Since the early 20th Century, epidemiological research has brought benefits and burdens to Aboriginal communities in Canada. Many First Nations, Métis, and Inuit continue to view Western research with distrust; quantitative study methods are perceived as especially inconsistent with indigenous ways of knowing. There is increasing recognition, however, that rigorous epidemiological research can produce evidence that draws attention, and potentially resources, to pressing health issues in Aboriginal communities. The thesis begins by introducing a framework for culturally safe epidemiology, from the identification of research priorities, through fieldwork and analysis, to communication and use of evidence. Drawing on a sexual health research initiative with Inuit in Ottawa as a case study, the thesis examines cognitive mapping as a promising culturally safe method to reviewing indigenous knowledge. Juxtaposing this approach with a systematic review of the literature, the standard protocol to reviewing Western scientific knowledge, the thesis demonstrates the potential for cognitive mapping to identify culturally safe spaces in epidemiological research where neither scientific validity nor cultural integrity is compromised. Modern epidemiology and indigenous knowledge are not inherently discordant; many public health opportunities arise at this interface and good science must begin here too.

In this thesis, in which urban and regional planning in South Africa was treated as a complex language game with a past of over one and a half century, it was argued that radical changes in the context in which this game is played, necessitate in-depth inquiries into its future. In addition to this, it was premised that a thorough understanding of the past is imperative for any probe into the future. Consequently the first part of the thesis was devoted to a cognitive mapping of the game's past, mainly by using the printed discourse of its players. The result of this endeavour was a composite map indicating where, how, by whom and according to which and whose rules the game had been played and how and why each of these had changed over time. In the second part of the thesis, in which three maps were produced, the focus shifted to the game's future. In the first of these three maps the context in which the game is played, the impact of this particular context on the game and vice versa, as well as the trends and tendencies impacting on this context, were mapped. By extrapolating these trends and tendencies it was possible to construct a range of possible and probable futures, which was done in the second map. Together with the composite map of the game's past, these two maps were then used to determine whether the game has a future, and if so, how this future could become a reality. In this inquiry it was concluded that there is a definite future for the game, the realisation of which, it was argued, requires the following from the players, viz (1) dislodging the game from its roots which are grounded in a form of modernism which treats modernity as a routine and giving it a critical modernist persuasion in which modernity is seen as an adventure, (2) regaining the fervour for the game which drove the pioneers of the game at its birth and (3) ensuring that there is a need and use for the niches/fields in which the game is played, that new niches/fields are created and that existing niches/fields created by others, are filled/entered by players of the planning game. While the study was primarily intended to make a contribution to the debate on the future of the language game of South African urban and regional planning, the maps of the game's past also contribute to the sparse literature on the history of the game, especially its founding years, which have to date, been virtually uncharted. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 1977. / gm2014 / Town and Regional Planning / unrestricted

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A government-funded scheme, the UK Climate Change Communications Initiative (UKCCCI), provided money for organisations to deliver projects that attempted to impact positively on people’s attitudes towards climate change and to increase knowledge and awareness of the issue. This devolution of communications is a relatively novel approach after previous centralised campaigns. This thesis adopts a mixed-method approach; a qualitative and a quantitative study have been conducted based on three case studies of individual projects funded under the UKCCCI. The quantitative study analyses pre- and post-project surveys to assess whether the communications produced the desired changes in attitude, knowledge and awareness; results are generally mixed in relation to all three case studies as some statistics are more positive after communications, whereas some are less positive. Data from a regional UKCCCI project are compared with a nationally representative dataset; this analysis shows that attitudes, knowledge and awareness differ at regional and national scales, supporting the policy of devolving communications. Regional data are also analysed to see if there are differences between socio-demographic groups within a single target audience for communications; this analysis suggests that interventions must strike a balance between personalisation of information and the higher cost of targeting smaller groups with more specific material. The quantitative study uses conceptual content cognitive mapping (3CM) to discover the climate change-related knowledge of twenty subjects who received communications from two of the case study projects. Results suggest that people have knowledge of a wide range of issues related to climate change, but they do not possess a detailed scientific understanding. However, there is a high knowledge of how to mitigate climate change and this is expressed largely through individual actions and lifestyle choices. A template analysis was also conducted to discover what interviewees thought specifically about the communications and a range of practical recommendations are made for future projects. Implications are discussed in relation to future practical climate change communications projects, wider policy and academic research.

