To explain and challenge the growing level of income inequality in organisations, this thesis collected and analysed corpora of texts about pay in UK universities from the press, remuneration committees and trade unions. Deploying the methodology of critical discourse analysis, it describes the contents of arguments as discourse types, interprets the reasoning behind arguments as genres of organisation theories and explains the common-sense assumptions ordering arguments as ideological values. Seeking answers, the analysis groups 30,038 data fragments into 74 first-order discourse types, 7 aggregate genres of organisation theories and 9 ideological values across three corpora of texts. Finding from the press suggested that actors drew upon the same set of organisation theories regardless of whether they were discursively challenging or defending the legitimacy of income inequality. This made it unfeasible to halt the level of income inequality because the underlying ideological values of competition, quantification and economic rationality only required the organisations to conform to unclear methodological processes. Thus, it is only possible to challenge the legitimacy of income inequality by proposing new members' resources, which objectified the exact contingencies for when it was appropriate. This insight lead to the creation of a new genre of organisation theory, which proposed paying employees relative to their comparative sacrifices. Findings from remuneration committees suggested that their members drew upon organisation theories to legitimise income inequality, which related to the ideological values of economic science, individualism and capitalistic hierarchy. However, how these ideological values constructed the legitimacy of their decisions lacked a substantiate rationality because the neoliberal model of capitalism was a source of legitimacy within itself. As such, the foundations of legitimacy were critiqued and a 2x2 matrix consisting of a process-outcome axis and pragmatic-moral axis was introduced. Applying this matrix to this corpus of text meant that none of these genres of organisation theories reasoned based on outcomes. Therefore, a new genre of organisation was proposed which focused on the income distribution shape for organisations. Findings from trade unions suggested that their representatives drew upon the same set of organisation theories to reinforce their own legitimacy in addition to interrogating the legitimacy of universities. These organisational theories were then related to the ideological values of performativity, exchange relations and freedom that hegemonically legitimised income inequality. Meanwhile, it was interpreted that trade unions relied on the neoliberal model of capitalism for their existence and were encouraging employees to participate in markets that only served the interests of employers. Therefore, a new members' resource was proposed, which conceptualised why sacrifice was a moral and pragmatic process for distributing pay to employees in comparison with other macro-economic frameworks. The findings from these three corpora of texts explained and challenged the social practices that were creating income inequality growth. Essentially, the ideological values of neoliberalism ordered discourse so that there was no reason to reduce the level of income inequality according to the dominate members' resources. Therefore, to change these social practices three new discourses were proposed which challenged the level of income inequality by illustrating the false consciousness embodied within their reasoning.

Traditional models of public participation in planning have been criticized as 'top-down' segregating planners from ordinary citizens; thus, there has been a quest for greater public involvement in planning decisions and policy-making. The public demands a greater voice in planning and development affairs. To provide public input into the planning process, planning agencies often establish Citizen Advisory Committees (CAC) to involve the public in planning decisions. The increasing redevelopment pressure in inner city suburbs in most Australian cities has led to the creation of many advisory groups for advising planning agencies and Ministers for Planning on planning and development matters. These advisory committees usually consist of people of diverse backgrounds elected, selected and/or appointed by the planning agency to provide community input into planning policy making. However, little is known about the context and operational process in the consultation processes of advisory committees. Much of the existing literature on public participation lacks widely applicable evaluation approaches for determining whether the existing context and process is fair and effective in the participation process. As complex social phenomena, public participation processes are influenced by contextual factors. This thesis examines the Terms of Reference and the operational process of planning advisory committees, and evaluates them through two proposed meta-criteria: fairness and effectiveness. LAPACs in Canberra have been selected for the evaluation of the participation process, providing a basis to develop a conceptual model for its improvement. The analysis is based on a theoretical framework, which focuses on the criteria of fairness and effectiveness in the public participation process. This study uses a qualitative approach to data analysis using multi-method techniques such as focus interviews, document analysis and participant observation. The interviews were conducted with LAPAC members and other planning community who were directly or indirectly involved in the ACT's consultation process, and aware of its planning decisions. They are development proponents, the enthusiastic wider public, planning staff, the Minister for Planning, and planning spokespersons of political parties. The data provide insight into the details of the proposed criteria to evaluate the fairness and effectiveness of a participation process. The results suggest that improving the participation process in a planning advisory committee requires changes in committee protocols, operational processes and planner roles in conducting the participation processes. Specifically, there needs to be a move away from static processes toward more strategic, active and accountable processes. This thesis suggests some practical steps, in order to ensure greater fairness and effectiveness in the participation process of a planning advisory committee, and recommends the proposed evaluative criteria as a new framework for evaluating planning advisory committees.

