The focus of this study is the consumer behaviour habits of adults giving of toys to children aged 11 and under as gifts. It is borne out of a need to understand why adults buy gifts for children adding to the issues on consumption practices and materialism. It begins by discussing the issues of researching with children, outlining an exploratory artwork session conducted with children prior to making a decision to use adults as the unit of assessment for the study and to take a positivist stance. The literature review chapter explores the concepts of gift-giving of toys to children by synthesising topics of consumer behaviour and gift-giving as fields of study. It considers gift-giving models and focuses on buyer behaviour when gift-giving; information sources used in gifting; whether adults are concerned about gift-giving; adults roles and motivations in gift-gifting and relationship impacts between adults and children for incorrect gifting. These themes are researched within a demographic perspective keeping in mind the consumer socialisation issues and a figure is developed to show the hypotheses for testing. The methodology takes into account both interpretivist and positivist philosophies reaffirming the reasons for a positivist choice. Semi structured interviews are used in two phases to explore adults perceptions of gift-giving in general and gift-giving of toys to children. The main data collection instrument was a structured questionnaire which developed and extended previous researchers’ items. This questionnaire was distributed across a sample section of schools within the Aberdeen City and suburbs via a homework bag method. The value of the study lies in the contribution to knowledge through the analysis of the data. Contribution was found to exist with roles and motivations in gifting where three new roles were highlighted and one discounted. For information sources the interpersonal sources were important to mothers; the internet was found to be a new source, and mass media was found to be popular with a lower educated strata giving rise to issues for TV advertising policy. Differences existed between gifting at Christmas and birthday times and to adults’ own and other children providing contribution to the lack of birthday gifting research and to the givers’ perspective. A number of demographics such as gender, education and marital status were found to be important in understanding this gifting behaviour, whereas age on the other hand, did not. Finally, recommendations are made to policy makers from these contributions in particular regarding information sources and the education of children.

Le premier essai utilise une expérience neuro-économique pour comparer l’effet de l’exposition sociale sur deux types de comportements pro-sociaux : faire le bien et éviter de faire le mal. Nous constatons que les gains d’image découlant des actes visibles de générosité sont calculés comme des récompenses dans les deux cas. Les décisions égoïstes sans conséquences d’images négatives sont calculées différemment : ne pas faire le bien (et économiser ainsi de l’argent) est corrélé avec les régions du cerveau liées à la récompense, alors que faire le mal (et donc gagner de l’argent) est corrélé avec les régions du cerveau liées à l’anticipation de la punition et au dégoût moral.Le deuxième essai étudie comment l’information sur la véritable efficacité des organismes de bienfaisance (et sa visibilité sociale) affecte les contributions des petits donateurs. Nous constatons que les individus ignorent les mauvaises performances des organismes de bienfaisance quand le don est couvert par l ?anonymat mais augmentent leurs contributions aux organismes de bienfaisance qui sont plus performants que prévu. Toutefois, lorsque le montant donné et l’efficacité du destinataire sont de notoriété publique, les donateurs motivés par des préoccupations d’image sociale traitent la quantité et la qualité de leurs dons comme des substituts.Le troisième essai étudie les effets du contrôle dans les relations de principal agent où les intérêts monétaires sont alignés. En comparant le contrôle direct avec des règles impersonnelles générales, nous montrons que le contrôle direct génère plus de coûts cachés du côté de l’agent que les règles impersonnelles. En même temps, les directeurs ont tendance à moins exercer leur autorité lorsque les règles sont impersonnelles, car cela les obligent à signaler leur cupidité même lorsque ce n' est pas nécessaire. / This thesis contains two essays that assess the role of social image concerns in charitable giving decisions and one essay that explores the role of authority in hierarchical relationships characterized by aligned monetary interests.The first essay uses a neuro-economic experiment to compare the effect of social exposure on two types of pro-social behaviors: doing good and avoiding doing bad. We find that image gains deriving from visible acts of generosity are computed by the brain as rewards for both decisions. Differently, selfish decisions with no negative image consequences are computed differently: not doing good (and thus saving money) correlates with reward-related regions, while doing bad (and thus earning money) correlates with regions related to punishment’s anticipation and moral disgust.The second essay studies how information about real charities’ efficiency (and its social visibility) affects small donors contributions. We find that individuals disregard bad news about their own charities when giving happens under full anonymity, but do increase their contributions to charities that perform better than expected. Differently, when both the amount donated and the efficiency of the recipient are public knowledge, donors motivated by social image concerns treat the quantity and the quality of their donations as substitutes.The third investigates the effects of control in principal-agents’ relationships where monetary interests are aligned. By comparing direct control and general impersonal rules, we show that direct monitoring generates significantly more hidden costs of control from the agent side than impersonal rules.At the same time however, principals tend to exercise their authority less when restrictions are impersonal, as these force them to signal their greed also when unnecessary.

