Communal land disputes have troubled many communities in the world for a long time now (Barak, 2002; UN, 2013; Nolon, Sean, et al. 2013; Najar, I. M, 2014; Eck, K, 2014; Agegnehu, K.S. et al. 2021). In Liberia, these disputes have manifested in various forms including those that may be intra-communal, inter-communal, and those that may occur between a community and a foreign investor or company, or those that may occur between a community and a non-member.    Among the distinct land disputes mentioned supra, land disputes between the community and foreign investors, or in short, community-investors land disputes have received a lot of attention over the past decade. Numerous research and documentation regarding the cause of community-investor land disputes have been researched and documented in Liberia, while intra-communal land disputes have received little attention and it is less understood.   To understand the phenomena, the study used a combination of qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis techniques. Semi-structured and structured questionnaires were developed for this study. The structured questionnaire was administered to household heads within the study community. While the semi-structured questionnaire was administered to local leaders, key staff of the Liberia Land Authority (LLA), and a member of the CSO working group (CSWG) on land rights reform in Liberia. The number of household heads to participating in the study was determined using Yamane’s sample size calculation formula, and the number of qualitative respondents will be selected using a purposive sample approach. Both methods are elaborated in the methodological section below.  This study aims to understand how intra-communal disputes and how could be mitigated in Liberia   Keywords: Intra-communal, land, disputes, mitigation / <p>This thesis have been approved and graded.</p>

Numerous rhetorical critics have employed the narrative paradigm for analysis; however, it has not been applied to Eunice Kennedy Shriver and the Special Olympics. Within the Special Olympics lies rhetoric rich with meaning. As the founder of the Special Olympics Shriver held the power to create an identity not just for the Games, but for those with intellectual disabilities. Creating an identity for a marginalized group, she not only had to craft her speeches for the athletes, but also for the world outside the Special Olympics. This study provides an evaluation of five Shriver addresses to the Special Olympics that took place between 1987 and 2003. Using the narrative paradigm, along with the concept of dynamic spectacle, this literature highlights Shriver's crafting of a communal identity. In demonstrating Shriver's ability to create a communal identity, I provide a framework for future research to study rhetorically crafted identities and communities. / Master of Arts

A Educação a Distância tem como característica principal a separação temporal e espacial entre professor e aprendiz. Visando a aplicação de um ensino mais individualizado, esta pesquisa permitiu desenvolver um curso online de matemática financeira usando HP-12c, o qual contemplou o desenvolvimento, a implementação e a avaliação de um feedback personalizado, tempestivo e com qualidade. O curso foi baseado no modelo de design instrucional ILDF (Integrative Learning Design Framework) online, na avaliação formativa, nas teorias de aprendizagem (behaviourism, cognitivism e socio-constructivism) e no communal knowledge, que defende o fato de que os alunos novos podem aprender com as experiências dos alunos anteriores. O modelo ILDF online contempla três aspectos importantes para a elaboração de cursos a distância: modelo pedagógico, estratégias instrucionais e tecnologias instrucionais. A fim de facilitar a implantação das tecnologias instrucionais selecionadas, o Moodle© foi o ambiente virtual de aprendizagem escolhido. A metodologia utilizada neste estudo foi desenvolvida em duas fases: desenvolvimento e implementação do feedback e avaliação do feedback, na qual foi feito um acompanhamento dos alunos pertencentes à amostra pesquisada (grupo de alunos graduandos, pós-graduandos e profissionais da área financeira) através da coleta dos respectivos dados gerados acerca das atividades disponíveis no ambiente. O feedback também foi avaliado de acordo com as respostas dos alunos em uma entrevista realizada. A Educação a Distância mostrou um potencial significativo para que os cursos online sejam planejados e desenvolvidos de forma a alcançarem o objetivo do processo de ensino-aprendizagem. Para o exemplo utilizado neste estudo, 66% dos estudantes foram ajudados pelo feedback e, entre todos eles, 84% obtiveram evolução na avaliação somativa em relação à avaliação diagnóstica. Segundo os números demonstrados e os depoimentos dos alunos, este trabalho permitiu concluir que a aplicação do feedback demonstrou um grande potencial para a efetivação do aprendizado. / Distance Education has as main feature a temporal and a spatial separation between teacher and learner. Aim to achieve a more individualized education, this research allowed develop an online course of financial math using HP-12c. The course contemplated development, implementation and evaluation of a customized, tempestive and quality feedback. The course was based on instructional design model called ILDF (Integrative Learning Design Framework)online, on formative assessment, on learning theories (behaviourism, cognitivism and socio-constructivism) and on communal knowledge, which believe that the new students maybe learn more with experiences from old students. The ILDF online model covers three important issues to elaborate a distance course: pedagogic model, instructional strategies and instructional technologies. The Moodle© was used as a learning management system to make easier to apply the instructional technologies chosen. The methodology used in this research was developed in two stagies: development and implementation of feedback and evaluation of feedback. On this last stage was done a monitoring of students who were included in the students group used in this research (undergraduate and post-graduate students and financial professionals). The monitoring was done by data collect generated by the activities available on the LMS. The feedback was also evaluated by data collected in interviews with the students. The Distance Education showed an important potential to ensure that the online courses to be planned and developed in the way to achieve the teaching-learning process goal. On the study case shown in this research, 66% of students was supported by feedback and, between all of them, 84% obtained improvement on the somative evaluation in comparison with diagnostic evaluation. In accordance with the result shown and the testimony of students, this research allowed to conclude that the use of feedback showed great potential to ensure that learning can be effective.

