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United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations are regularly evaluated and critiqued by both scholars and policy-makers, however this scrutiny is commonly restricted to program- and project-level effects. This neglects the unique impacts that emerge from the individuals who populate interventions and those they encounter in conflict-affected communities. The objective of this research is to place these individuals, and their actions and relationships, at the centre of analysis and investigate their impacts independent of, or distinct from, program-level effects. Through the case study of south Lebanon and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), this dissertation explores the social and physical spaces that connect peacekeepers and Lebanese individuals in the course of their everyday lives and actions. Through the theoretical lenses of cultural peacebuilding and hybridity, I conceptualize the meaning of these relationships to the individuals involved, to the UNIFIL mission, and to peace at a broader level. This political ethnography undertakes a complex, relational approach to understanding intervention impacts and effectiveness, thereby 'peopling' a UN peacekeeping operation. Based on original empirical data consisting of 82 ethno-biographical interviews with Lebanese individuals and UNIFIL veterans, alongside 14 months of participant and field observation, I argue that Lebanese people agentially transform superficial, formal encounters with peacekeepers into substantial, impactful relationships through the Lebanese culture of hospitality. In informal, private and local spaces and contexts, 'thick' identities are enacted and cultural exchange occurs, which transforms and hybridizes the knowledges and identities of both peacekeepers and Lebanese people. Through this process of hybridization, interlocutors emerge who facilitate the connections of others in their social networks and function as bridges across the international-local divide. This hybridization augments UNIFIL's access to local knowledge, which improves local support and operational effectiveness. Further, the relationships and connections between peacekeepers and Lebanese people contribute to the restoration or amelioration of Lebanese human identity needs, which are threatened by the conflict with Israel and the ways in which it intersects with intrastate tensions. This constitutes incremental change productive to complex pathways toward peace in south Lebanon.

This dissertation examined how complexity theory might offer insight into the behavior of a population of large-scale networked organizational groups. Academic medical centers (AMCs), a large-scale social and policy system that plays a key role in the education of physicians, the conduct of research, and the provision of specialized clinical care, were chosen as an example to demonstrate the enhanced understanding that can be obtained from the application of complexity theory. Graphical and nonlinear mathematical tools were chosen to place this research study in contrast to studies that metaphorically apply the concepts of complexity theory to social systems. Complexity science suggests that AMCs will demonstrate both nonlinearity and the emergence of patterned behaviors characteristic of self-organization in complex adaptive systems. Changes in the fiscal environment of AMCs, influenced by federal policy and the health care delivery market, were hypothesized to be among the factors that mediated changes in AMCs' activities and organizational relationships during a twenty-year period. The collection and examination of multiple indicators within the framework of a study model allowed development of a rich description of the AMC system and identification of patterned behaviors. Graphical analysis was used to identify underlying periodic and chaotic attractors in the AMC system. A logistic equation was used to confirm the presence of nonlinearity. The presence of nonlinearity and the emergence of patterned behavior within schools in different managed care market groups suggested that it is appropriate to treat the population of AMCs as a complex adaptive system. The results of this research study also showed that AMCs have responded to the rise of managed care in the health care delivery marketplace by leveraging their institutional strengths. Identification of nonlinear properties offers a new perspective for understanding the behavior of a population of networked organizations, the management of large-scale systems, strategic planning, and policy formulation. Until researchers and managers recognize the coexistence of nonlinear and linear processes in social systems, they will make decisions on the basis of incomplete information. / Ph. D.