Cette recherche traite de l'engagement en faveur de l'intérêt général, et notamment des modalités d'engagement des organisations mécènes auprès des organisations d'intérêt général, aujourd'hui, en France.Ce travail s'inscrit dans le cadre général des théories de l'action et plus particulièrement dans le courant représenté par les travaux de Boltanski et Thévenot sur la justification et l'engagement (Boltanski et Thévenot 1991, Thévenot, 2005), qui s'intéressent à comment les gens justifient leurs actions et à ce qu'ils disent de « pourquoi ils s'engagent ». Les études anthropologiques, sociologiques et socio-économiques sur les significations du don et sur les pratiques de mécénat, aujourd'hui, en France, nous ont fourni le socle de notre analyse.A partir de ces cadres de références, nous proposons un modèle qui rend compte des actions empiriques des professionnels de la collecte de fonds (les « fundraisers ») et des mécènes lorsqu'ils construisent un accord mécène.Ce modèle met en évidence les dispositifs et les objets dans lesquels s'enracine l'engagement des organisations mécènes. Il éclaire sur ce qu'est une action juste et légitime en faveur de l'intérêt général. Il propose un mécanisme permettant d'expliquer comment ces actions sont jugées par les parties prenantes des organisations impliquées dans un accord mécène.Nos recherches ont deux applications concrètes :1. Mettre en évidence les leviers actionnables par les organisations d'intérêt général pour collecter des fonds auprès des organisations mécènes.2. Enrichir la compréhension de l'engagement des entreprises en faveur de l'intérêt général. Mettre en évidence les bonnes pratiques et les retours qu'elles peuvent en attendre.Elles apportent une contribution spécifique pour comprendre la création de valeur dans le cadre d'une démarche marketing stratégique liée à la responsabilité sociale des entreprises, et au développement du capital social des organisations publiques et privées qui portent des projets d'intérêt général. / This research focuses on the engagement of organizations for the benefit of non-profit activities, today, in France.This work was conducted within a reference to the research of Boltanski and Thévenot on justification and commitment (Boltanski and Thévenot, 1991; Thévenot, 2005) called “Economies of Worth”. This sociological approach of “action” tries to explain how people justify their actions and what they say about why they engage.From these frames of reference, we propose a model that reflects the empirical practices of professionals in fundraising and organisations involved in building an agreement around philanthropy.This model highlights the devices and equipment being used to build the agreement. It illuminates on what is a “fair and legitimate” action for the general interest. It offer a mechanism to explain how these actions are judged by the stakeholders of organizations involved in a patronage.Our research has two applications in management:1. Identify actions for non-profit organisations to raise funds from organizations who wish to involve in public good.2. Understand of business engagement for the public good. Highlight good practices and benefits that companies can expect of their commitmentOur work brings a specific contribution to understanding the creation of value in a strategic marketing approach of corporate social responsibility, and the development of corporate social capital of public and private organizations acting for the benefit of general interest.