As technology advances, health care decisions have become increasingly complex. American hospitals, based on accreditation standards, are required to have a system and process to address ethics, patient rights, and responsibilities. These practices vary widely, and there is very little consistency and few standards across the country. Key court cases have provided minor structure, and the federal government has been silent in the formulation of these structures but not necessarily in this arena. Most often, these accreditation standards related to clinical ethics are managed by Healthcare Ethics Committees (HEC). Bioethics has become a growing field, the level of integration between this discipline and healthcare practice varies widely. Using qualitative methods based on Grounded Theory, this analysis presents six key thematic findings, as well as interpretations to identify current challenges and opportunities to make recommendations for improvement by enhancing clarity and reducing ambiguity.

The Western liberal approach to informed consent defines autonomy as an independent choice or decision made by an individual as the final authority in medical decision-making. This approach is so dominant that one can fail to see the merits of other traditional and cultural perspectives. In this dissertation, another approach to informed consent is considered -that of communal culture of Africa, a process used in African traditional medicine (ATM) wherein patients make medical decisions and give consent in consultation with the members of their community and the ATM doctor. Often, but not necessarily, the final consent rests on the consensus reached in consultation with the group rather than on that by the individual patient alone. <br>This dissertation argues that the ATM form of consent constitutes legitimate informed consent based on the concept of relational autonomy, commonly called relational autonomy in informed consent (RAIC) in this dissertation. To interpret and enlighten the significance of the ATM approach to RAIC, the analysis in this dissertation examines the ethics of care movement in Western bioethics which also advocates a relational approach to informed consent. This movement presents a concept of persons as relational beings who are socially embedded, thereby interpreting patient autonomy in their relationships with others. This movement provides the hermeneutic to enlighten the significance of the ATM approach as a legitimate model of RAIC. <br>By comparison of the ethics of care approach with that of ATM to RAIC, this dissertation further provides a relational approach to informed consent in order to inform the restrictive emphasis on individual autonomy practiced in Western bioethics, all with a view towards fostering current discourse on global bioethics. The dissertation also provides an applied example of the contribution of ATM's RAIC approach to ethics committees in Africa, focusing in particular, on the decision-making process for patient informed consent. <br>This dissertation is distinct insofar as it focuses on informed consent in ATM, employs ethics of care as a hermeneutic to interpret ATM, advocates integrated model of healthcare ethics committees in ATM. Because ATM forms a large portion of the healthcare systems in Africa, it follows that ATM and its practices should receive more attention in bioethics in the present global era. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / Health Care Ethics / PhD; / Dissertation;

No description available.

