Wetlands in most parts of the world are under threat of over-exploitation, loss and/or degradation partly due to agriculture and urban land uses. Yala swamp, the largest fresh water wetland in Kenya measuring about 17,500 ha supports a large biodiversity and is source of livelihoods to communities around it. This study addresses the situation where part of this wetland is converted into large-scale agriculture by a multinational company, Dominion Farms (K) Ltd resulting into a conflict and controversy amongst key stakeholders. The study sought to investigate livelihood impacts this transformation has for the local community. It employs the concepts Stakeholder Analysis (SA) and Sustainable Livelihood Approaches (SLA) to asses the livelihood situation in terms of socio-economic conditions, rural infrastructure, income diversification, food security and environmental issues. Data and information have been obtained from primary and secondary sources through field survey at the Yala wetland, in which randomly sampled small-scale farmers, fisher folk, Dominion employees, local leaders and informants, traders and other stakeholders were interviewed using questionnaire and other participatory methods. The main questions were designed to gain information about historical use of the wetland, changes in livelihoods and wetland before and after entry of Dominion Company into the area. From the study, it is evident that assessment of the key stakeholders in relation to this natural resource is of utmost importance for mapping out an acceptable management strategy for the wetland. Besides being cause to a conflict and controversy over control of and access to the swamp, the conversion has resulted into both negative and positive short-term and long-term livelihood impacts to the local community. The wetland being a contested resource with multiple users who claim a stake on it requires a holistic approach in its management that caters for divergent needs and views of key stakeholder groups. The study identifies management issues and proposes abroad vision for the future including recommendations for planning as well as suggestions for specific research needs that should form the basis of action

1 Abstract The Buquoy aristocratic family is a branch of the Longueval family that has origins in current France. The Buquoys arrived in Lands of the Bohemian Crown during the thirty years' war when Charles Bonaventure was called in to fight Bohemian Protestants. Soon after, he received an estate in the Southern Bohemia from Ferdinand II where he and his descendants stayed nearly three and a half centuries. The Buquoys soon extended their opulent estates by Prague palaces and few regions in the North Bohemia. They contributed to advances in agriculture, glassblowing and in the area of social and scholar reforms. They were also engaged in politics and became important patrons of culture and arts. Nevertheless, the Buquoys suffered the same fate as other aristocratic families. In the beginning of the 19th century, they started losing their privileges and estates and, in 1945, they were expelled from Czechoslovakia based on Beneš decrees concerning retribution. The aim of this thesis is to point out the cultural legacy which Buquoys left behind in the current Czech Republic and to describe their overall contribution in particular areas. The thesis is divided into two chapters. The first chapter is dedicated to the general picture and to the history of aristocratic families in the Lands of the Bohemian Crown...

(in English): This Master's work attempts to analyze the selected documents of dominion's administration, which were being published by the office workers of the dominion's management during the period from the end of the 16th to the half of the 17th century, and through the metody of comparison it tries to find out the official form of the manor's leading methods and the communication between the owner of domain and his subordinate inhabitants.

The contribution of the Church to the reconstruction of a nation is the primary reason for the present study. The paradox image that the Democratic Republic of Congo presents deserves particular attention. With more than 80% of DRC population being Christians, this study strives to examine the current Christian religious discourse in the DRC and to see in what way this discourse can be ameliorated in order to play properly the role of facilitating a positive transformation of this country. Notwithstanding I have been alienated from the country for some years now, the study analyzes the current situation on the ground on the basis of the data available, and makes some recommendations in order for the situation in the DRC to be ameliorated. This study thus urges a reconstructive Christian religious discourse in the hope of changing the nation’s mentality in order to reconstruct this beautiful Country. / New Testament / M. Div. (New Testament)

This work addresses the historically-read despotism Genesis 1.28 has often received in its subordination of nature for the interests of human enterprise and counters the notion of reading the entire Bible as an anti-environmental, anthropocentric text. In using a combined literary lens of eco-criticism and new historicism, this work examines the Hebrew Bible with particular attention to the books of Genesis and Exodus, offering within the Torah’s oldest literary tradition (the J source) an environmental connection between humanity and the divine that promotes a reverence of natural world and, conversely, a rejection of rampant urbanization and its cultural departure from nature. It is the goal of this research to create a discourse by bridging the gap between religious and green studies and forging a connection with the works of the early biblical writers and environmental thought of the modern world.

