The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the effects of organizational and national cultural differences on international acquisitions. We argue that cultural differences prompt social identity building that leads to 'us versus them' thinking and thereby creates the potential for social conflict. We also maintain that the same cultural differences can contribute to learning in terms of knowledge transfer. We develop a structural equation model to test these hypothesized effects on a sample of related international acquisitions. Our analysis shows that cultural differences at the organizational level are positively associated with social conflict, but that national cultural differences can decrease social conflict. Furthermore, both organizational and national cultural differences are positively associated with knowledge transfer. This analysis shows the importance of disentangling the various effects that cultural differences have on international acquisitions. It also suggests that national cultural differences are less of a problem in international acquisitions than is usually assumed.

Human culture has been proposed to uniquely exhibit a ‘ratchet effect’, with beneficial modifications being made to cultural traits over many generations. This is widely thought to have allowed an accumulation of technology and knowledge over time, and to be of central importance to the remarkable ecological and demographic success of humans. Whilst many researchers argue that the roots of human culture lie in social learning, a process widespread in nature, the exact cognitive capacities that set humans apart are not known. To provide a comparative assessment of nine separate hypotheses regarding different social and cognitive factors that may underlie a capacity for cumulative culture, in this thesis a cumulative puzzlebox was presented to three species. Groups of capuchins, chimpanzees and children were provided with the opportunity to solve the puzzlebox to three sequential levels to retrieve rewards of increasing desirability. Higher level solutions spread only in the children. Evidence was found for the occurrence of teaching, imitation, complex communication and prosociality in groups of children, but not in groups of capuchins and chimpanzees. Furthermore, these processes were positively correlated with the performance of individuals within the groups of children which was the only species to show evidence of cumulative cultural learning. Five further hypotheses focussed on alternative social and cognitive factors were not supported by the evidence from this experiment.

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

Submitted by Fernanda Ciolfi (fernanda.ciolfi@puc-campinas.edu.br) on 2016-04-07T19:26:23Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Sandra Bull .pdf: 931655 bytes, checksum: 5df967acfe482bb83f14174731f7f770 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-07T19:26:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Sandra Bull .pdf: 931655 bytes, checksum: 5df967acfe482bb83f14174731f7f770 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-23 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior - CAPES / This research starts from the premise that a job, besides being ontologically the category responsible for the constitution of the man as a social being, it is the biggest organizer of everyday life nowadays. Moreover, it is the social organization of work that marks the places in the macro structure and defines the possibility of transit and social belonging. Thus, assuming that contemporary Western societies have become especially societies formed by workers, who have in their jobs the objective and symbolic bases of their lives, that is to say, as well as an activity that ensures the living, work became the category responsible for anchoring identity of contemporary man. Therefore, this work was dedicated to think about the lives of poor workers, aiming to understand the possibility of construction of social, material and symbolic belonging, people who develop activities in professional categories considered socially disqualified and participate systematically and actively in activities related to popular culture. It was developed in a way called biographical focus from the starter question; "Can you tell me the story of your life", the arratives were recorded and then transcribed with integrity, and was then analyzed in the light of the propositions of Social Psychology and related areas. Along two years two men were interviewed, the first of them was 25 years old and president of a Samba School of the countryside of the state of S?o Paulo; the second man, a 78 years old is an ambassador of a group of "Folia de Reis". Five interviews with each of them were made. As a result, we can point that the inclusion in popular culture served as support of experiences different then submission or mental and physical illness of workers, and it can be said that both individuals remain active and develop activities considered socially relevant, even though the economic and social difficulties experienced by both are still poignant. / A presente pesquisa parte da premissa de que o trabalho, al?m de ser ontologicamente a categoria respons?vel pela constitui??o do homem enquanto ser social, ? o grande organizador da vida cotidiana na contemporaneidade. Al?m disso, ? a organiza??o social do trabalho que termina por demarcar os lugares na macroestrutura bem como definir a possibilidade de tr?nsito e pertencimento social. Assim, partindo do princ?pio de que as sociedades ocidentais contempor?neas tornaram-se sobretudo sociedades formadas por trabalhadores, que t?m no trabalho o grande alicerce objetivo e simb?lico de suas vidas, ou seja, para al?m de uma atividade que garanta a subsist?ncia, o trabalho tornou-se a categoria respons?vel pela ancoragem identit?ria do homem contempor?neo. Diante disso, a presente proposta dedicou-se a pensar a vida de trabalhadores pobres, tendo como objetivo entender a possibilidade de constru??o de pertencimento social, material e simb?lico, de pessoas que desenvolvam atividades em categorias profissionais consideradas socialmente desqualificadas e que participem sistem?tica e ativamente em atividades ligadas ? cultura popular. Foi desenvolvida por meio do chamado enfoque biogr?fico, a partir da pergunta disparadora; "Conte-me sua hist?ria de vida?", as narrativas foram ?udio gravadas e, posteriormente, transcritas na ?ntegra, tendo sido ent?o analisadas ? luz das proposi??es da Psicologia Social e ?reas afins. Foram entrevistados dois homens, ao longo de dois anos, o primeiro deles de 25 anos e presidente de uma Escola de Samba do interior paulista; o segundo um embaixador de "Folia dos Reis", de 78 anos. Foram realizadas cinco entrevistas com cada um deles. Como resultado pode-se apontar qua a inser??o na cultura popular serviu como suporte a viv?ncias que fogem ? submiss?o e ao adoecimento mental e f?sico dos trabalhadores , bem como pode-se afirmar que ambos os sujeitos mant?m-se ativos e desenvolvem atividades consideradas socialmente relevantes, ainda que sejam pungentes as dificuldades econ?micas e sociais vivenciadas por ambos.