Este é um estudo situado dentro da abordagem qualitativa, que teve como intuito partir para uma ?viagem? nos territórios da gestão e do cuidado. Questionamentos circundaram o momento de escrita acerca da formação e do trabalho do enfermeiro no contexto hospitalar, tendo como pano de fundo os princípios do Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS). Questiona-se: no contexto hospitalar, o atos cuidadores do enfermeiro estão centrados nas demandas dos usuários, como um elemento articulador de saberes e práticas, tendo em vista as propostas de integralidade e humanização? O objetivo delineado foi cartografar os atos cuidadores do enfermeiro no contexto hospitalar, analisando as linhas postas em ação e as superfícies predominantes, com suas potências e resistências, para a produção da vida. Buscou-se tônus teórico às inquietações postas, com a construção um mapa conceitual que abordasse o cuidado, a gestão do cuidado e as implicações do hospital com a temática, sendo possível, lançar mão de uma trama conceitual, com destaque aqui para alguns conceitos pertencentes à esquizoanálise, à saúde coletiva e outros referentes a área da enfermagem. No segundo momento da construção do mapa, realizou-se a desnaturalização das práticas de cuidado, fazendo uso da Genealogia Foucaultiana, culminando com a criação de quatro configurações das práticas de cuidado, objetivando desbloquear o tempo histórico para que, através de uma problematização de objetos tidos, como evidentes, se pudesse ressignificar o presente. As estratégias de produção do conhecimento constituíram-se de dois momentos: a utilização da Genealogia Foucaultiana, que possibilitou parte da construção do mapa conceitual. No segundo momento, realizou-se uma cartografia dos atos cuidadores do enfermeiro no contexto hospitalar. Selecionou-se uma unidade de internação de um hospital filantrópico, que presta atendimento a usuários do SUS. Efetuaram 62 horas de observações focadas no trabalho dos enfermeiros nos turnos da manhã e da tarde, que foram registradas em um Diário de Bordo. Fragmentos do Diário foram postos ao lado de escritos teóricos, poemas, lembranças, dialogando com o mapa conceitual, fazendo-se uma espécie de bricolagem. No território das práticas, visualizou-se a formação de dois micro-territórios: Máquina Paranóia e Máquina Desejo. A Maquina Paranóia caracterizou-se por modos instituídos, capturados pelo tempo, pelas regras, rotinas com tendências castradoras e antiprodutivas, pelo trabalho fragmentado, que fragmenta o paciente e pela paranóia do não-saber-poder. Os atos cuidadores dos enfermeiros revelaram a produção de cuidado, cortada por linhas de segmentaridade dura e circulares, configurando-se, muitas vezes, em um descuidado, esfriando os corpos cuidados, transformando os pacientes em uma ?carga?, não possibilitando a construção de sua autonomia. Detectou-se que a gestão estava focada no procedimento, não sendo o usuário um marcador do cuidado. A Maquina Desejo revelou potências nos atos cuidadores, permeada pela escuta/acolhimento e pelas tentativas de transversalizar a equipe de saúde, sendo a gestão uma estratégia para a produção do cuidado, cortado por linhas de fuga. Condiserou-se a necessidade de os enfermeiros e docentes (re)pensarem conceitos, buscando um diálogo mais efetivo com as práticas cotidianas hospitalares, em prol do fortalecimento do SUS. Dessa forma, uma das estratégias visualizadas é a possibilidade de criação de espaços coletivos de análise e reflexões acerca do processo de trabalho em saúde e do modelo de gestão hospitalar. O ensino, por sua vez, necessita ser refletido, no que se refere a utilização de conceitos/ferramentas que produzam impacto no trabalho cotidiano do enfermeiro ante as demandas dos usuários, no aspecto individual e coletivo, da equipe de saúde e do próprio serviço de saúde, libertando-se da amarras que reforçam a hegemonia e a subserviência. / management. Questions about the nurse\'s learning and duty in the context of health care were also included, having as scenary the principles of the Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS) ? the Brazilian public health care service. It was inquired if the nurse\'s care giving practices were centered in the patients\' needs, if they were acting as articulators of both knowledge and practice, having in sight the integrality and humanization proposals. The design objective was: to cartografh the nurse\'s care giving practices, in the hospital context, analizing the lines put into practice and the prevailing surfaces, with their power and resistence to produce life. Theoretical sustenance to inquietude was searched, drawing a conceptual map, broaching care menagement as well as the hospital implications towards the theme, keeping hand in a conceptual plot ? esquizoanalysis concepts and collective health mainly. At the second moment of drawing the map, denaturalization of care giving