<p>The typical face of poverty in South Africa is African, rural, and female. As the primary users of rural land, women engage in farming and subsistence activities. Despite this pivotal role played by rural women, they experience grave problems under communal tenure, most notably in relation to access to and use of land and productive resources. Research has shown that the majority of rural households in South Africa derive significant proportions of their livelihoods from land-based activities, and that the value of common property resources associated with land, for example livestock production, crop production, and natural resource harvesting is often overlooked as an important asset of poor rural communities. The importance of these landbased livelihoods sources is even greater for female-headed households, female members of rural households, and the very poor or &lsquo / marginalised&rsquo / members of rural communities, since they tend to be more reliant on landbased livelihoods than those with secure income from pensions, wageearning activity or remittances from migrant labourers. The importance of security of land tenure to the sustainability of rural livelihoods, particularly insofar as rural women are concerned, is the central focus of this study.</p>

<p>The typical face of poverty in South Africa is African, rural, and female. As the primary users of rural land, women engage in farming and subsistence activities. Despite this pivotal role played by rural women, they experience grave problems under communal tenure, most notably in relation to access to and use of land and productive resources. Research has shown that the majority of rural households in South Africa derive significant proportions of their livelihoods from land-based activities, and that the value of common property resources associated with land, for example livestock production, crop production, and natural resource harvesting is often overlooked as an important asset of poor rural communities. The importance of these landbased livelihoods sources is even greater for female-headed households, female members of rural households, and the very poor or &lsquo / marginalised&rsquo / members of rural communities, since they tend to be more reliant on landbased livelihoods than those with secure income from pensions, wageearning activity or remittances from migrant labourers. The importance of security of land tenure to the sustainability of rural livelihoods, particularly insofar as rural women are concerned, is the central focus of this study.</p>