The political tensions between different feminisms, emerging virtually in tandem with the origins of 'second wave' women's movements themselves, continue to present challenges for cooperation and collective action. If flourishing feminist solidarities are to be forged, it is imperative to attend to these divisions, requiring a robust understanding of how they have developed. Though a growing body of research exists on the emotions of feminism, alongside a much more expansive one on emotions and social movements more generally, the emotions of specific feminist movements remain relatively under-explored. This research aims to generate a deeper understanding of radical feminism through a historical examination of its emotion culture during the crucial transition between the development of the 'second wave' of Women's Liberation in the 1970s and the emergence of the 'third wave' in the 1990s. It takes radical feminist writings about the timely and controversial paradigms of medicine and psychoanalysis as a window on the movement's emotion culture in the 1980s. Employing archival documentary methods and a case study approach, the research draws upon the pivotal radical feminist magazine Trouble and Strife as its sole data source. Exploring the text through literary ethnographic analysis and foregrounding a historical lens, it surfaces radical feminism's emotion culture and highlights the way that its development was bound up with the specificities of its historical moment. The movement's emotion culture was fundamentally a relational one, constituted through its specific political lens on the relationships in which radical feminists were entangled. As the 'heady days' of 1970s radical social movements gave way to the British state's turn to neoliberalism, the proliferating reach of its individualist ideological paradigm, and deepening divisions between the evolving strands of the 'second wave', radical feminists were confronted with an array of changing relationships to negotiate. Their uniquely uncompromising stance toward men, their long-established tense relationship with socialist and Marxist feminisms, and their critical view of ascending feminist uptake of psychoanalysis gave rise to an emotion culture which centred around their relationships with each of these. This research contributes to theories of emotions in social movements by focusing on the historically and ideologically specific, rather than emphasising the more general social movement strategic goals which are a common (though not universal) focus in this area. It adds to a small body of work on background emotions, and shows one way that they can be studied empirically. It also contributes to the growing body of work on feminism and emotions, and particularly to research which aims to explain the contentions between feminisms, as feminist researchers move away from the outmoded view of these contentions as simplistic generational divides and seek out explanations through the complex emotionality of feminist relationships.

Thesis (M. A. in Sociology)--Vanderbilt University, Dec. 2009. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

