This thesis explores the regional differentiation of electoral behaviour and other topics in electoral geography in the Czech Republic. Electoral geography, which studies the geographic aspects of the organisation, process, and results of elections, for a long time developed mainly in Western societies given the absence of free elections in other countries. It began to develop in the Czech Republic in the 1990s and its goal was to explore the process of the transformation of society and the stabilisation of democracy, to compare electoral patterns observed in conditions of stable liberal democracies with the patterns found in transforming states, and to adapt them to the specific conditions of transition countries. Electoral geography focuses mainly on the spatial variations of electoral behaviour. It seeks to determine whether different patterns of electoral behaviour are based on the social structure of the population in the region, whether they are influenced by contextual factors, or whether it is a combination of both. Another important subject studied by electoral geography is the spatial patterns of representation, which however are usually studied in majoritarian electoral systems. The thesis is composed of two basic sections. The first section offers a broader theoretical and...

Учитель языка использует коммуникацию в качестве подхода к обучению для повышения коммуникативной компетентности учащихся. Педагогическое обоснование использования коммуникативного подхода на уроках иностранного языка частично зависит от утверждения, что они помогут развить коммуникативные навыки учащихся, и частично от утверждения, что они будут способствовать их языковому развитию. В связи с этим основной целью исследования было изучение контекстуального подхода к преподаванию грамматики в иракской начальной школе. Это исследование было проведено аналитически и после серии заранее определенных шагов, в ходе которых оно наблюдало, критически наблюдало и анализировало явление. Результаты этого исследования показывают, что отношение иракских учителей к коммуникативной деятельности и коммуникативному подходу к преподаванию грамматики является положительным. Иракские учителя были заинтересованы в этом подходе, потому что они нашли его очень полезным для учащихся, они считают, что этот метод дает учащимся возможность взаимодействовать и взаимодействовать со своими друзьями и учителем в классе. Многие учителя также сообщили, что из-за акцента на общении коммуникативный метод необходим для изучения грамматики английского языка в классе, и приняли его. / The language teacher uses communication as a teaching approach to enhance students’ communicative competence. The pedagogical rationale for the use of communicative approach in a language teaching class depends in part on the claim that they will help develop learners’ communicative skills and in part on a claim that they will contribute incidentally to their linguistic development. In this regard, the main goal of the study was to investigate a contextual approach for the teaching of grammar in Iraqi primary school. This research was carried out analytically and following a series of predetermined steps, during which it observed, critically observed and analyzed the phenomenon. The findings of this study indicate that Iraqi teachers' attitudes toward communication activities and the communication approach to grammar teaching are positive. The Iraqi teachers were interested in this approach because they found it very useful for the students, they believe that this method provides students with an opportunity to interact and interact with their friends and the teacher in the classroom. Many teachers also reported that because of the emphasis on communication, the communicative method is essential for learning English grammar in the classroom and accepted it.

The main purpose of the study was to explore how learning cycle and traditional method as teaching methods contribute to the effect of contextual approach on 11th grade students&rsquo / achievement in &ldquo / impulse and momentum&rdquo / , and attitude towards physics. Therefore, a distinction between teaching approach (contextual vs. non-contextual) and teaching method (learning cycle vs. traditional method) was made and they were used as independent variables. Students&rsquo / gender was also used as an independent variable. Thus, the study was a 2x2x2 factorial design. The sample, drawn through the purposive sampling, included 226 students. Pretests and posttests were used for assessing students&rsquo / achievement in impulse and momentum, and attitude towards physics. Using Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA), the main effects of contextual approach, learning cycle, and student gender as well as the interaction effects among them were investigated. Consequently, (1) contextual approach was more effective in supporting students&rsquo / conceptual understanding of impulse and momentum, (2) learning cycle was as effective as the traditional method, (3) gender related difference in attitude towards physics in favor of males could not be removed through the treatments, (4) contextual approach worked better with the traditional method than the learning cycle for achievement and attitude, (5) males benefitted a little more from learning cycle while females benefitted a little more from traditional method in terms of conceptual and non-conceptual scores.

