This thesis emphasizes the technological evolution of technologically advanced foreign subsidiaries of multinational corporations, in order to examine specific and related research questions as to what is the nature of the advanced modern MNC regarding technological growth. In particular, evolutionary paths and potential limits to the development of technological capabilities at the level of individual foreign subsidiaries, and to what extent these subsidiaries serve as significant sources of technological capabilities for other actors in the multinational group are highlighted. More specific, longitudinal patterns and pace in the emergence and diffusion of new technological capabilities by advanced foreign subsidiaries are studied.   Event history analysis of the complete U.S. patenting activity of 23 Swedish multinationals over the 1893-1990 time period reveals accelerated emergence of new technological capabilities by advanced foreign subsidiaries, but at moderate hazard rates. The results also show that there are substantially different probabilities of introducing new technological capabilities depending on the type of entry mode and that acquired subsidiaries are much more important than greenfield subsidiaries as growth engines for the technological renewal of the MNC. Moreover, the findings suggest the presence of an increased pace in reverse diffusion, hence the later into the time period a technological capability emerges in an advanced foreign subsidiary, the faster it is diffused to headquarters. The results also demonstrate that the type of subsidiary has a significant influence on diffusion patterns of new technological capabilities and thus how capabilities are leveraged throughout the MNC network.   To conclude, a balanced view on the creative capabilities of the MNC seems to be called for. The modern MNC does have and display many of the features of the modern MNC as identified in previous literature, but the expectations traditionally and generally expressed in the literature may have been an overstatement of actual conditions and developments. The ultimate technological limits of advanced foreign subsidiaries seem far from reached, and the final word on the ultimate importance of these subsidiaries as significant sources of new technological capabilities for other actors in the MNC is still to be spoken.

This thesis seeks to explain social participation in pre-schools for children with and without Down’s syndrome. The explanation is achieved by use of an explanatory model of social participation, designed on the basis of critical realism, which has been used in an empirical study of how social participation emerges in practice. Mechanisms have been abstracted. It is assumed that recognition mechanism produces social participation and reification mechanism social exclusion. The results show that the agency of the personnel affects the possibilities for the recognition mechanism to produce social participation. Within the agency of the personnel, the internal relationship between the child perspective, i.e. how children's place in society is understood, and the relationship to the child's perspective, i.e. how children's participation is regarded, either prevents or makes possible activation of the mechanism. The child perspective has, through the empirical study, been seen to take two different forms: either that children are similar, with similar needs, or that they are different, with different needs. If children are defined as similar, the structures will accommodate all children, enabling them to be socially involved in the same activities. If children are defined as different, different structures are created for different groups of children. Groups are segregated from each other, preventing the children from being socially involved in joint activities. The relationship to the child's perspective has emerged in relation to the roles of the child as an agent, as a collective subject, and as an individual subject. The role definition affects the degree of constraint imposed on the possibilities for action that are offered, and thus affects the opportunity costs and degrees of freedom of the children. These determine the activation of recognition mechanism and social participation in the situation.

This project offers an analysis of how the transformative power of creative process in learning offers humankind relational connections with the natural environment. It supports the recommendation that educational institutions move towards a transformative creative learning process. The paper argues that by teaching children through assumptions of the world as in constant creative becoming humankind will move toward a more encompassing, coherent story of the universe which allows for the increasing self-actualization of individuals. After offering a theoretical discussion of the transformative power of creativity through the works of Brian Swimme, Edmund OSullivan and Alfred North Whitehead, the author provides descriptive, interpretive and critical narrative accounts of a teaching occasion created by her in which she illustrates her understanding of this transformative power.

