Dissertation (Ph. D.)--University of Akron, Dept. of Urban Studies and Public Affairs, 2005. / "August, 2005." Title from electronic dissertation title page (viewed 01/14/2006) Advisor, Ashok K. Dutt; Committee members, Peter Leahy, Nancy Grant, Lathardus Goggins, Helen Liggett, Carolyn Behrman; Department Chair, Raymond Cox; Dean of the College, Charles B. Monroe; Dean of the Graduate School, George R. Newkome. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1966. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Bibliography: l. 129-132.

Thesis--University of Wisconsin. / Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 439-448).

Paper presented at a panel entitled "Dependency Theory Reassessed", at the sixth national meeting of the Latin American Studies Association in Atlanta, Georgia, March 25-28, 1976. / Summary in English and French. Includes bibliographical references (p. 30-32).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2006. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 102 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 90-102).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Brown University, 2005. / Vita. Thesis advisor: David Weil, Peter Howitt. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 8, 46-49, 79, 117-118). Also available online.

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Cleveland State University, 2008. / Abstract. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Mar. 2, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p.146-160) and appendices. Available online via the OhioLINK ETD Center. Also available in print.

Provincial competitiveness is strategically and imperatively important for China to achieve and sustain its economic leadership in the global economy. Albeit recent attention of scholars and government officials, the studies to date have produced limited empirical evidence that could aid policy makers to understand the contributing factors and development strategies for provincial competitiveness. Hence, this thesis develops a production approach to decompose Chinese provincial competitiveness index into two productive-efficiency-based components, so as to uncover development strategies hidden in the index. The resulting model fully retains the information embodied in the original index and implements a mechanism to generate development strategies. Applying the proposed model to China’s provincial data of competitiveness for the period 2005-2008, the thesis finds that coastal provinces can adopt an unbalanced development strategy by expanding their relatively uncompetitive sectors. For western provinces, however, what is better for them is to take the balanced development strategy through simultaneous enhancement of every aspect of the competitiveness index. Moreover, a combination of the two strategies would better match the specific circumstances of some particular provinces. Besides that, the results show that reducing provincial disparity in terms of competitiveness would firstly require focusing on narrowing the regional gap. In addition, this thesis attempts to seek a set of benchmark weights for dimensions of provincial competitiveness.

"Participation" is a frequently articulated requirement within the context of community development. Yet despite this, the concept of participation is neither comprehensively theorised, nor entirely unproblematic. The theoretical paucity surrounding participation is particularly marked within accounts of its interactional and relational dynamics . This thesis is accordingly concerned with theorising the interactional and relational features of participation in, and for, development. To this end a small development intervention, constituted as an agricultural co-operative within a rural area of South Africa, is examined. In this inquiry the phenomenon of participation is viewed through the lens of dialogical-activity. This enables explication of the "joint activity" directed towards participatory development, within the focal research setting. The overarching theoretical framework for this thesis is conferred by Activity theory. Orientated towards examining the collective and artefactually mediated nature of human action, Activity theory is foregrounded in Y. Engeström's (1989; 1999b) analytic schema of the Activity System. This Activity System framework is expanded by the inclusion of communicative and semiotic elements; an inclusion effected by reference to R. Engeström's theory of communicative action (1995,1999), which in turn, draws on theoretical precepts gleaned from the work of Mikhail Bakhtin. The resultant fusing of dialogue and activity therefore serves to extend Activity theoretical insights. The results of this research are based on data collected from a multitude of sources within the focal participatory development research setting, including internal project documentation, interview transcripts and field notes. The dialogical Bakhtin-derived an alytic categories of speech genre , voice and social language were drawn on in order to examine this textual data , and to explicate the interactional and relational features of participatory development. Analysis of these served to reveal the polyphony of (speech genre constituted) voices, wherein the phenomenon of participation is disparately accentuated. The results chapter moreover discusses the substantial mismatches and discontinuities in the referential object invoked by the various roleplayers, within the focal research context. This thesis considers the sources of these discontinuities and tensions, including how they point to historically constituted contradictions within participatory development. It furthermore briefly examines the opportunities and affordances these offer up for expansive new forms of activity. Finally, in re-examining participation and development, the complex, and sometimes antithetic relationship that exists between these two concepts and their associated social practices, are considered.