Thesis (M. Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes special report study entitled: Interactive circulation space for elderly. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes special study report entitled: Transport terminal as a public space. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis considers the extent to which decentralisation in the Republic of Macedonia between 2005 and 2012 has been effective in reducing ethnic inequalities that exacerbate social divisions and can lead to conflict. Guided by the concept of horizontal inequalities, it identifies the factors which influenced the decision to devolve responsibilities to the municipalities after 2001. It examines the particular institutional design that Macedonian decentralisation took, and demonstrates how its use of local power-sharing mechanisms was intended to address the concerns of the Albanian and Macedonian communities simultaneously. This thesis takes an integrative approach to studying the political, administrative, and fiscal dimensions of decentralisation's implementation, and considers whether the reform has indeed contributed to the reduction of inequalities between Macedonia's ethnic groups. Where decentralisation's potential has not been reached, obstacles to its successful implementation are identified. While decentralisation alone may be unable to address all of the grievances raised by the Albanian community prior to 2001, this thesis argues that the reform has the potential to address many of the horizontal inequalities that were responsible for raising inter-ethnic tensions during the 1990s. However, decentralisation in Macedonia between 2005 and 2012 has only been partial, and advances in the administrative and political aspects of the reform have been undermined by limited progress in its fiscal dimension. Attempts to solve self-determination conflicts through decentralisation will fail if local self-governance exists only in form but not in substance.

In recent years, virtual communities have become increasingly popular among online users and businesses. Public press has shown a strong interest in virtual communities and announced their informational value. The explosive growth of virtual communities has aroused tremendous interest among academic researchers as well. Academic researchers have noticed that participation dynamics of virtual communities among online users create valuable information that influences subsequent economic outcome. However, relatively little research has explored the underlying motives of passive and active participation in virtual communities. In particular, research explicating how the information created by user participation influences users’ economic decisions has not been investigated. To investigate user participation dynamics and the resulting informational value of virtual communities, I explore three major issues in my dissertation. First, I investigate the determinants of passive and active users of virtual communities using survey data from 502 online investors. The results indicate that social, psychological, and community factors influence two different behavioral intentions – the intention to share and the intention to seek. For instance, social factors such as reputation seeking increase the intention to share in virtual communities, whereas psychological factors such as perceived knowledge deteriorate the intention to seek. Second, I explore how an online investor processes information posted on virtual communities and its subsequent economic outcomes by conducting a field experiment. I find that psychological bias (e.g., confirmation bias) influences investors’ information processing behaviors, which ultimately leads to a low return of investment as compared to economic rationales. Following this line of exploration, I empirically examine the relative informational impact of virtual communities on users’ decisions and market performance in the context of electronic markets. Using customer review data from a well-known online retailer and from three third-party customer review websites, I find that consumers obtain product information from external information sources during the information search stage for high involvement products and are thus less influenced by retailer-hosted information. All in all, my dissertation contributes to the understanding of user participation dynamics and informational value of virtual communities by investigating users’ information processing behavior and the subsequent economic outcomes and performance. / text

Although school leaders receive coursework and some practicum experience, there are gaps in their preparation that can only be filled on the job. Because the decisions made by new educational leaders are of great consequence to themselves and their school communities, an important goal should be the sharing of knowledge and support amongst a community of peers. This work reviews the challenges facing new administrators, critically reviews the training of educational administrators in Ontario, and recommends an in-service community method to supplement the support received by new administrators in their first several years. This document begins with an examination of relevant research literature in leadership development, online communities, the nature of expertise, and technology-enhanced learning with technology. One outcome of this review is a set of “knowledge dimensions” that are important to the development of leadership expertise. The dissertation then examines a three year journey of an online community of educational administrators who share in their journey toward expertise. The e-mails from the community were analyzed according to their function within the community and their relevant domain content. Of particular interest was the question of how such e-mail exchanges allowed members to develop in all five dimensions of school leadership knowledge. A coding of e-mail threads revealed that all dimensions of leadership knowledge were represented in the content, and that the quality of e-mails improved in both content as well as knowledge building practices over the three years. The growth of the community as a whole and of individual members is examined through a set of individual case studies. Finally, the dissertation closes with a discussion of the future of this community, as well as the prospects that such an approach could be applied more widely in support of new school leaders.

Although school leaders receive coursework and some practicum experience, there are gaps in their preparation that can only be filled on the job. Because the decisions made by new educational leaders are of great consequence to themselves and their school communities, an important goal should be the sharing of knowledge and support amongst a community of peers. This work reviews the challenges facing new administrators, critically reviews the training of educational administrators in Ontario, and recommends an in-service community method to supplement the support received by new administrators in their first several years. This document begins with an examination of relevant research literature in leadership development, online communities, the nature of expertise, and technology-enhanced learning with technology. One outcome of this review is a set of “knowledge dimensions” that are important to the development of leadership expertise. The dissertation then examines a three year journey of an online community of educational administrators who share in their journey toward expertise. The e-mails from the community were analyzed according to their function within the community and their relevant domain content. Of particular interest was the question of how such e-mail exchanges allowed members to develop in all five dimensions of school leadership knowledge. A coding of e-mail threads revealed that all dimensions of leadership knowledge were represented in the content, and that the quality of e-mails improved in both content as well as knowledge building practices over the three years. The growth of the community as a whole and of individual members is examined through a set of individual case studies. Finally, the dissertation closes with a discussion of the future of this community, as well as the prospects that such an approach could be applied more widely in support of new school leaders.