<p>Despite the crucial role that conference committees can play in the legislative process, relatively little is understood about the forces that influence conference outcomes and the priorities of conferees. In particular, the literature on conferences rarely considers the importance of parties, while prominent theories of party government in Congress do not engage the role of conferences in the legislative process. Given the unique features of the conference reports (i.e., they are subject only up-or-down votes, they are generally protected from further amendments, they enjoy a high probability of passage, and they provide a means to make controversial changes/additions to legislation with minimal scrutiny) conferences can be a useful means for majority conferees to further the legislative goals of their party. To the extent that one of the goals of a legislative majority is to pass legislation that better reflects the interests of its members, then partisan politics should play an active role at the conference stage and in the decisions of conferees. This dissertation serves to connect the conference and party government literatures by considering the claim that majority parties in Congress can and do use the conference process to pursue a partisan legislative agenda.</p><p>This broad claim is considered in three separate chapters that test hypotheses about the role of party politics in different aspects of the conference process. Chapter two tests the hypothesis that more partisan conference delegations are associated with changes in policy that are more consistent with the majority party's preferences. Since the Speaker of the House has sole discretion over the composition of the House's delegation it is possible that strategic selection of conferees could advantage the preferences of the majority in the House. Using original data that includes information on every conference committee from 1981-2008 the empirical analysis shows that changes in House minority support in roll call vote before and after conference are smaller for conferences where the percentage of the House majority delegation is larger. Increases in minority shifts of support within both chambers is also predicted by increased support for the report by minority conferees and more bipartisan support in the opposing chamber. Though the analysis cannot directly test whether strategic selection by the House Speaker is effective, the results do show that if a conference delegation is dominated by the majority party that conference reports are more partisan. Thus the results indicate that the decision to appoint conferees can be used to influence the partisan content of conference outcomes.</p><p>Chapter three looks at whether compromises made in conference reflect a bias towards the interests of majority members. Using newly available data from the first session of the 110th Congress, which allow for a comparison of earmarks before and after conference, the chapter provides one of the first analyses of how earmarks are changed during bicameral negotiations. Specifically, this chapter tests hypotheses on whether the earmarks of majority, well-connected, and electorally vulnerable members are advantaged in how conferees decided to change the value of pork barrel projects in conference. Lastly, since earmarking is generally considered to be free of partisan conflict, the data provides a demanding test of the existence of a majority bias. The results show evidence of majority bias for Representatives and Senators in conference earmarking during the 110th Congress.</p><p>Chapter four focuses on decision making in conference at the level of individual conferees. Using original data collected on every conferee's decision to sign a report from 1981-2008 the analysis this chapter tests the extent to which party loyalty is a factor in conferee decision making. Through descriptive, multivariate, and multilevel analyses of signature decisions the results show that majority affiliation, relative to committee and individual preferences is increasingly the dominant factor in predicting whether a conferee signs a conference report. This results also establish that contextual features of a conference, such as whether the bill was referred to multiple committees before conference, whether the bill considered was an appropriations measure, and whether the House was in a position to act first on the conference report, are all significant predictors of disagreement. Lastly, the results provide evidence that partisan conflict in support of conference reports generally increased over this period and that unified governments accentuate this conflict. These results support the overarching claim of the project in that conflict over the content of conference reports is increasingly divided along party lines to the advantage of the majority party.</p><p>Together the different analyses of the three chapters provide evidence of the claim that majority parties can and do pursue partisan goals in the contemporary conference process. Furthermore the results advance scholarly understanding of the many forces at play in conference committee bargaining and how they contribute to legislative outcomes through the complexities of the conference process.</p> / Dissertation

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1986.

No description available.

This thesis began with a research project on suicide that was abandoned after many hurdles were encountered in terms of reaching participants and after various applications to ethics committees. The ultimate research question was then recast as ‘Do Human Research Ethics Committees influence the conduct of suicide research in Australia?’ The conceptual framework for setting up the research was derived from literature on Critical Theory, Feminism and Weberian concepts of power and rationality. Subsidiary questions were then derived from this literature and the starting exemplar case of my own research attempts. These considered whether suicide research was problematic for ethics committees, the nature of the experiences of ethics committee members in making decisions regarding suicide research and whether the influences of disciplinary background, patriarchal medical dominance and pro-positivism were evident. In addition, questions were raised about whether and how other researchers who sought approval to conduct research into suicide-related issues were appraised. [...] / Doctor of Philosophy

This thesis began with a research project on suicide that was abandoned after many hurdles were encountered in terms of reaching participants and after various applications to ethics committees. The ultimate research question was then recast as ‘Do Human Research Ethics Committees influence the conduct of suicide research in Australia?’ The conceptual framework for setting up the research was derived from literature on Critical Theory, Feminism and Weberian concepts of power and rationality. Subsidiary questions were then derived from this literature and the starting exemplar case of my own research attempts. These considered whether suicide research was problematic for ethics committees, the nature of the experiences of ethics committee members in making decisions regarding suicide research and whether the influences of disciplinary background, patriarchal medical dominance and pro-positivism were evident. In addition, questions were raised about whether and how other researchers who sought approval to conduct research into suicide-related issues were appraised. [...] / Doctor of Philosophy