Engineering education is increasingly becoming considered an important component of STEM integration in formal pre-college settings. Professional development programs take a significant role in helping teachers develop necessary classroom practices to integrate engineering into their curriculum. The COVID pandemic has further complicated instructional conditions, necessitating emergency remote learning methods to continue instruction amidst safety concerns. Combined with a general struggle to scaffold integration of engineering in K-12 classrooms, emergent conditions that restrict instructional choices such as pandemics threaten to repeatedly aggravate future efforts and make it prudent to consider the pedagogical choices teachers are able to make for STEM integration and what future professional development programs should try to do with teachers to enable them. This research aims to describe and explain the conditions and dynamics related to teacher pedagogical choice to employ engineering design activities in their classes both within the context of a partnership program and during the COVID pandemic. Using end-of-program semi-structured interviews with participant teachers in the VT PEERS (Virginia Tech Partnering with Educators and Engineers in Rural Schools) program collected in the midst of the pandemic, data was coded with a focus upon identifying connections with a dynamic framework for pedagogical choice as well as identifying and explaining the expansion of practices in the two contexts. The coding process yielded a set of themes for conditions and developments teachers experienced in the process of conducting classes with changes induced by the program and by measures in response to COVID. Findings from the study show that teachers with supports that overcome or nullify inhibitive factors for pedagogical choice will be able to adopt and develop innovative practices. Teachers balance proposed changes with their own sense of professional expectations influenced by internalized, structural, and cultural conceptions of their work. Remote learning modalities and COVID-induced safety measures constrained the ability to teach according to familiar principles of instruction, harming teachers' beliefs and development in the practice of the modalities. Based on these findings, the framework for teacher pedagogical choice showed VT PEERS' effectiveness in its opening presentation and execution to set the stage for teachers to make innovative choices to employ engineering activities, yet it was not as useful in describing how the remote learning measures taken during COVID would not lead to expanded practices for that modality. Thus, there is a need for a model that includes complex interactions between the teachers and their environment that promote or inhibit teacher agency. Such a model would inform a more empowering design and execution of professional development initiatives than feature-dependent frameworks. COVID also demonstrates that preparation will be necessary to equip teachers with more efficacious and flexible practices for remote learning to prevent further damage to student outcomes given that the potential for recurring pandemic conditions in the future makes remote learning more of an expectation than an emergency. / Doctor of Philosophy / Engineering education, the E in STEM, continues to gain attention as a needed subject in pre-college schooling. To do this, teachers primarily receive help from professional development programs to learn how to use engineering in their classrooms. The COVID pandemic created a new condition for instruction that may complicate the process of using engineering, and the restrictions to how teachers teach may adversely affect their choices when it comes to engineering. Understanding the process of teachers making the innovative choices and how they come to do so is an important topic for research. This research aims to describe and explain the choices teachers make for the practices they use in the classroom to employ engineering design activities within the context of a partnership program and during the COVID pandemic. Using end-of-program semi-structured interviews with teachers as part of their involvement in VT PEERS (Virginia Tech Partnering with Educators and Engineers in Rural Schools), I looked at teachers' perspectives on their experiences and struggles using a theory of choice-making to inform analysis. Findings from the study show that teachers that receive appropriate support and feel free to choose what they do are able to make innovative choices and become more skillful. Teachers are influenced to make choices by what they believe their job requires of them; the way schools work and how others view the role of schools affects this belief as much as the teachers themselves do. However, when choice is restricted and teachers cannot teach the way they would choose to, such as during COVID with distant and computer-based classes, they are neither growing nor thriving in their job. The theory for teacher choice used to analyze these interviews helped understand the role of the partnership in helping teachers choose to use engineering activities in classrooms, but helped less to understand how teachers struggled during COVID. It appears that when teachers actually have choices, they can be innovative; therefore, professional development programs should consider that promoting teacher choice is a necessary initial step to bring about change in schools, including for engineering education. Furthermore, COVID may not be the last pandemic within this generation, and education reforms (including for engineering education) may need to account for future instances of remote schooling as an expectation rather than considering it to be an unfortunate, one-off issue of education.