was carried out by using the Foucaultian Genealogy, creating four care-giving-practice configurations, aiming to unblock historical time for the redefinition of present time through what was considered evidence. The strategies for knowledge production were obtained in two parts: first, the utilization of the Foucaultian Genealogy to construct part of the conceptual map; second, a cartography of the nurse\'s every day chores, in the hospital context, was outlined. A 62-hour observation was performed in a clinical surgical hospitalization unit which served beneficiaries of the SUS. The nurse\'s work process, observed during the morning and afternoon shifts, was recorded in a Log Book. Fragments of the Log Book were placed next to theoretical texts, poems, memories, turning into a dialogue between these writings and the conceptual map. A type of craftsmanship work was done. In the practice territory, two micro territories were uncovered: that of Paranoia Machine and that of Desire Machine. The Paranoia Machine is characterized by instituted methods that had been captured by time, rules, routines with castrating and antiproductive tendencies, by fragmented work, and by the non-knowledge-power paranoia. The nurse\'s care giving practices revealed a care production marked by hard and circular segmentarity lines, configured many times into careless acts, cooling the cared bodies, turning the patients into a ?burden?, not giving them chance, this way, to construct their autonomy. It was detected that the care management was focused on the procedure itself, with the beneficiary being not a care giving marker. The Desire Machine revealed a power for the care giving practices, permeated with listening and hospitality, managing as a strategy for care production traversed by escape lines. The nurse\'s needs were considered; lecturers rethought concepts, searching for a more effective dialogue with the hospital practices for the strenghtening of the SUS. One of the visualized strategies was the possibility of creating collective spaces for the analysis of the work process on health care, and of the hospital managing pattern. The teaching must rethink of the utilization of tool/concepts that are able to produce an impact on the nurse\'s work in face of the beneficiary\'s individual and/or collective needs, of the health staff, and of the health care service itself, becoming released from the bondaries that reinforce hegemony and subservience.

Este é um estudo situado dentro da abordagem qualitativa, que teve como intuito partir para uma ?viagem? nos territórios da gestão e do cuidado. Questionamentos circundaram o momento de escrita acerca da formação e do trabalho do enfermeiro no contexto hospitalar, tendo como pano de fundo os princípios do Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS). Questiona-se: no contexto hospitalar, o atos cuidadores do enfermeiro estão centrados nas demandas dos usuários, como um elemento articulador de saberes e práticas, tendo em vista as propostas de integralidade e humanização? O objetivo delineado foi cartografar os atos cuidadores do enfermeiro no contexto hospitalar, analisando as linhas postas em ação e as superfícies predominantes, com suas potências e resistências, para a produção da vida. Buscou-se tônus teórico às inquietações postas, com a construção um mapa conceitual que abordasse o cuidado, a gestão do cuidado e as implicações do hospital com a temática, sendo possível, lançar mão de uma trama conceitual, com destaque aqui para alguns conceitos pertencentes à esquizoanálise, à saúde coletiva e outros referentes a área da enfermagem. No segundo momento da construção do mapa, realizou-se a desnaturalização das práticas de cuidado, fazendo uso da Genealogia Foucaultiana, culminando com a criação de quatro configurações das práticas de cuidado, objetivando desbloquear o tempo histórico para que, através de uma problematização de objetos tidos, como evidentes, se pudesse ressignificar o presente. As estratégias de produção do conhecimento constituíram-se de dois momentos: a utilização da Genealogia Foucaultiana, que possibilitou parte da construção do mapa conceitual. No segundo momento, realizou-se uma cartografia dos atos cuidadores do enfermeiro no contexto hospitalar. Selecionou-se uma unidade de internação de um hospital filantrópico, que presta atendimento a usuários do SUS. Efetuaram 62 horas de observações focadas no trabalho dos enfermeiros nos turnos da manhã e da tarde, que foram registradas em um Diário de Bordo. Fragmentos do Diário foram postos ao lado de escritos teóricos, poemas, lembranças, dialogando com o mapa conceitual, fazendo-se uma espécie de bricolagem. No território das práticas, visualizou-se a formação de dois micro-territórios: Máquina Paranóia e Máquina Desejo. A Maquina Paranóia caracterizou-se por modos instituídos, capturados pelo tempo, pelas regras, rotinas com tendências castradoras