The uneven effects of EU membership conditionality on Eastern European reforms continue to puzzle the research community. Sometimes, the research focus has been too large, considering EU membership conditionality as a policy implemented uniformly across policy areas. Other efforts take a too narrow approach by trying to explain the effects of EU membership conditionality in single sectors. I suggest studying this phenomenon through a set of mid-level theories in a cross-country, cross-sectorial approach. I argue that both the intensity of EU membership conditionality and reform outcomes are contingent upon the policy sector context; hence, we should take a sectorial contextual approach in studying them. Reform outcomes result from the interplay between EU’s and domestic leaders’ interests in a particular sectorial reform. I assume domestic leaders to be rational, power driven actors. I argue that, since they act in some weakly institutionalized political environments such as Eastern European societies, they represent the principal actors in the power game. I assume the EU to be a rational actor as well; yet, differently from Eastern Europe, the role of individual leaders is less distinguishable in the highly institutionalized EU political theatre. In this case, EU institutions are the primary political agents. They are interested in maintaining and enlarging the Union as a stable democracy. Expanding an earlier argument that views the EU as established through consociational practices, I argue that EU membership conditionality is a tool to impose institutional reforms in the EU aspirant countries, so their institutions can be receptive to the EU consociational practices once they join the Union. In these countries, the consociational character of conditionality is more visible, since it seeks to impose in aspirant countries the same practices that have brought democratic stability in some member states. The EU does not impose consociational practices on unified societies, but simply seeks to make their institutions receptive to the EU consociational practices. I test these arguments with the cases of institutional reforms in postcommunist Albanian and Macedonia. I conclude that, generally, EU membership manages to change Eastern European leaders’ interests in institutional reforms, but when it cannot, the reforms are almost impossible.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:25:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissSPE.pdf: 993314 bytes, checksum: 979ffb4878aaf229085ece40596fbffd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-09-27 / This study approaches the present perfect simple (PP) in English, a verb structure that does not have a semantic equivalent in Brazilian Portuguese language. This fact brings out teaching and learning issues that one occasionally tries to answer. Frequently taught through out of context sentences and treated in grammar and language teaching books in a fragmented way, through confusing and haphazard explanations, this structure is difficult for Brazilian English learners to grasp. Although morphologically similar to the compound past tense in Portuguese, once both are formed by have and the past participle of a given verb, it is acknowledged that these structures do not always operate in the same way. Besides the concept of Tense, the PP also bears strong aspectual information which is rarely taken into consideration in its teaching, but essential for its understanding. With this in mind, this investigation goal was to analyze if a contextual approach facilitates the comprehension of the notion of Aspect underlying the PP. The experiment consisted of two distinct tasks, one structural and another contextual, and also a questionnaire with questions concerning some verb structures. Based on verbal protocols technique, the participants, 20 English language students attending the last year of Language College in two public universities in the state of São Paulo, were instructed to verbalize their thoughts while performing the tasks. The results are favorable to the use of contextual activities in the understanding of the aspectual feature that underlies the meaning of the PP, since this type of approach seems to attenuate the difficulties found by learners when carrying out tasks involving several verb structures, therefore providing greater possibility of focusing in aspectual features and less in temporality. / Este estudo visa a problematizar a questão do ensino-aprendizagem e aquisição do present perfect simples (PP) em inglês, estrutura verbal que não possui equivalente semântico na língua portuguesa. Freqüentemente ensinada de forma fragmentada e abordada em gramáticas e livros didáticos de maneira descontextualizada e por meio de explicações confusas e incompatíveis, tal estrutura é de difícil compreensão para aprendizes brasileiros. Mesmo sendo morfologicamente análoga ao pretérito perfeito composto do português, já que ambas são formadas pelo verbo ter + particípio passado de algum verbo qualquer, sabe-se que elas nem sempre operam da mesma forma. Além da noção de Tempo, o PP carrega também forte informação aspectual, que é raramente abordada em seu ensino, porém essencial para seu entendimento. Com isso em mente, o intuito deste estudo foi analisar em que medida uma abordagem contextual facilita a compreensão da questão de Aspecto subjacente ao PP e a partir disso apontar alguns caminhos para seu ensino. O experimento, realizado com 20 alunos do último ano do curso de Letras com habilitação na língua inglesa de duas universidades públicas do interior de São Paulo, constou de duas tarefas distintas, uma de base estrutural e outra contextual, além de um questionário com perguntas acerca de algumas estruturas verbais. Tendo como base a técnica de protocolos verbais, os participantes foram instruídos a verbalizar seus pensamentos quando realizavam as tarefas. Os resultados obtidos se mostram favoráveis ao uso de atividades contextualizadas no entendimento da noção de Aspecto que abarca o PP, uma vez que esse tipo de tratamento parece amenizar as dificuldades encontradas pelos aprendizes ao realizarem uma tarefa que envolve diversas estruturas verbais, pois proporciona uma maior possibilidade de focar na questão aspectual e menos na temporal.