El presente artículo plantea que viene ocurriendo una transformaciónde la relación entre la tierra, los comuneros y las comunidades que,en el caso de la costa norte peruana, se vincula con una doble dinámica: (i) la creciente presión externa sobre el recurso por capitales privados nacionales y trasnacionales, y (ii) el surgimiento de nuevas formas y motivaciones de acceso a la tierra por los comuneros. En este escenario, las comunidades buscan desarrollar mecanismos de contención que, sin embargo, escapan a las lógicas de control propias del ámbito comunal e implican, de manera paradójica, el riesgo de un progresivo desmembramiento de porciones del territorio comunal. Para sustentar lo anterior, el texto analiza los nuevos usos (y usos potenciales) de la tierra que generan expectativas entre los comuneros, así como las nuevas estrategias de acceso al recurso que se disputan diversos actores. Para ello, toma como referencia el estudio de dos comunidades de la costa norte peruana: San Lucas de Colán y San Juan Bautista de Catacaos. Retomar elementos de su historia de conformación permitirá observar cómo varían las formas de acceso a la tierra a lo largo del tiempo y qué nuevas lógicas aparecen en las últimas décadas. Finalmente, a manera de hipótesis, el artículo sugiere que estas nuevas lógicas cambian el sentido de lo comunal y la naturaleza del vínculo entre comunidad y comuneros: estos últimos buscan, de manera creciente, acceder a nuevas tierras sin que ello implique necesariamente su permanencia en el territorio comunal ni un uso productivo de sus parcelas. De esta manera, las comunidades de la costa norte se encuentran frente al reto de una posible transformación como referente principal de acceso y defensa de la tierra. / This article argues that there is a transformation in the relationship between land, peasant communities and its members or comuneros. In the case of the communities of the Peruvian northern coast, this transformation links with a double dynamic: (i) the increasing external pressure on the resource from the private-national and transnational capitals, and (ii) the emergence of new means and motivations of access to land among the communal members. Under these circumstances, the communities seek to develop mechanisms of containment that, nevertheless, escape to their own logics of controland imply the risk of a progressive division of shares of the communal territory.In order to demonstrate this, the article examines new uses (and potential uses) of the land that generates more expectations among the comuneros, and new strategies of access to the resource that different actors compete for. Two peasant communities in the north coast of Peru, San Lucas de Colán and San Juan Bautista de Catacaos, are used as case studies. In orther to understand the variation of access to land trought time and to point out the new logics in the last decades, this article will examine the history and configuration process of land tenure in these communities. Finally, the article suggests as a hipothesis that these new logics transform the meanning of community and the relationship between the peasant communities and the comuneros. The latter seek to gain access tonew lands without necesarily involving their permanency in the communal territory nor having a productive use of their plots. Hence, the north coast communities are facing the challenge of a possible transformation in their functions like the control and defense of land.

A Educação a Distância tem como característica principal a separação temporal e espacial entre professor e aprendiz. Visando a aplicação de um ensino mais individualizado, esta pesquisa permitiu desenvolver um curso online de matemática financeira usando HP-12c, o qual contemplou o desenvolvimento, a implementação e a avaliação de um feedback personalizado, tempestivo e com qualidade. O curso foi baseado no modelo de design instrucional ILDF (Integrative Learning Design Framework) online, na avaliação formativa, nas teorias de aprendizagem (behaviourism, cognitivism e socio-constructivism) e no communal knowledge, que defende o fato de que os alunos novos podem aprender com as experiências dos alunos anteriores. O modelo ILDF online contempla três aspectos importantes para a elaboração de cursos a distância: modelo pedagógico, estratégias instrucionais e tecnologias instrucionais. A fim de facilitar a implantação das tecnologias instrucionais selecionadas, o Moodle© foi o ambiente virtual de aprendizagem escolhido. A metodologia utilizada neste estudo foi desenvolvida em duas fases: desenvolvimento e implementação do feedback e avaliação do feedback, na qual foi feito um acompanhamento dos alunos pertencentes à amostra pesquisada (grupo de alunos graduandos, pós-graduandos e profissionais da área financeira) através da coleta dos respectivos dados gerados acerca das atividades disponíveis no ambiente. O feedback também foi avaliado de acordo com as respostas dos alunos em uma entrevista realizada. A Educação a Distância mostrou um potencial significativo para que os cursos online sejam planejados e desenvolvidos de forma a alcançarem o objetivo do processo de ensino-aprendizagem. Para o exemplo utilizado neste estudo, 66% dos estudantes foram ajudados pelo feedback e, entre todos eles, 84% obtiveram evolução na avaliação somativa em relação à avaliação diagnóstica. Segundo os números demonstrados e os depoimentos dos alunos, este trabalho permitiu concluir que a aplicação do feedback demonstrou um grande potencial para a efetivação do aprendizado. / Distance Education has as main feature a temporal and a spatial separation between teacher and learner. Aim to achieve a more individualized education, this research allowed develop an online course of financial math using HP-12c. The course contemplated development, implementation and evaluation of a customized, tempestive and quality feedback. The course was based on instructional design model called ILDF (Integrative Learning Design Framework)online, on formative assessment, on learning theories (behaviourism, cognitivism and socio-constructivism) and on communal knowledge, which believe that the new students maybe learn more with experiences from old students. The ILDF online model covers three important issues to elaborate a distance course: pedagogic model, instructional strategies and instructional technologies. The Moodle© was used as a learning management system to make easier to apply the instructional technologies chosen. The methodology used in this research was developed in two stagies: development and implementation of feedback and evaluation of feedback. On this last stage was done a monitoring of students who were included in the students group used in this research (undergraduate and post-graduate students and financial professionals). The monitoring was done by data collect generated by the activities available on the LMS. The feedback was also evaluated by data collected in interviews with the students. The Distance Education showed an important potential to ensure that the online courses to be planned and developed in the way to achieve the teaching-learning process goal. On the study case shown in this research, 66% of students was supported by feedback and, between all of them, 84% obtained improvement on the somative evaluation in comparison with diagnostic evaluation. In accordance with the result shown and the testimony of students, this research allowed to conclude that the use of feedback showed great potential to ensure that learning can be effective.