e antiprodutivas, pelo trabalho fragmentado, que fragmenta o paciente e pela paranóia do não-saber-poder. Os atos cuidadores dos enfermeiros revelaram a produção de cuidado, cortada por linhas de segmentaridade dura e circulares, configurando-se, muitas vezes, em um descuidado, esfriando os corpos cuidados, transformando os pacientes em uma ?carga?, não possibilitando a construção de sua autonomia. Detectou-se que a gestão estava focada no procedimento, não sendo o usuário um marcador do cuidado. A Maquina Desejo revelou potências nos atos cuidadores, permeada pela escuta/acolhimento e pelas tentativas de transversalizar a equipe de saúde, sendo a gestão uma estratégia para a produção do cuidado, cortado por linhas de fuga. Condiserou-se a necessidade de os enfermeiros e docentes (re)pensarem conceitos, buscando um diálogo mais efetivo com as práticas cotidianas hospitalares, em prol do fortalecimento do SUS. Dessa forma, uma das estratégias visualizadas é a possibilidade de criação de espaços coletivos de análise e reflexões acerca do processo de trabalho em saúde e do modelo de gestão hospitalar. O ensino, por sua vez, necessita ser refletido, no que se refere a utilização de conceitos/ferramentas que produzam impacto no trabalho cotidiano do enfermeiro ante as demandas dos usuários, no aspecto individual e coletivo, da equipe de saúde e do próprio serviço de saúde, libertando-se da amarras que reforçam a hegemonia e a subserviência. / management. Questions about the nurse\'s learning and duty in the context of health care were also included, having as scenary the principles of the Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS) ? the Brazilian public health care service. It was inquired if the nurse\'s care giving practices were centered in the patients\' needs, if they were acting as articulators of both knowledge and practice, having in sight the integrality and humanization proposals. The design objective was: to cartografh the nurse\'s care giving practices, in the hospital context, analizing the lines put into practice and the prevailing surfaces, with their power and resistence to produce life. Theoretical sustenance to inquietude was searched, drawing a conceptual map, broaching care menagement as well as the hospital implications towards the theme, keeping hand in a conceptual plot ? esquizoanalysis concepts and collective health mainly. At the second moment of drawing the map, denaturalization of care giving was carried out by using the Foucaultian Genealogy, creating four care-giving-practice configurations, aiming to unblock historical time for the redefinition of present time through what was considered evidence. The strategies for knowledge production were obtained in two parts: first, the utilization of the Foucaultian Genealogy to construct part of the conceptual map; second, a cartography of the nurse\'s every day chores, in the hospital context, was outlined. A 62-hour observation was performed in a clinical surgical hospitalization unit which served beneficiaries of the SUS. The nurse\'s work process, observed during the morning and afternoon shifts, was recorded in a Log Book. Fragments of the Log Book were placed next to theoretical texts, poems, memories, turning into a dialogue between these writings and the conceptual map. A type of craftsmanship work was done. In the practice territory, two micro territories were uncovered: that of Paranoia Machine and that of Desire Machine. The Paranoia Machine is characterized by instituted methods that had been captured by time, rules, routines with castrating and antiproductive tendencies, by fragmented work, and by the non-knowledge-power paranoia. The nurse\'s care giving practices revealed a care production marked by hard and circular segmentarity lines, configured many times into careless acts, cooling the cared bodies, turning the patients into a ?burden?, not giving them chance, this way, to construct their autonomy. It was detected that the care management was focused on the procedure itself, with the beneficiary being not a care giving marker. The Desire Machine revealed a power for the care giving practices, permeated with listening and hospitality, managing as a strategy for care production traversed by escape lines. The nurse\'s needs were considered; lecturers rethought concepts, searching for a more effective dialogue with the hospital practices for the strenghtening of the SUS. One of the visualized strategies was the possibility of creating collective spaces for the analysis of the work process on health care, and of the hospital managing pattern. The teaching must rethink of the utilization of tool/concepts that are able to produce an impact on the nurse\'s work in face of the beneficiary\'s individual and/or collective needs, of the health staff, and of the health care service itself, becoming released from the bondaries that reinforce hegemony and subservience.