<p>Since time immemorial, agricultural changes in the Philippines have been inspired by the notion of self-sufficiency projected by developed and industrial countries. Through ethnographic writing and historical analysis, I visit the outcomes of the Green Revolution and how the development of new agricultural technology escalated violence embedded in communities that experienced multiple colonialism. These acknowledged and disclaimed forms of violence are perpetuated by occurring negotiations between community actors, primarily the landed and landless farmers, living in the context of precarity.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty-five farmers (aged 20 – 85), who mostly cultivated on borrowed land. I argue that in a post-colonial town like Nabua, the socio-cultural and socio-economic factors involved in farming do not coincide with the Philippine government’s plans for agricultural development and progress. These ethnographic essays investigate how colonial legacies manifest and perpetuate violence locally by examining Nabua’s historical experience with multiple colonialism, the outcomes of persisting precarity, and agricultural developments. In the first chapter, I contextualize precarity by analyzing the history of change from the Spanish colonial period to the peak of the Green Revolution, cruising through how national policies manifest in agricultural developments at the local level. For the second chapter, I dive into the present-day farming situation in Nabua and how violence and precarity are perpetuated by the national government’s agricultural development master plan. I conclude with a call to localize agricultural development and address local challenges to attain sustainable and progressive agricultural development.</p>

This qualitative participatory action research project examined how the spiritual dimension in pastoral therapy served as a life-giving resource to facilitate healing and growth in the lives of three Christian female university students. A postmodern epistomology, social construction theory and a contextual feminist theology informed the praxis of pastoral narrative therapy. The themes of subjectivity, meaning, religious development and religious experience were the focus of this study. Narrative practices were engaged in to utilise spiritual talk in the co-construction of an alternative relational identity with the research participants. The theory of religious development is discussed from a social constructionist perspective with an accent on a personal relationship with God as central to the developmental process. The religious experiences of the participants contributed to a spiritual awareness of being connected, in a dynamic way, to God, that transformed the clients' perceptions of problems and ways of addressing problems in their lives. / Practical Theology / M.Th. (Practical Theology)

Plus de dix ans après la mise en place du projet d’harmonisation du droit du commerce électronique, l’ASEAN, « The Association of Southeast Asian Nations » rassemblant dix États membres en Asie du Sud-est, n’arrive toujours pas à doter chacun de ses États membres d’une législation harmonisée en la matière. Dans cette optique, nous tenterons, pour contribuer à cette harmonisation, de démontrer la situation problématique relative au droit du commerce électronique dans six des dix États membres de l’ASEAN où, en plus de leur non-uniformité législative, les textes nationaux régissant le formalisme du contrat électronique demeurent difficiles à comprendre, à interpréter et donc à appliquer ; ce qui cause parfois des erreurs interprétatives voire l’oubli total de ces textes. Cette expérience n’est pas unique dans l’ASEAN, car l’on trouve également de similaires situations dans d’autres juridictions, telles que le Canada et les États-Unis. Pour pallier cette rupture entre la loi et la jurisprudence, nous proposons une quête d’une méthode d’interprétation comme une piste de solution qui nous semble la plus pertinente au regard de l’état des textes déjà en vigueur et de l’objectif de l’harmonisation du droit du commerce électronique dans l’ASEAN. Parmi les méthodes interprétatives très variées, nous arrivons à identifier la méthode contextuelle, aussi large soit-elle, comme la méthode la plus pertinente eu égard aux caractéristiques particulières du formalisme du contrat électronique, à savoir l’écrit et la signature électroniques. Nous proposons donc une grille d’analyse de cette méthode composée de contextes juridique, technique et social, qui aideront les juristes, surtout les juges, à mieux saisir le sens des textes et à leur donner « une meilleure interprétation » en faveur de l’objectif de l’harmonisation du droit dans l’ASEAN. / More than ten years after the implementation of the harmonization project of e-commerce law, ASEAN, "The Association of Southeast Asian Nations" gathering ten Member States in Southeast Asia, is still not able to provide each of their Member States with a harmonized legislation in this respect. In this context, we try, in contribution to this harmonization, to demonstrate the problematic situation on e-commerce law in six of the ten ASEAN Member States where, in addition to their statutory non-uniformity, these national laws governing the formalism of electronic contract are difficult to understand, to interpret and therefore to apply; sometimes causing interpretative errors or total neglect of these texts. This experience is not unique to ASEAN, because there are also similar situations in other jurisdictions such as Canada and the United States. To address this disconnect between the law and jurisprudence, we propose a search for a method of interpretation as a possible solution that seems most relevant to the state of the texts already in place and to the objective of harmonizing of the electronic commerce law in ASEAN. Among the wide variety of interpretive methods, we are able to identify the contextual approach, as large as it is, as the most appropriate method regarding to the particular characteristics of the formalism of electronic contract, namely the electronic writing and electronic signature. We propose an analytical method that consists of legal, technical and social contexts that will help lawyers, especially judges, to better understand the meaning of the texts and to give them a "best interpretation" in favor of the objective of harmonization of law in ASEAN.