A Theory of Algorithms course is essential to any Computer Science curriculum at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. It is also considered to be difficult material to teach or to learn. In particular the topics of Computational Complexity Theory, reductions, and the NP-Complete class of problems are considered difficult by students. Numerous algorithm visualizations (AVs) have been developed over the years to portray the dynamic nature of known algorithms commonly taught in undergraduate classes. However, to the best of our knowledge, the instructional material available for NP-Completeness is mostly static and textual, which does little to alleviate the complexity of the topic. Our aim is to improve the pedagogy of NP-Completeness by providing intuitive, interactive, and easy-to-understand visualizations for standard NP Complete problems, reductions, and proofs. In this thesis, we present a set of visualizations that we developed using the OpenDSA framework for certain NP-Complete problems. Our paradigm is a three step process. We first use an AV to illustrate a particular NP-Complete problem. Then we present an exercise to provide a first-hand experience with attempting to solve a problem instance. Finally, we present a visualization of a reduction as a part of the proof for NP-Completeness. Our work has been delivered as a collection of modules in OpenDSA, an interactive eTextbook system developed at Virginia Tech. The tutorial has been introduced as a teaching supplement in both a senior undergraduate and a graduate class. We present an analysis of the system use based on records of online interactions by students who used the tutorial. We also present results from a survey of the students. / Master of Science

Yes / This study addresses a lack of research on the effects of consumer brand authenticity, brand image, and age, on brand loyalty in time-honored restaurants. Time-honored restaurants are long-established and well-recognized traditional restaurants that offer local or national foods and culinary culture. Empirical data were collected from 437 respondents in Beijing, China. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to ascertain relationships between variables, and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) validated the SEM results. The three brand authenticity dimensions were found to have differing effects on brand image and loyalty. True-to-fact authenticity had a significant effect on true-to-self authenticity, while true-to-ideal authenticity had a significant effect on brand image. True-to-self authenticity affects brand loyalty directly and indirectly through brand image. Some of the relationships were also moderated by consumer age. The results uncover the complexity inherent to consumer brand authenticity evaluations. They have implications for time-honored restaurants’ marketing and brand positioning strategies.

Thesis (MComm)--Stellenbosch University, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In the new economy, many industries - more specifically those that can be replaced electronically - are generally believed to be in peril of strategic inflection points. Scrutiny of available researches on the drivers of discontinuity indicates that some strategic inflection points can be foreseen, but many cannot be anticipated, because initially inflection points emerge very small, and can often be missed, but then they suddenly strike hard without warning. A strategic point of inflection occurs when existing ways of doing business and industry structure subtly but profoundly change. This study proposed to review the application of the complexity theory to strategic management for enabling industry inflection and corporate innovation. The study describes a couple-phased complexity approach for enabling industry inflection. The first phase starts by building organisational fitness through designing complex adaptive systems, internal to the organisation, and nurturing healthy co-evolution with external key players. The application of "communities of practice" into complex adaptive systems of organisational design is demonstrated as an essential means to drive the organization to the edge of chaos through which new businesses may evolve that can potentially trigger an inflection point. The co-evolutionary approach is explained as a process to develop patterns of co-adaptation with key players, whereby co-adapters collaborate to adapt effectively, although they still remain free to compete for a prime-movers hip position. This is hypothetically postulated to be space transition at the edge of chaos at the socio-cultural business system level, where active members, driven by the moving self-organization, engage in exploratory dialogue to explore space possibilities for systemic innovations. The second phase is described in four strategic stages for enabling industry inflection and corporate innovation. The strategic inflection point begins with a definition of a customer value proposition. This leads to the co-experimentation stage where co-creators jointly experiment with diverse new business models comprising a variety of customer value propositions that appeal to different segments. The success of new business model may cause industry inflection, subsequently leading to the third stage where the inflection point creates uncertainty to both the co-creators and their competitors, because the final success of a proactive strategic inflection point depends on the market dynamics. The salient conclusion of this study is that the complexity theory does not guarantee the complete success of a proactive strategy for enabling industry inflection. An inflection point can barely result from a deliberate strategic process only. Neither is a strategic inflection point a function of perfectly unexplainable market factors. Recommendations have been provided for further research to address, among others, the conceptual gap between the scientific analysis and the non-linear assumption of the complexity theory. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Daar word in die hedendaagse ekonomie algemeen aanvaar dat baie nywerhede - in die besonder dié wat elektronies vervang kan word - gevaar loop van strategiese invalspunte. Noukeurige ondersoek van beskikbare navorsing oor die aanvoorders van diskontinuïteit dui daarop dat sommige strategiese invalspunte verwag kan word, maar baie kan nie geantisipeer word nie, aangesien invalspunte aanvanklik baie klein voorkom, en dan dikwels misgekyk kan word, maar dan slaan hulle vinnig toe, sonder waarskuwing. 'n Strategiese invalspunt kom voor wanneer bestaande maniere van sake doen en die struktuur van die industrie subtiel, maar wesenlik verander. Met hierdie navorsing is beoog om 'n oorsig te kry van die toepassing van die kompleksiteitsteorie op strategiese bestuur ten einde geleentheid te verskaf vir industrieinfleksie en korporatiewe innovering. Die navorsing beskryf 'n aantal gefaseerde kompleksiteitsbenaderings om industrie-infleksie aan te help. Die eerste fase begin met die opbou van organisatoriese geskiktheid deur die ontwerp van komplekse aanpasbaarheidstelsels wat intern aan die organisasie is en deur die kweek van gesonde koevolusie met eksterne sleutelrolspelers. Die toepassing van "algemeen aanvaarde praktyk" in komplekse aanpasbaarheidstelsels van organisatoriese ontwerp word gedemonstreer as 'n essensiële middelom die organisasie tot op die rand van chaos te dryf waardeur nuwe ondernemings kan ontwikkel wat moontlik 'n invalspunt kan veroorsaak. Die ko-evolusionêre benadering word verduidelik as 'n proses om patrone vir ko-adaptasie met sleutelrolspelers te ontwikkel, waardeur medebewerkers saamwerk om doeltreffend aan te pas, alhoewel hulle steeds vry is om vir 'n posisie as hoofkragbron mee te ding. Daar word hipoteties gepostuleer dat dit paradigmatiese oorgang op die rand van chaos op die sosiokulturele sakevlak is, waar aktiewe lede, gedryf deur die vinnig bewegende self-organisasie, betrokke raak by verkennende dialoog om die paradigmatiese moontlikhede vir sistemiese innovering te verken. Die tweede fase word in vier strategiese stadia beskryf om industrie-infleksie en korporatiewe innovering moontlik te maak. Die strategiese invalspunt begin met 'n definisie van 'n aanbieding van kliëntwaarde. Dit lei tot die ko-eksperimentele stadium waar medeskeppers gesamentlik eksperimenteer met diverse nuwe sakemodelle wat bestaan uit variasies op aanbiedings van kliëntwaarde wat vir verskillende segmente aanloklik is. Die sukses van 'n nuwe sakemodel kan moontlik industrie-infleksie veroorsaak, wat dan lei tot die derde stadium waar die invalspunt onsekerheid skep vir die medeskeppers en hulle mededingers, aangesien die finale sukses van 'n proaktiewe strategiese invalspunt van die markdinamiek afhanklik is. Die belangrikste gevolgtrekking na aanleiding van hierdie navorsmg IS dat die kompleksiteitsteorie nie die algehele sukses van 'n proaktiewe strategie verseker om industrie-infleksie te bemagtig nie. 'n Invalspunt kan beswaarlik slegs uit 'n doelbewuste industrie-infleksie voortspruit. Die strategiese invalspunt is ook nie 'n funksie van volkome onverklaarbare markfaktore nie. Aanbevelings word gemaak vir verdere navorsing wat aandag kan gee aan, onder andere, die konseptueie gaping tussen die wetenskaplike analise en die nie-lineêre aanname van die kompleksiteitsteorie.

The study examines and identifies the perceived favourable conditions needed for employees readiness to support improvements. In the context of Brunei, readiness research in public service organisations is underrepresented if not, non-existent. There is a need for a more comprehensive study that integrates the combined perspective of the interrelated conceptual elements of readiness, its climate and the organisation. Four key findings were identified based on 119 interviews and 665 surveys. Firstly, it was found that as employees self-organise to cope with chaos, an unintended conducive climate that is specific to the Brunei context evolves out of employees readiness to adapt and survive. Secondly, the essential climatic factors that trigger the minimum level of employee readiness are identified. Thirdly, the influential climatic factors that further amplify a higher level of employee readiness are identified. Finally, based on the shared multilevel perspective of employees, the statistical analysis result confirm the hypothesis that there is a positive relationship between the identified climatic factors and employees readiness in terms of the way employees believe in, feel about and act towards improvement. Supported by qualitative findings, the essential climatic factors were identified as being communication, participation, clear task roles and responsibility, and top management s trust in subordinates. Similarly, the influential climatic factors were identified as being efficacy, organisational trust, organisational trusts in top management and top management support and participation. It is concluded that employees readiness can be incrementally developed towards improvement success; however, the contextual conditions need to be recognised and well-tailored. The development of a novel conceptual framework and model demonstrates how employees multidimensional readiness can be triggered and influenced to support improvements in a complex and adaptive organisation.