The inherent genetic similarity between oat (<i>Avena sativa</i> L.) and wild oat (<i>Avena fatua</i> L.) precludes selective herbicide use to control wild oat. Consequently, large reductions in oat yield and quality due to wild oat consistently constrain oat production in western Canada. Traditionally, delayed seeding followed by tillage prior to planting was used to control wild oat, but new studies have shown that this practice also results in substantial reductions to oat yield and quality. Thus, new methods are needed to ameliorate the adverse effects of wild oat competition on oat. Planting more competitive varieties with earlier emergence and larger seeds may minimize losses associated with wild oat competition. Therefore, the objectives of this research were i) to determine the influence of wild oat emerging at different times and varying densities on oat yield and quality and ii) to determine the relative importance of seed size and genotype in affecting wild oat oat competition. High densities of early emerging wild oat greatly reduced oat yield and increased wild oat contamination. Observed oat yield losses were as great as 70% and resulted in a 15% wild oat contamination level. Wild oat that emerged before oat also had higher biomass and reproductive output than wild oat that emerged after oat. Furthermore, early emerging wild oat reduced percentage plump oat kernels and increased percentage thin kernels. Oat plants established from large caryopses produced 18% more biomass and 15% more panicles m^-2 than plants established from small caryopses. In addition, wild oat produced 31% less biomass and fewer panicles m^-2 when grown with oat plants established from large caryopses. CDC Boyer appeared to be the most competitive of the varieties examined, having significantly higher biomass and panicle production both in the presence and absence of wild oat competition. Conclusions that emerge from this research are i) emergence time is critical to wild oat oat competition, ii) it is essential for oat producers to control early emerging wild oat and ensure crop emergence precedes wild oat emergence, iii) planting large seed of competitive cultivars may improve the competitive response of oat to wild oat.

The potential of a broad enactive approach in education has yet to be realized. This thesis contributes to the development of a well-rounded enactive educational theory and practice. This thesis argues that a broad enactive perspective has the potential to challenge, reframe and reconfigure problems, issues and practices in education in ways that improve teaching, learning and research communities. It establishes that a broad enactive approach as a theory of embodied mind, a dynamic co-emergence theory, and a method of examining human experience helps to realize the meaning, scope, and potential of enactive education. It takes as its point of departure Dewey’s broad enactive philosophy of mind, cognition, embodiment, experience, and dynamic co-emergence. It shows, through an examination of an actual public classroom encounter, that a broad enactive approach has the potential to reconfigure responsibility, ethics and justice in education. It demonstrates using a case study of the enactment of impostor feelings in higher education how a broad enactive approach to education as the potential to reconfigure teaching, learning and research practices.

This project offers an analysis of how the transformative power of creative process in learning offers humankind relational connections with the natural environment. It supports the recommendation that educational institutions move towards a transformative creative learning process. The paper argues that by teaching children through assumptions of the world as in constant creative becoming humankind will move toward a more encompassing, coherent story of the universe which allows for the increasing self-actualization of individuals. After offering a theoretical discussion of the transformative power of creativity through the works of Brian Swimme, Edmund OSullivan and Alfred North Whitehead, the author provides descriptive, interpretive and critical narrative accounts of a teaching occasion created by her in which she illustrates her understanding of this transformative power.

The potential of a broad enactive approach in education has yet to be realized. This thesis contributes to the development of a well-rounded enactive educational theory and practice. This thesis argues that a broad enactive perspective has the potential to challenge, reframe and reconfigure problems, issues and practices in education in ways that improve teaching, learning and research communities. It establishes that a broad enactive approach as a theory of embodied mind, a dynamic co-emergence theory, and a method of examining human experience helps to realize the meaning, scope, and potential of enactive education. It takes as its point of departure Dewey’s broad enactive philosophy of mind, cognition, embodiment, experience, and dynamic co-emergence. It shows, through an examination of an actual public classroom encounter, that a broad enactive approach has the potential to reconfigure responsibility, ethics and justice in education. It demonstrates using a case study of the enactment of impostor feelings in higher education how a broad enactive approach to education as the potential to reconfigure teaching, learning and research practices.

Massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPG) open new worlds and new societies in the virtual space. Those worlds and societies rapidly expand and become important to the real world. Therefore, to understand them, this thesis examines the meanings and impacts of resistance in the MMORPG worlds and gaming culture from the case of an unprecedented grassroots revolution in Lineage II, which is called the “Bartz Liberation War.” By using the concepts of “oppositional reading,” “emergence,” and “hegemony,” this thesis examines how playing for resistance emerges and becomes dominant and explores the impact of resistance in both the gaming and real worlds. Also, this thesis shows the cultural struggle for hegemony in the game world and gaming culture as well as in the real world culture and politics.

Identifying the emergence and development of new technologies has become an essential ability for firms competing in dynamic environments. Nonetheless, current technology intelligence practices are unstructured and vaguely defined. Moreover, the existing literature in future technology studies lacks strong, systematic explanations of what technologies are, where technologies come from, and how new technologies emerge and evolve. The present study builds on Structuration Theory, and proposes the structurational model of emerging technologies (SMET). The SMET suggests not only an ongoing view of technologies as social objects, but also a process for thinking through scientifically the complex, multidimensional and emergent dynamic of social and technological change. The SMET proposes that the emergence and development of a new technology can be tracked by examining systematically and collectively the extent of development of its technology-related social structure – its degree of structuration. The degree of structuration of a technology is an ongoing process instantiated in social practices, and can be observed through visible patterns or specific social outcomes of systemic activity organized in three analytical dimensions: structures of meaning, power, and legitimacy. The SMET assumes that the conceptual initiation of a new technology triggers new patterns of social activity or a signal of technological change; thus, the variation in the slope or trajectory of the degree of structuration of a technology may indicate an early signal of technological change. The SMET sets a foundation for identifying early signals of technological change when it is used on a systematic basis. Empirically, the study conducted an exploratory case study in the Internet industry. The study employed a sequential transformative mixed method procedure, and relied on 77 Internet experts to create retrospectively a systematic and collective interpretation of the Internet industry in the last ten (10) years. The test of hypotheses was based on only seven (7) Internet technologies due to time and instrumental constraints. The results confirm the fundamental relationships among constructs in the model, and support, thus, the SMET. The degree of structuration of a technology is revealed as a process independent of individuals’ participation in the enactment of a technology. Technological outcomes are explained by the extent of development of structures of meaning, power, and legitimacy (i.e., the degree of structuration of a technology). Moreover, influential technological outcomes shape individuals’ perspectives over time – i.e., the structurational effect. Hence, the study not only provides evidence that supports this novel theoretical framework, but also illustrates methodologically how to identify the emergence and development of new technologies. Likewise, the study discusses the implications of these results for technology management practices (e.g., product and technology development, innovation policies, and technology transfer activities). Lastly, the study recognizes limitations and suggests further research avenues.

In this thesis we investigate two approaches to quantum gravity. The first is the emergence of gravity from a discrete fundamental theory, and the second is the direct quantisation of gravity. For the first we develop tools to determine with relatively high accuracy the speed of propagation of information in collective modes which ultimately should give us some information about the emergent causal structure. We found a way of finding the dependence on the relative interaction strengths of the Hamiltonian and we also managed to calculate this speed in the case where the operators in the Hamitonian were not necessarily bounded. For the second approach, we investigated the phenomenology of Loop Quantum Gravity. We found that ultra light black holes (lighter than the Planck mass) have interesting new properties on top of being non-singular. First their horizon is hidden behind a Plancksized wormhole, second their specific heat capacity is positive and they are quasi-stable, they take an infinite amount of time evaporate. We investigated the dynamics of their collapse and evaporation explicitly seeing that not only was there no singularity, but there is also no information loss problem. Looking at how primordial black holes were in existence, we found that they might account for a significant portion of dark matter. And if they did, their radiation spectrum is such that the black holes in the dark matter halo of our galaxy could be the source for the ultra high energy cosmic rays we observe on earth.