Plus de dix ans après la mise en place du projet d’harmonisation du droit du commerce électronique, l’ASEAN, « The Association of Southeast Asian Nations » rassemblant dix États membres en Asie du Sud-est, n’arrive toujours pas à doter chacun de ses États membres d’une législation harmonisée en la matière. Dans cette optique, nous tenterons, pour contribuer à cette harmonisation, de démontrer la situation problématique relative au droit du commerce électronique dans six des dix États membres de l’ASEAN où, en plus de leur non-uniformité législative, les textes nationaux régissant le formalisme du contrat électronique demeurent difficiles à comprendre, à interpréter et donc à appliquer ; ce qui cause parfois des erreurs interprétatives voire l’oubli total de ces textes. Cette expérience n’est pas unique dans l’ASEAN, car l’on trouve également de similaires situations dans d’autres juridictions, telles que le Canada et les États-Unis. Pour pallier cette rupture entre la loi et la jurisprudence, nous proposons une quête d’une méthode d’interprétation comme une piste de solution qui nous semble la plus pertinente au regard de l’état des textes déjà en vigueur et de l’objectif de l’harmonisation du droit du commerce électronique dans l’ASEAN. Parmi les méthodes interprétatives très variées, nous arrivons à identifier la méthode contextuelle, aussi large soit-elle, comme la méthode la plus pertinente eu égard aux caractéristiques particulières du formalisme du contrat électronique, à savoir l’écrit et la signature électroniques. Nous proposons donc une grille d’analyse de cette méthode composée de contextes juridique, technique et social, qui aideront les juristes, surtout les juges, à mieux saisir le sens des textes et à leur donner « une meilleure interprétation » en faveur de l’objectif de l’harmonisation du droit dans l’ASEAN. / More than ten years after the implementation of the harmonization project of e-commerce law, ASEAN, "The Association of Southeast Asian Nations" gathering ten Member States in Southeast Asia, is still not able to provide each of their Member States with a harmonized legislation in this respect. In this context, we try, in contribution to this harmonization, to demonstrate the problematic situation on e-commerce law in six of the ten ASEAN Member States where, in addition to their statutory non-uniformity, these national laws governing the formalism of electronic contract are difficult to understand, to interpret and therefore to apply; sometimes causing interpretative errors or total neglect of these texts. This experience is not unique to ASEAN, because there are also similar situations in other jurisdictions such as Canada and the United States. To address this disconnect between the law and jurisprudence, we propose a search for a method of interpretation as a possible solution that seems most relevant to the state of the texts already in place and to the objective of harmonizing of the electronic commerce law in ASEAN. Among the wide variety of interpretive methods, we are able to identify the contextual approach, as large as it is, as the most appropriate method regarding to the particular characteristics of the formalism of electronic contract, namely the electronic writing and electronic signature. We propose an analytical method that consists of legal, technical and social contexts that will help lawyers, especially judges, to better understand the meaning of the texts and to give them a "best interpretation" in favor of the objective of harmonization of law in ASEAN. / Commentaires généraux du rapport externe (par Prof. Arthur Oulaï) : Il faut saluer la préoccupation du candidat pour l’apport d’un éclairage sur les textes qui régissent le contrat électronique afin de les rendre plus accessibles aux juges. L’élaboration d’une méthode d’interprétation de ces textes constitue, sans aucun doute, une contribution telle qu’attendue d’une thèse de doctorat en droit. Nous tenons à l’en féliciter. Nous recommandons donc la soutenance de sa thèse et lui accordons la mention « Très bonne ». 12 Déc. 2013 – Vincent Gautrais (Directeur de thèse) : Sambath Hel vient de se voir attribuer le doctorat en droit de l’Université de Montréal avec la mention selon laquelle sa thèse est jugée «Très bonne». En plus des félicitations qui lui ont été adressées lors de la soutenance, je puis aussi témoigner du grand plaisir que j’ai eu à l’accompagner durant ce long processus. Bravo Sambath!

This qualitative participatory action research project examined how the spiritual dimension in pastoral therapy served as a life-giving resource to facilitate healing and growth in the lives of three Christian female university students. A postmodern epistomology, social construction theory and a contextual feminist theology informed the praxis of pastoral narrative therapy. The themes of subjectivity, meaning, religious development and religious experience were the focus of this study. Narrative practices were engaged in to utilise spiritual talk in the co-construction of an alternative relational identity with the research participants. The theory of religious development is discussed from a social constructionist perspective with an accent on a personal relationship with God as central to the developmental process. The religious experiences of the participants contributed to a spiritual awareness of being connected, in a dynamic way, to God, that transformed the clients' perceptions of problems and ways of addressing problems in their lives. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M.Th. (Practical Theology)