Dada a crescente importância do relacionamento empresa-cliente e a pluralidade de modelos que discutam os elementos e resultados desse tipo de atividade, esta pesquisa buscou entender melhor a atividade de marketing de relacionamento e seus resultados por meio da análise de como os profissionais dessa área enxergam as relações entre os constructos relevantes, a fim de buscar desenvolver um modelo que expresse mais claramente como os profissionais da área entendem que os resultados de marketing de relacionamento são alcançados. O tema é tratado com base em uma revisão teórica que explora o conceito de marketing de relacionamento e seus principais elementos, o processo de modelagem, e o processo de mapeamento cognitivo. A partir da revisão teórica, foram listados onze constructos de marketing de relacionamento, que foram, então, analisados por 35 profissionais da área. Assim foram traçados 35 mapas cognitivos individuais que apontam como cada entrevistado entende as interações entre os elementos do marketing de relacionamento. Com base nas visões de cada indivíduo, foi traçado um mapa cognitivo agregado que aponta o entendimento médio dos entrevistados. A análise desse mapa permitiu identificar como, de acordo com a visão dos profissionais pesquisados, os elementos de marketing de relacionamento se influenciam mutuamente e quais elementos têm maior ou menor impacto no resultado final (aqui considerado como o custumer lifetime value - CLV). Por fim, foi feita análise de cluster para identificar a possível existência de algum tipo de agrupamento de respostas. Nenhum padrão significativo foi encontrado / Given the growing importance of activities related to the relationship between company and client, and the plurality of models to discuss the elements and results of this type of activity, better understanding the relationship marketing activity and it\'s results is important, in order to seek to develop a model that express more clearly how relationship marketing results are achieved. The theme is treated from a theoretical review based on the concept of relationship marketing and its key elements, the modeling process, and the process of cognitive mapping. Eleven contructos of relationship were listed from the theoretical review, and were then analyzed by 35 marketing professionals. Thus 35 individual maps which indicate how each respondent understands the interactions between the elements of relationship marketing have been traced. Based on the views of each individual, was plotted an aggregate map that shows the average understanding of the respondents. The analysis of this map has allowed us to identify, in accordance with the vision of

By drawing upon aspects of critical geography to explore three writers' representations of urban space and subject formation, American Ethni/Cities develops and advocates for a new methodological approach to the study of literature. Predicated on theories devised by Henri Lefebvre, David Harvey, Edward Soja, Gil Valentine and other geographically-minded thinkers, this spatially conscious literary practice has the potential to enhance one's understanding of literary texts, power dynamics, identity construction, and the spaces one inhabits. Each of the chapters comprising this study aims to demonstrate what this interdisciplinary partnership between geography and literature can reveal. By focusing on Cahan's representation of Jewish immigrants living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Wright's depiction of black migrants adjusting to life in the industrial North, and Baldwin's exploration of masculinity as a socio-spatial construct, each respective case-study draws attention to the relationship between spatial production and subject formation. The overarching hope of American Ethni/Cities is that others will find this inter-disciplinary partnership productive and will subsequently make it their own, thereby producing even greater understandings of how power works in the spaces we read about, create, and inhabit in our own daily lives.

