practitioner to shed a new light on casual games through the collection of professional knowledge of game designers. This study follows a qualitative approach with phenomenological inspiration. Eight one-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with casual game designers who were asked to provide a narrative of their professional practice. Results show that traditional game design concepts remain relevant for understanding and defining casual games, but need to be reworked in the light of new experiences and contexts in gaming. Namely, challenge is no longer synonymous with obstacle, but should be considered as an opportunity of a player’s action. Progression should be based on the variation of challenges instead of increasing difficulty. In addition, participants rejected some concepts that were previously considered appropriate for defining casual games, like positive fiction. Finally, this study provides insight into the role of casual game designers and the context of their work, which can help explain the often negative perception of casual games.

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Ämnet för denna uppsats är sexuella relationer utanför romantiska förhållanden, med ett annat ord benämnt casual sex. Forskning har skildrat mäns och kvinnors erfarenheter av casual sex som olika och pekat på de negativa konsekvenser praktiken har för kvinnor, samtidigt kan casual sex förstås som ett steg mot kvinnlig frigörelse. Syftet med denna uppsats är därför att närmare undersöka unga kvinnors meningsskapande kring casual sex. För att besvara syftet har sex intervjuer med unga kvinnor i Sverige genomförts, dessa har sedan analyserats med hjälp av studiens teoretiska utgångspunkter. Jag har använt mig av Berger och Luckmanns socialkonstruktionistiska perspektiv, Laclau och Mouffes diskursteoretiska perspektiv och Butlers teori om genusidentitet och den heterosexuella matrisen. Analysen visar hur meningen av casual sex följer ett mönster där det porträtteras som separerat från känslor och närmare personlig relation, men att intervjudeltagarnas egna erfarenheter såväl följer mönstren som bryter mot dem. Maskulin och feminin sexualitet konstrueras diskursivt som motsatser och porträtterar bland annat män som sexdrivna och kvinnor som förhållandeinriktade. Diskurser om casual sex och sexualitet influerar hur kvinnor agerar och förstår sina erfarenheter. Med hjälp av det diskursteoretiska perspektivet förstås dessa som kontingenta och därmed föränderliga. Genom att anta vad de uppfattar som maskulina beteenden och förhållningssätt gör vissa kvinnor en maskuliniserad femininitet och utmanar därmed diskursen om sexualitet, medan diskursen om casual sex som separerat från känslor bekräftas. Utifrån insikten om även denna diskurs kontingens uppenbarar sig också möjligheten att organisera sexuella relationer på annorlunda sätt.

The Casual Connection as an Element of the Legal Liability Abstract of Dissertation The concept of the casual connection is not understood in a uniform manner, although it represents the principal legal institute that enables functioning of the law. However, the nature and purpose of the legal liability in the Czech jurisprudence remains the object of discussions, and this is supported by the fact that the positive legal regulation uses the concept of liability at random. Within the vindicative concept of the legal liability as the secondary legal liability arising as the result of the violation of the primary legal liability, we can discern several basic elements. It is particularly the violation of the legal liability, the negative consequence consisting in the violation of or a threat to the legal values, as well as the casual connection between the wrongful act and the negative consequence. The causal connection is the principal element of the legal liability which represents the objective element whereby a wrongful act may be attributed to a certain subject. Thus, the causal connection transmits the penal liability to the subject concerned. Mostly, it is not difficult to find the element of violation of the legal liability and the negative consequence. However, the situation is more complicated in the...