Science, and especially the social sciences, has developed as distinct territories, each with its own vocabulary and language-game (Wittgenstein, 1945/1958). Yet understanding and explaining science as a complex and pluri-disciplinary system has important practitioner-oriented as well as research-oriented and other benefits, benefits that can be enhanced through the use of cloud-based technologies. Understanding and explaining public policy in particular as complex can inform and transform the way problems are approached. This is particularly important for an action subject like public policy and administration that can be considered as having been influenced by many disciplines. Public administration (PA) through multiple perspectives, already in the literature as epistemic pluralism (Farmer, 2010), aims to transform PA’s language-game by increasing the imaginative nature of knowledge. The practical application of epistemic pluralism has also been established. This dissertation further extends theory to practice by conceptualizing a cloud-based tool called Wittgenstein X. A cloud-based tool to organize and make sense of public policy and administration through multiple perspectives will provide a mechanism for researchers, practitioners, students, and others to increase the imaginative nature of knowledge. The application of EP theory and practice to big data will also be considered. This dissertation conceptualizes complexity theory as the fundamental vantage point from which science in general and public policy and administration in particular can be understood. It asks: What is the relevance of understanding and explaining public policy as a complex and pluri-disciplinary system and how is this related to big data? This study is important because it offers a remedy to resolving seemingly intractable problems in PPA. The component terms of this study, science, complexity, pluri-disciplinarity, systems, and governmentality will be shown as linked in a Wittgensteinian Family Resemblance. The terms can be said to merge into a whole where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Esta pesquisa busca analisar a política externa brasileira (PEB) dos últimos anos por meio do referencial teórico da teoria da complexidade. Parte-se do pressuposto de que uma linha-mestra histórica da PEB é a obtenção de um lugar de maior destaque para o Brasil na ordem internacional. No contexto do fim da Guerra Fria, a situação internacional e doméstica foi alterada, de modo a favorecer essa meta tradicional. Teoricamente, discute-se a limitação dos modelos conceituais lineares sobre política internacional, de modo a defender o referencial teórico da complexidade (não linear) como mais abrangente. Com base nisso, realizam-se dois estudos de caso. O primeiro é a histórica campanha brasileira pela reforma do Conselho de Segurança da ONU: argumenta-se que fracassou, entre outros motivos, por adotar uma abordagem linear, ineficaz para a abordagem de um \"wicked problem\". Outro estudo de caso é sobre o PAA-Africa, um programa descentralizado, adaptativo e flexível, que logrou sucesso. A conclusão é que a recente prática diplomática brasileira mistura iniciativas lineares e não lineares, com resultados diversos, o que dificulta a obtenção de sua meta histórica de maior protagonismo. / This research aims to analyze Brazilian foreign policy initiatives using complexity theory\'s (CT) conceptual framework. The basic assumption is that a key Brazilian historical international objective is to achieve a greater international role as a global player. With the end of the Cold War, international and domestic settings changed in a favorable way towards the fulfilment of this objective. Theoretically, it discusses the limitations of linear conceptual models on international politics, while it asserts that CT\'s nonlinear conceptual framework is more comprehensive. On this ground, two case studies are made. The first is about Brazil\'s historic campaign to reform the UN Security Council: the argument is that it failed, among other reasons, because it adopts a linear approach, one that is unsuitable to deal with a \"wicked problem\". The other case study is about PAA-Africa, a decentralized, adaptive and flexible program, which succeeded. The conclusion is that Brazil\'s recent diplomatic practice mixes linear and nonlinear initiatives, obtaining different results, and this is an obstacle for the country to achieve its goal of greater international protagonism.