This research used a spatial skills test and cognitive-mapping test to examine the effect of GIS learning on the spatial ability and spatial problem solving of college students. A total of 80 participants, undergraduate students at Texas A&M University, completed pre- and post- spatial skills tests administered during the 2003 fall semester. Analysis of changes in the students’ test scores revealed that GIS learning could help students improve their spatial ability. Strong correlations existed between the participants’ spatial ability and their performance in the GIS course. The research also found that spatial ability improvement linked to GIS learning was not significantly related to differences in gender or to academic major (geography majors vs. science and engineering majors). A total of 64 participants, recruited from students enrolled in Introduction to GIS and Computer Cartography at Texas A&M University, completed pre- and post- cognitive-mapping tests administered during the 2003 fall semester. Students’ performance on the cognitive-mapping test was used to measure their spatial problem solving. The study assumed that the analysis of the individual map-drawing strategies would reveal information about the cognitive processes participants used to solve their spatial tasks. The participants were requested to draw a map that could help their best friends find their way to three nearby commercial locations. The map-drawing process was videotaped in order to allow the researcher to classify subjects’ map-drawing strategies. The study identified two distinctive map-drawing strategies: hierarchical and regional. Strategies were classified as hierarchical when subjects began by drawing the main road network across the entire map, and as regional when they completed mapping sub-areas before moving on to another sub-area. After completion of a GIS course, a significant number of participants (about half) changed their map-drawing strategies. However, more research is necessary to address why these changes in strategy came about.

I denna avhandling studeras hur beslutsfattare tänker på förhållandet mellan det företag i vilket de arbetar och företagets omvärld. Avhandlingen syftar till att blottlägga "modeller" som beslutsfattare måste använda för att överhuvudtaget kunna hantera information om företagets omvärld. En viktig uppgift för beslutsfattare i företag är att försöka begripa hur det företag i vilket de arbetar förhåller sig till företagets omvärld. Detta eftersom varje företag är beroende av ett utbyte med sin omvärld. Men uppgiften är långt ifrån enkel, ty ett företags omvärld omfattar definitionsmässigt "allt" utanför företaget - kunder, leverantörer, konkurrenter, lagar, ränteläget, arbetsmarknadens villkor, politiska trender och mycket, mycket annat. Ingen kan emellertid tillgodogöra sig information om allt i omvärlden, därför att människans informationsbehandlingskapacitet är begränsad. Konsekvensen blir att beslutsfattare måste arbeta med förenklade "modeller" av företagets förhållande till omvärlden. Senare tids forskning har visat att många problem som företag räkar ut för kan förklaras med de modeller beslutsfattare använder - ibland blir modellerna alltför enkla och ibland tillåts modellerna att träda i kraft så automatiskt, att beslutsfattare inte är medvetna om vilken modell de använder. Ett par exempel där detta tycks ha varit fallet är gasolyckan i Union Carbides anläggning i Bhopal och rymdfärjan Challengers tragiska öde. Av denna anledning, dvs att beslutsfattares tänkande påverkar vad beslutsfattare gör och inte gör, framstår det som väsentligt att försöka undersöka hur beslutsfattares modeller egentligen ser ut. Det är just detta som är syftet med studien Omvärldsmodeller hos beslutsfattare. Studien handlar om beslutsfattare i svenska företag som har leveranser till fordonsindustrin som huvudsaklig verksamhet, det vill säga s k underleverantörer. I ett läge där fordonstillverkningen kännetecknas av många förändringar - inte minst övergången från massproduktion till "lean production" - samt i ett läge med ökande osäkerhet om vilka aktörer som egentligen skall vara delaktiga i framtidens fordonstillverkning, står beslutsfattarna i underleverantörsföretagen inför en betydande intellektuell utmaning: deras uppgift är att försöka begripa vad som händer i omvärlden. Men det är inte bara begriplighet som står på spel - de som inte kan anpassa sig till den nya tidens förändringar torde ha föga som motiverar deras fortsatta existens som underleverantörer. Studien visar att beslutsfattarna delvis uppträder i enlighet med vad man kan förvänta sig mot bakgrund av kognitiv teori - beslutsfattarnas modeller är förenklingar av verkligheten, exempelvis i så måtto att de innehåller en låg grad av samband mellan variabler, förhållandevis korta kausala kedjor som sammanlänkar variabler, få inslag av återföring mellan variabler, samt att modellerna fokuserar på ett par omvärldsdelar i det lokala företagets omedelbara närhet. Eftersom de företag där beslutsfattarna arbetar kännetecknas av att företagen ännu inte blivit föremål för den utslagning av leverantörer som ett flertal tidigare utredningar antyder att vi kan förvänta oss, och givet att vi tror att beslutsfattares modeller av omvärlden påverkar företagets beteende, kan resultatet tolkas som att det går att klara sig med enkla modeller. Men studien lyfter också fram ett antal egenskaper hos beslutsfattarens modeller som inte kan relateras till befintlig teori på ett tydligt sätt. Ett exempel är att beslutsfattarnas modeller ger uttryck för en kundorientering som vida överskrider det som rekommenderas inom ämnet marknadsföring. Ett annat exempel är att beslutsfattarna förefaller att ha en kluven inställning till vad konkurrens egentligen är. Kundorientering och konkurrens har onekligen kommit att bli allt viktigare begrepp i den strävan mot ökande marknadsorientering som vi ser inom både offentlig och privat sektor, såväl inom enskilda branscher som hela länder, men det tycks som om beslutsfattares syn på detta inte sammanfaller med vad vi tror oss veta från tidigare forskning - något som får betraktas som ett intressant kunskapsgap, därför att beslutsfattare i företag kommer att spela en central roll i genomförandet av ökad marknadsorientering. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 1993</p>