Syftet med föreliggande kvalitativa studie var att undersöka de känslomässiga och relationella upplevelserna av tillfälliga sexuella relationer (TSR) hos kvinnor i vuxenblivande. Studien syftade även till att undersöka upplevelser av förväntningar inom TSR, hur deltagarna förhåller sig till sina upplevelser och vilka faktorer som påverkar den känslomässiga upplevelsen. Sex semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes och analyserades med Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) som analysverktyg. Resultatet utgjordes av tre övergripande teman; Förväntningar i och kännetecken på TSR, Individens förhållningssätt till och påverkan av förväntningar i TSR samt Primära faktorer som påverkar den känslomässiga upplevelsen. Resultatet visade på att det generellt finns en förväntan om att TSR ska vara en känslolös form av relation. Relationen karaktäriseras av en hög grad av ovisshet och otydlighet såväl som frihet. Olika affektregleringsstrategier genom vilka deltagarna förhöll sig till dessa förväntningar och karaktäristika framkom. Deltagarna beskrev även förhållningssätt som antas förstärkas som resultat av rådande könsnormer, däribland en ambivalens mellan olika förväntningar och att ta ett stort socialt- och känslomässigt ansvar. Slutligen beskrevs överensstämmelse mellan vill och får, medvetenhet kring egna upplevelser, autentiskt relaterande och respekt för gränser vara de primära faktorerna som påverkar deltagarnas känslomässiga upplevelse av TSR. / The aim of this qualitative study was to examine the emotional and relational experiences of casual sex relationships (CSR) among women in emerging adulthood. Furthermore, the purpose of this study was to examine expectations within CSR, how the participants cope with their experiences and which factors that affect the emotional experience. Six semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed according to Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as a method. The analysis resulted in three main themes: Expectations in and characteristics of CSR, The individual´s approach to and influence of CSR and The primary factors affecting the emotional experience. The results showed that there generally is an expectation of CSR to be an emotionless kind of relationship. The relationship is characterized by a high degree of uncertainty and ambiguity as well as freedom. Different strategies used by the participants to cope with these expectations and characteristics emerged. The participants also described approaches which are believed to be a result of the prevailing gender norms, such as an ambivalence between different expectations and a tendency to take a large social- and emotional responsibility. Lastly, the primary factors affecting the participant´s emotional experience of CSR were described in terms of a congruence between want and get, awareness of ones own experiences, authentic relating and respect for boundaries.

自從 Pressman 及 Wildavsky 在 1973 年發表「執行：聯邦政府期望如何在奧克蘭市落空」， 首力陳政策執行過程對政策結果的重要性，獲得廣泛熱烈得迴響， 自此而後，研究執行的文章、書籍、刊物如雨後春筍般出現，使得政策執行成為被熱烈討論的一門課題。 儘管執行研究發展至今，已有許多令人稱羨的成果， 但是不少學者表示，政策執行的研究迄今仍面臨許多爭議與瓶頸有待克服及超越。 如 Helen Ingram(1990： p462-463)就表示， 目前研究政策執行的學者們所爭論不休的議題，包括了以下幾點， 例如執行究竟應從何處開始或在何處結束？真正影響執行的關鍵變數究竟為何？又應以何種的標準來評估政策的成功與失敗？ 為此， Ingram 在其所著一篇名為「執行： 一回顧與建議性的架構」 (A Review and Suggested Framework) 的文章中，便提出一個整合執行研究的理論架構，在此一理論架構中， Ingram 以因果理論為基礎來建構其政策執行理論模式， 並設計其執行理論中各類型政策與其執行途徑、評估標準之間的因果邏輯關係， 並且強調此關係會隨著情境或系絡的變化而隨時改變，形成另一種類型政策的因果關係。 換言之，Ingram 即是利用政策設計的概念，試圖整合政策執行研究的應然面與實 然面， 使政策執行的研究及分析能更具真實性與實用性。 就應然面而言，他以因果理論為基礎進行整合及建構各政策要素間的因果邏輯關係，並以此關係做為各類型政策設計的理論基礎； 就實然面而言，他則以「權力」此一要素在各政策過程中所扮演的角色， 更進一步深入地分析與解釋上述因果關係背後所隱藏的實質意涵，及其可能的變化情形。 綜而言之，筆者認為， Ingram 政策執行理論的最大特色在於， 其不但超越了傳統政策科學家舊有的思考模式，將政策規劃、政策執行、政策評估等政策過程作一整合性的分析， 同時更將公共政策視為設計政策方案的過程， 一方面吸收政策執行理論的經驗，且另一方面亦拓展了傳統政策規劃理論的視野， 超越了傳統的政治行政二分法的觀念，以更負責、更具實務性的態度來看待政策執行， 可說是為政策執行的研究開啟另一新的研究方向與趨勢，頗值得吾人作更進一步的了解與探討。 總之， 本文之研究目的即在於了解與分析 Helen Ingram(1990) 的政策執行理論的實質意義與內涵， 並希望能將 Ingram 的政策執行理論與實務相結合，以做為後續相關研究之參考。