The anthropology of ethics is a project of developing a common language in order to describe and to analyse ethical tensions as they manifest themselves across different traditions as well as changing social and historical contexts. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in the Palestinian city of Nablus in the West Bank, this thesis contributes to the anthropology of ethics with an analysis the virtuous spending of wealth - with a particular focus on zakat (Islamic almsgiving) - as it emerges through the Islamic discursive tradition. This stirs up wider issues, such as the trajectory of an ethical tradition in a politically repressive context. Historically, Nablus has been subject to different instances of foreign rule. Since 1967, the city has been under Israeli military occupation. This thesis shows how social interactions constitute a field of ethical practice. References to the Islamic Scriptures surfacing in greetings, conversations, and transactions in Nablus can be read as invoking an Islamic system of value. Acts of generous giving are sometimes inserted into this system, which unfolds in the context of the political economy of Israeli occupation. In this wider landscape, zakat in Nablus emerges both as (1) a socially embodied virtue realized within and through social relations; and as (2) an institutionalized practice carried out by zakat institutions, which since the 1970s have mainly evolved in a legal framework defined by state of Jordan. Analysing zakat on these two levels, this thesis grants insights into how military occupation, modern state administration, and capitalism fragment and inflect the Islamic discursive tradition, e.g. by foregrounding certain aspects of the Scriptures over others. With a view to embodied practices of zakat and ethical interactions, Islamic discourse manifests a certain plasticity and continuity. Conceiving wealth and scarcity as inherently ethical problems rooted in social interactions, the Islamic tradition notably provides a conceptual language of wider relevance.

This dissertation examines the potential for two forms of corporate philanthropy, donations of time and money, to have differential effects on consumers' response to corporate giving. Drawing upon indirect-reciprocity theory I show that corporate donations of time compared to money elicit a greater desire to reciprocate on the part of consumers. It is found that the influence of corporate donations on consumers' desire to reciprocate occurs through serial mediation, whereby donations of time are perceived as being more effortful than monetary donations. This in turn leads to more altruistic motive attributions, and ultimately greater admiration towards the firm and a stronger desire to reciprocate on the part of consumers. I find that consumers' desire to reciprocate is strengthened when the relative cost to the firm for making a donation is higher. Additionally, this research advances the emotion gratitude as a mechanism through which corporate giving leads to a desire to reciprocate and more broadly, a catalyst through which indirect reciprocity occurs. Finally, the influence of consumers' personality traits on their response to corporate philanthropy is examined. Corporate donations of time and money lead to stronger feelings of gratitude and a greater approval of a company's philanthropic actions when consumers possess higher levels of empathetic concern. Conversely, consumers who embody narcissistic traits are significantly less inclined to experience feelings of gratitude or approve of a company's philanthropy.

Christmas is generally described as cultural, ritual and sociological phenomena of devotion, community and consumption. The topic of this dissertation concerns a specific stream of research within the general domain of consumer behaviour. The focal objective of this study is to develop a model and generate theory about parental gift giving behaviour at Christmas. My study is unique because it attempts to model parental gift giving at Christmas in a consumer behaviour context. Consumer behaviour theory suggests that parents seek information about possible gifts, set selection criteria for gift purchase, evaluate alternatives and buy the gifts for their children. Following this broad view of theory, parents respond to children's request behaviour, evaluate the suitability of any requests and purchase the approved or appropriate items as Christmas gifts. Children are encouraged to request any gifts that they desire, and these gift requests are often for specific brands. In general Christmas gifts are selected from children's products and brands and there is extensive debate and research relating to television advertising and children's request behaviour at Christmas. However, parents are not exposed to the same sources of advertising as their children and there is little evidence of research into the very important topics concerning motives, strategies, evaluations and the giving of brands that characterize parents' Christmas gift giving to their children. The significance of this dissertation resides in the development and presentation of a comprehensive model for the conceptualisation of parental gift giving at Christmas, based on antecedents to parents' social roles of gift giving and direct and indirect behavioural outcomes of those gift giving roles. Measures for each of these outcomes are developed and gender effects are also explored. The sample frame was described as a parent with at least one child between the ages of 3-8 years and a survey package was delivered to parents of children from participating schools and kindergartens. There were 2560 surveys distributed, with 450 individual responses representing a return rate of 17.6%. The 450 cases available for analysis were factor analysed