Magistro darbe yra išanalizuota bei susisteminta Lietuvos bei užsienio autorių mokslinė literatūra kaimo bendruomenių veiklos tematika, išanalizuota kaimo bendruomenių įstatyminė bazė bei jų veiklos finansavimo būdai, išsiaiškinamos gyvenimo kokybės gerinimo galimybės Šiaulių apskrities kaimo vietovėse dėka veikiančių kaimo bendruomenių. Tyrimo metu renkama informacija apie Šiaulių apskrities kaimo bendruomenių organizacijų veiklą, kliūtis su kuriomis jos susiduria savo veikloje bei analizuojama kokiu būdu ir kokiomis priemonėmis įmanoma plėtoti bei tobulinti kaimo bendruomenių veiklą Šiaulių regione. Esminė tyrimo problema formuluojama kaip sugrąžinti gyventojus, ypatingai jaunimą į nedidelius miestelius ar kaimus, kokiu būdu kurti darbo vietas išsilavinusiems žmonėms. Baigiamajame darbe patvirtinama suformuluota hipotezė, kad bendruomenių stiprinimas ir plėtra – tai galimybė užtikrinti Lietuvos kaimo perspektyvas, sukurti naują kaimo struktūrą, tokiu būdu įrodant, kad kaimas – tai ne tik vieta, kur gaminami žemės ūkio produktai. / In the Master’s degree thesis the scientific publications by Lithuanian and foreign authors, concerning the countryside communities activities, were analysed and systematized; the legitimate basis and the ways of financial supply allotted to countryside communities activities reviewed; the possibilities to improve the quality of life in the villages of Šiauliai Country, owing to the acting countryside communities, were found out. During the process of investigation, there was collected information about the activities offered by the Šiauliai Country countryside communities and their organizations, about the obstacles that arose in their proceedings, and analysis was done, how and taking what measures it is possible to expand and improve the activities of countryside communities in Šiauliai area. In the graduation thesis a hypothesis was formulated, stating that strengthening and expansion of communities create a possibility to assure further perspectives of Lithuanian village and to create its new structure, thus proving the village to be not just a place, where agricultural products are made.

The relative importance of local, regional and historical processes to patterns of distribution and diversity of lower Mesoamerican (Panama and Costa Rica, LMA) freshwater fishes are examined at two different spatial scales. Biogeographic patterns of LMA freshwater fish communities at the spatial extent of LMA indicate that biological differences among species as well as regional and historical processes are quintessential to explaining the patters of turnover of community composition and species richness across the LMA Isthmus. The study of LMA freshwater fishes permits the inference that ecological interactions among species are not independent of a region's history, suggesting that regional and historical processes probably play an ongoing role in the maintenance of LMA freshwater fish communities. In addition, the study of the natural experiment of the Panama Canal provides a clear demonstration that dispersal, rather than local deterministic processes such as competition and predation, previously set the upper limit of the number of fish species coexisting in local communities. Comparisons of species inventories established prior to Canal construction with contemporary species lists demonstrates a large net increase in species richness of local communities, suggesting that the local communities of the Panama Canal watershed were not saturated.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur Räddningstjänsten sprider kunskap som erhållits från erfarenheter och övning, samt vilka strukturella faktorer som påverkar denna spridning. Med strukturella faktorer avses exempelvis hierarkier, avdelningsgränser, strategier för kunskapsöverföring och belöningssystem. Studiens empiri har samlats in genom semi-strukturerade intervjuer och är således en kvalitativ studie. Urvalet består av sju medarbetare på olika befattningar som bedömts som nyckelpositioner för kunskapsspridning. Studien utgår ifrån olika Knowledge management-strategier och Communities of practice för att förklara skapande och spridning av organisatorisk kunskap.   Resultatet påvisar att det finns olika spridningsmetoder för kunskap som består av ett avvikelsesystem, insatsrapporteringssystem samt Communities of practice inom arbetslagen. Data visar att spridningseffektiviteten varierar och att det föreligger olika hindrande och främjande faktorer för spridning av kunskap metoderna emellan. I studien framkommer det att kunskap sprids mest effektivt inom arbetslagen och avvikelsesystemets tydliga ansvarsfördelning och infrastruktur fungerar bättre än insatsrapporteringssystemet, då detta saknar struktur och har en svårhanterlig mängd information. / The purpose of this study is to examine how the Swedish fire brigade disseminates knowledge from experiences, obtained from emergencies and practice, and the structural factors that affect this distribution. Structural factors referred to in this study are for example hierarchies, department boundaries, strategies for knowledge transfer and reward systems. The study's empirical data were collected through semi-structured interviews and is thus a qualitative study. The studies population consists of seven employees in various positions identified as key positions for knowledge dissemination. The study is based on various Knowledge management strategies and Communities of practice to explain the creation and dissemination of organizational knowledge. The result demonstrates that there are various methods of dissemination of knowledge consisting of a deviation system, effort reporting system and Communities of practice in work teams. Data show that the efficiency of dissemination varies and that there are both hindering and facilitating factors affecting the efficiency. The study shows that knowledge is disseminated most effectively within teams and that the deviation systems clear infrastructure works better than the effort reporting system, due to it’s lack of structure and unwieldy amount of information.