In today’s society, strategy becomes more important because of the ever fast changing environment. Companies all around the world set strategies, in order to grow and earn a profit, and wish for them to be implemented the way they were intended to be. Therefore, we believe it is important to investigate individuals’ perceptions of firm strategy. The purpose of this thesis is therefore to investigate individuals’ perception and understanding of firm strategy, and to see how these perceptions show similarities and differences. Our aim is also to see how cognitive mapping in relation to a strategic model can be helpful both for practitioners and researchers. Collection of primary data was done by interviewing five employees on different hierarchical levels in Company X that is active in multiple different business areas both in Sweden and abroad. The interviews were later analysed with the help of theories such as cognitive structures and maps, and Whittington’s (2001) generic perspective of strategy. This model recognizes four approaches to strategizing, namely Classical, Evolutionary, Systemic and Processual. The two former ones have a Profit-maximizing outcome, while the latter two are Pluralistic in outcome. During the analysis we found some similarities and differences. It was found that not all employees, individually or together, could be categorised under one specific approach. It is hypothesized that this could be because of the fact that they are at different levels and positions in the company, but they had similar perception on long-term planning as a firm strategy. The interviewees in Company X have shown different perceptions when relating to strategy. We come to the conclusion that it is important for managers and strategic decision makers that they understand and take the differences and similarities under consideration when delegating and injecting new strategies into a company. We think this could then help them to enhance an understanding of their own strategic organisation. Although case studies tend to be subjective, this is pointed out as the main limitation of the methodology. The researchers’ interpretation of the interviews lay as the foundation of the analysis and conclusion, and in order to make the study as objective as possible, clear and relevant selection of theories and literature was used to support the claims made in the thesis.

Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping is used as an effective tool to grasp complex systems. Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping, which is based on quantification of qualitative data, can be considered as a hybrid mix of quantitative and qualitative methods, and its roots can be traced back to graph theory. The basic purpose of this study is to discuss Fuzzy Cognitive Maps in methodological terms and develop suggestions for using maps drawn within two different frameworks. By this, Fuzzy Cognitive Maps applied in similar fields will be evaluated at one level. For this purpose, the thesis will utilize the data derived from maps drawn by NGO directors in Turkey. In the case study, cognitive maps are drawn around two concepts: the reputation of civil society in Turkey and its influence power. Due to their qualitative character, Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping is a research tool suitable for making comparative analysis. Divided into city and activity categories, the database of case study used in this thesis provided comparable data. Categorical differences are evaluated through drawing cognitive maps out of database.