For the last several years a great deal of research has been carried out under the general heading of Consumer Behaviour. Researchers are studying consumer purchasing behaviour in all of its many facets and a great deal of additional highly useful information has become available to marketing scholars and practitioners. Generally these researchers have utilized as a basis for their research one of the current models of consumer behaviour as proposed by the recognized scholars in the field. These models although different contain many similarities. They all are multi-dimensional, containing many elements which interact to Influence the consumer's decision making process. (A more thorough discussion of the various models occurs later. ) Most of the recent research projects have been concentrated on one of the elements, in a logical way, in order to extend the amount of knowledge available concerning the element and how It interacts with the remaining aspects of the model. Inasmuch as the majority of this research is being carried on by researchers in the United States (U. S. ) utilizing the marketing/economic/sociocultural environment of the U. S., it is the writer's contention that not all of these research findings are automatically applicable or useful on a world-wide basis. Indeed, if one is concerned with a different country, for example the United Kingdom (U. K. ) or Canada, in which there exists a differing marketing, economic or sociocultural environment, then one must view the U. S. oriented research results not with scepticism but at least with some apprehension and with a questioning attitude. It is this attitude which led the writer to question the lack of concern and therefore research pertaining to certain aspects of the element "social influences". One of the multi-dimensional aspects mentioned above which, although not uniformly labelled in the various models of consumer behaviour, does appear to be common to these models, is "social influences". The major elements which the writer has identified within this "social influences" dimension are social class, family and culture. Although different researchers have utilized variations in the definitions, and therefore the sub-elements which are included in each of these three elements, it is a truism that a transposed cultural background (or ethnic background) i. e. immigration, is either not considered, or at best briefly noted and thereafter ignored or overlooked. - This lack of references to immigration and the apparent little amount of thought given to the various ethnic backgrounds represented by immigrants disturbed the researcher so for the purposes of this study it was decided to concentrate on ethnic background in order to clearly establish the validity of considering ethnic background as a major social influence of consumer purchasing behaviour, or to validate the position taken by other U. S. oriented researchers, I. e. that ethnic background is not a major influence on consumer purchasing behaviour and can be overlooked. Thus this study is primarily concerned with only two aspects of the models of consumer behaviour: family purchasing and culture. The study is not concerned with the culture in place in the environment but instead with transposed cultures via immigration.

"The Makeover and Other Consumerist Narratives" is an interdisciplinary work in both approach and scope, and reads the construction of feminine desire and identity through what is popularly known as the makeover. Bringing together such diverse areas as film, literature, women's magazines, psychoanalysis, historical analysis and cultural theory, this research is particularly concerned with visual communications media (mostly film and advertising) and spectatorship. Of central import is the relationship of consumerism to feminine identity, desire, and the historical emergence of popular entertainments aimed directly at women. / The narrative of the makeover---so prevalent in women's magazines and advertising---works to effectively orient women's desires in a consumerist direction through product promotion and self-commodification. In addition, the makeover is explored in terms of how it might be seen to provide a model by which to understand the workings of late consumer capitalism as a whole. From an excavation of the official commodity-oriented origins of the makeover in the history of women's magazines, the project then moves through a reading of several print advertisements and the phenomenon of the consumer tie-in, and finally to what I call the "Transformation Film." Questions of narrative, desire and class are key here, especially insofar as these films make explicit the connection between self-transformation, commodity consumption, feminine desire and the promise of identity in consumer culture. / At issue is the peculiar problematic of feminine desire as negotiated by Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, as well as the historical implications of female identity as explainable by Marxian commodity theory. It is only by means of examining the objects which cater to feminine desire that we may be able to understand this "culture of the makeover" and women's identity therein.

This thesis is concerned with social and economic aspects of freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) culture development in converted paddy field gher systems in SW Bangladesh, based on economic features of prawn production and social impacts within and around prawn farming communities. Based on a sample of 400 farmers from the four different zones in Bagerhat district in SW Bangladesh, 345 (86.25%) cultured prawn with fish and rice in their gher. The culture period is typically nine months, wild fry are stocked when available in May-June and harvested from November to January. A variety of feeds are used but the preferred material is the freshwater snail, Pila globosa. Productivity is variable, averaging 432 kg ha-!. The freshwater prawn is a highly valued product for international markets and is therefore almost all exported. All farmers in all zones and different gher size categories made a profit, with seed and feed dominating variable costs. Considerable variation in production costs and profitability was observed. The culture of prawn in gher systems is technically possible in a variety of conditions though expanding small scale of farming mainly depends on reducing production costs. Future targets could be to integrate with other agricultural activities especially dike cropping and rice production in the monsoon. The livelihoods of a large number of people are associated with prawn farming. Four different fry, snail and prawn markets were surveyed, including a sample of 60 fry catchers, 40 fry traders, 75 snail collectors, 40 snail traders and 40 prawn traders. A sample of 200 women, associated with gher farms was also surveyed. In spite of socio-economic constraints, most of the households of farmers (81 %) have improved their status through prawn farming where prawn have brought out clearly positive changes of economic activities and generated new employment. All appeared to have gained from their activities, women have enhanced their position in families and societies. However, concerns arise about the long-term sustainability of prawn farming due to high production costs, low supply of wild fry and snail meat, poor natural resources, poor institutional support and inadequate extension services, all of which have affected sustainable livelihoods of farmers and associated groups. It may necessary to establish local ingredients feed industries, prawn hatcheries and to provide low-interest credit with institutional and policy support for sustainable gher farming.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 258-269). Also available on the Internet.