and formed into composite and latent variables to facilitate statistical analysis via Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression, which is an appropriate procedure when the relationships are unknown or theoretical. The results of the research have two distinct streams. The first stream relates to the creation and validation of measurement constructs for the concept of Christmas spirit, parental gift giving, request communication, brand benefits and use of information sources, as well as involvement in giving gifts and involvement in giving brands as gifts. The second stream relates to the relationships between variables; the results support the relationships antecedent to the parents' social roles of gift giving. There is a significant relationship of Christmas spirit with involvement in giving gifts and with parental gift giving roles. A significant relationship also exists between involvement in giving gifts and parental gift giving roles. However, there is limited support for propositions related to outcomes of parental gift giving roles where there are significant relations between these roles and Christmas request communication, brand benefits and information sources. There is also a significant, indirect relationship between brand benefits and involvement in giving brands as gifts. As part of the second stream, gender differences were examined; the results show that mothers' Christmas spirit has no effect on their gift giving roles and gift giving roles have no significant effect on request communication and information source usage. On the other hand, the results show that the fathers' gift giving activities reflect the relationships outlined in the parental model. The study has academic implications for sociology and consumer behaviour disciplines and commercial implications for manufacturers, advertisers, brand owners and retailers. Further investigations will be necessary to incorporate other elements into the parental gift-giving model and to extend the theory toward a fuller understanding of the parental Christmas gift giving phenomena.

<p>This thesis contributes to the knowledge of how computer-mediated communication and information sharing works in large groups and networks. In more detail, the research question put forward is: in large sharing networks, what concerns do end-users have regarding to whom to provide material? A theoretical framework of gift-giving was applied to identify, label and classify qualitative end-user concerns with provision. The data collection was performed through online ethnographical research methods in two large sharing networks, one music-oriented and one photo-oriented. The methods included forum message elicitation, online interviews, application use and observation. The result of the data collection was a total of 1360 relevant forum messages. A part from this there are also 27 informal interview logs, field notes and samples of user profiles and sharing policies. The qualitative analysis led up to a model of relationships based on the observation that many users experienced conflicts of interest between various groups of receivers and that these conflicts, or social dilemmas, evoked concerns regarding public and non-public provision of material. The groups of potential recipients were often at different relationship levels. The levels ranged from the individual (ego), to the small group of close peers (micro), to a larger network of acquaintances (meso) to the anonymous larger network (macro). It is argued that an important focal point for analysis of cooperation and conflict is situated in the relations between these levels. Deepened studies and analysis also revealed needs to address dynamic recipient groupings, the need to control the level of publicness of both digital material and its metadata (tags, contacts, comments and links to other networks) and that users often refrained from providing material unless they felt able to control its direction. A central conclusion is that public and non-public gifting need to co-emerge in large sharing networks and that non-public gifting might be an important factor for the support of continued provision of goods in sustainable networks and communities.</p>

<p><font face="Times New Roman"> <p align="left"><font face="Arial">The study analyses the relationship between experience, participation and learning and seeks to establish how the experience of adult learners can be mobilised through active participation and how situational conditions can either facilitate or inhibit participation and learning amongst the learners. Another dimension of the study seeks to establish what caregivers learn and the processes through which they learn and how such learning contributes to changes in behaviour and relationships. In this study, the nature and dynamics of learning amongst adult learners in the NCTP programme at community level is explored as an example of socio-cultural theory and situated learning which hold that learning results from participation in various socio-cultural situations &ndash / the act of participation is seen as crucial in the learning. The study focused on a group of 10 learners in the National Certificate Training Programme for community health workers who are also caregivers in the Nokuthembeka Home-based Care Programme in New Crossroads in the Cape Town metropole and used a qualitative research design and interpretive approach to understand the situations in which they learn. An interpretive approach allowed for deeper insight into the socio-cultural contexts that influence the social interactions of caregivers with peers as well as their learning. In the study I argue that the experience of caregivers forms a critical resource and the foundational basis for learning.</font></p> <p>&nbsp / </p> </font></p>