Magister Artium - MA / The typical face of poverty in South Africa is African, rural, and female. As the primary users of rural land, women engage in farming and subsistence activities. Despite this pivotal role played by rural women, they experience grave problems under communal tenure, most notably in relation to access to and use of land and productive resources. Research has shown that the majority of rural households in South Africa derive significant proportions of their livelihoods from land-based activities, and that the value of common property resources associated with land, for example livestock production, crop production, and natural resource harvesting is often overlooked as an important asset of poor rural communities. The importance of these landbased livelihoods sources is even greater for female-headed households, female members of rural households, and the very poor or 'marginalised' members of rural communities, since they tend to be more reliant on landbased livelihoods than those with secure income from pensions, wageearning activity or remittances from migrant labourers. The importance of security of land tenure to the sustainability of rural livelihoods, particularly insofar as rural women are concerned, is the central focus of this study. / South Africa

This thesis contributes to our understanding of Corporate Sustainability (CS) in Multinational Corporations (MNCs) by offering a non-western perspective. A review of the extant literature reveals CS-related studies are mainly based on theories and implications in and for western contexts. It leads us to question the definitions of CS that have been taken for granted in current management and organisation studies. This thesis argues CS should be considered as a non-fixed, contextual and culturally-sensitive notion. When the ideas of CS travel from western scholarship to Chinese organisation practices, the meanings are forever constructed, altered, and mobilised. This is beyond linguistic translation, and functions as a continuous stream of temporary hermeneutic processes of translating. This research explores how CS has been translated in a Japanese MNC in China (the organisation is called ‘OMG’ in the research). The ethnographic enquiry provides a visual and narrative representation of corporate culture as promoted in OMG; ‘Communal Vessel’ evolves as a translational construct symbolising the culturally-derived meanings of CS. The intrinsically oxymoronic meanings of ‘Communal Vessel’ can be drawn from classical Chinese philosophies, which could have implications for understanding contemporary organising practices in China, and globally. In summary, this thesis problematises the construction of CS, and contributes an indigenous, non-western way of understanding CS via an ethnographic representation focusing on processes of translating. The implications are summarised through an analysis of the classical phrase ‘The Great Vessel Rarely Completes’.

Venezuela began a process of decentralization in the late 1980s as part of a major period of institutional reform designed to restore legitimacy to the discredited political system of the time. The first efforts towards this end did not complete the process of decentralizing political power, since they did not open more spaces or channels for citizen participation in public affairs. With the adoption of a new National Constitution in 1999, however, new channels for citizen participation were opened through the creation, amongst other mechanisms, of the State Councils of Public Policy Planning, the Local Councils of Public Planning and later, the Community Councils. The primary objectives of this thesis were to analyze the degree to which this decentralization process has improved local governance in Venezuela. More specifically, the investigation focused on exploring the effectiveness of the measures introduced to enhance civil society participation in public affairs. The analysis draws upon and attempts to integrate insights from a range of academic literatures including those dealing with: the debates surrounding good governance , organizational and institutional theory, decentralization and civil society participation in public affairs. Rich empirical research into the degree to which the decentralization process has promoted citizen involvement in decision making involved the exploration of a wide range of secondary materials and the conducting of interviews with key actors and participants within the programmes under investigation. Key findings include the observation that the creation and operation of the Local Councils of Public Planning and Community Councils have led to the evolution of a participatory process that has been marred by a lack of legal continuity, institutional disorganization and a lack of awareness of the existence of the mechanisms (and some suspicion regarding their intentions amongst the general population). Outcomes have also been heavily influenced by the political polarization that exists in contemporary Venezuela. The community councils in particular have been the subject of considerable debate within the country with opinion sharply divided along political lines as to whether they represent a radical new vision of decentralization or another way to further centralize power within the hands of President Hugo Chávez.