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Notre étude concerne l'expérience de travail d'un groupe de femmes mariées ayant oeuvré à la Dominion Textile de Montmorency durant les années 1940 et 1950. Il s'agit de la seule industrie de textile de la région de Québec, voire de l'est de la province. Honnis l'espace de travail que constitue l'usine, les transformations socioéconomiques des années 1940 et 1950 ont également modifié la donne à l'égard de la vie familiale et domestique. Dans le cadre de cette thèse, ces changements prennent une couleur particulière dans une petite localité urbaine telle que Montmorency, située à peu près à sept kilomètres de la capitale. L'hypothèse centrale de la thèse soutient que l'expérience de ces travailleuses témoigne d'une nouvelle réalité du travail. Celle-ci s'inscrit au sein d'une culture féminine rendant compte d'une diversité d'expériences. Axée davantage sur l'occupation d'un emploi rémunéré et sur la consommation, cette nouvelle réalité s'actualise suivant les transformations socio-économiques tant dans la société québécoise que dans l'industrie. L'emploi conjugué de sources orales et de documents écrits nous a permis de mettre en lumière l'existence d'une culture féminine du travail en milieu ouvrier. Plus encore qu'un mode d'articulation spécifique entre le monde du travail salarié et celui du travail domestique en milieu familial, elle implique des pratiques culturelles et un système de représentations qui se définit par des valeurs et des perceptions de ces mêmes pratiques. La représentation que ces femmes se font d'elles-mêmes comme travailleuse prend racine dans leur enfance. Elles travaillent comme ouvrière dans la seule usine du village. C'est là que s'élabore une culture féminine industrielle faites de gestes et de perceptions à l'égard du travail. À l'opposé des travailleuses mariées des générations précédentes, d'autres motivations expliquent en partie leur présence sur le marché du travail après le mariage. Des aspirations liées à l'existence d'un mode de vie basée sur de nouvelles pratiques de consommation favorisent l'émergence d'une nouvelle réalité du travail où les valeurs de la classe moyenne se perpétuent aux femmes des milieux populaires. C'est ce que révèle, entre autres, cette étude en s'intéressant à un groupe de travailleuses dans le contexte d'une petite ville industrielle méconnue. / Québec Université Laval, Bibliothèque 2014

While the Left Behind Corpus may be commended for being an effective tool for evangelism, the question arises of whether or not its themes engender a theology of extermination, indeed a creeping crusade; “creeping” in the sense of it being a movement of stealth and not one of high visibility – “crusade” in the sense of a militaristic movement, similar to that of the medieval crusades. I span my research across three artefacts in the LB Corpus in terms of its embedded interpretation, discourse and ideology; in fact three separate entities for explanatory purposes, but in effect they form a single entity of interaction and cross-production. I am therefore extending many niches of research and critical discourse to what I envisage as the wider context of the LB Corpus: its potential for social construction, and its enigmatic connections with other apocalyptic-driven and crusade-like movements. Based as it is on “consistent literalism,” the LB Corpus can only be countered by an exegetical approach that situates the foundational text for the Left Behind phenomenon, Revelation 7, in its historical setting, while taking cognisance of the particularities of early Christianity, with its Jewish heritage lived out in a Graeco-Roman environment. In offering an alternative reading, I take some cues from Vernon Robbins‟ socio-rhetorical approach and draw from perspectives of theorists across several disciplinary fields in pointing out anomalies in a consistent literalism driven interpretation of Revelation 7. / New Testament / Thesis (D.Litt. et Phil. (Biblical Studies))

(in English): Early modern standing army and countryside were connected with dense network of relationships and influences that were reflected in several different layers. The personal link between countryside and army was a very important part of a mutual interaction. This connection resulted from the simple fact that rural subjects constituted a significant part of ranks and files that served, risked their lives and died in the early modern army. The main topic of the diploma thesis is the recruitment within the rural population. The thesis sets two fundamental goals. The first one is the recognition of various methods and techniques that the clerks and patrimonial authorities employed in order to administrate the military issues. The second one is the search for particular people that joined the army, the explanation of their life conditions, family background and social status and the comparison with other subjects which did not choose a career in the army. The research is territorially and chronologically confined to the Třeboň dominion at the beginning of the 18th century. The thesis is based mainly on the original sources stored in the State Regional Archive in Třeboň.

While the Left Behind Corpus may be commended for being an effective tool for evangelism, the question arises of whether or not its themes engender a theology of extermination, indeed a creeping crusade; “creeping” in the sense of it being a movement of stealth and not one of high visibility – “crusade” in the sense of a militaristic movement, similar to that of the medieval crusades. I span my research across three artefacts in the LB Corpus in terms of its embedded interpretation, discourse and ideology; in fact three separate entities for explanatory purposes, but in effect they form a single entity of interaction and cross-production. I am therefore extending many niches of research and critical discourse to what I envisage as the wider context of the LB Corpus: its potential for social construction, and its enigmatic connections with other apocalyptic-driven and crusade-like movements. Based as it is on “consistent literalism,” the LB Corpus can only be countered by an exegetical approach that situates the foundational text for the Left Behind phenomenon, Revelation 7, in its historical setting, while taking cognisance of the particularities of early Christianity, with its Jewish heritage lived out in a Graeco-Roman environment. In offering an alternative reading, I take some cues from Vernon Robbins‟ socio-rhetorical approach and draw from perspectives of theorists across several disciplinary fields in pointing out anomalies in a consistent literalism driven interpretation of Revelation 7. / New Testament / Thesis (D.Litt. et Phil. (Biblical Studies))