This is a cross-national qualitative study with the purpose of obtaining perspectives held by people with quadriplegia and leading figures in disability movements in the Netherlands and Australia on the issues of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (EPAS). A disability voice is not prominent in public debate on EPAS in Australia or the Netherlands, even though people with disabilities are often thought to be vulnerable in relation to EPAS policies. Disability perspectives are potentially valuable in illuminating issues in relation to euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, because issues of dependence, independence, and individual autonomy play important roles in relation to both EPAS and to living with disability. The study's methodology uses a phenomenological approach and incorporates aspects of heuristics and grounded theory. Its conceptual framework incorporates MacIntyre's (1999) theory of acknowledged dependency and vulnerability; Habermas' (1989) theory of knowledge; and Festinger's (1959) theory of cognitive dissonance. The main sample of twenty people with quadriplegia (the grassroots sample) was interviewed in the Netherlands and in Australia.

<p>In the post Cold-War era, world politics was transforming itself through its emerging complex issues such as terrorism and influential and interdependent actors such as the European Union. In this new era, the European Union was developing its Common Foreign and Security Policy pillar both to present a coherent and unified EU policy and to prove its political potent in order to become an influential actor on world politics. On the other side, security environment was also transforming its content through emerging actors and issues. As one of the most prominent actors of the world politics, the EU was influenced by the transformation of security environment, whose economic ‘soft power’ proved necessary but insufficient for being a global power in this emerging security environment. Insufficiency of economic power in solving security problems became more visible with the terrorist attacks of September 11 and March 11 which proved the seriousness of a globalized security threat posed by terrorism. After the events took place, the EU’s security approach and threat assessment have been transformed in which the issue of terrorism occupied more profound place by ‘securitization’ of its context. The Common Foreign and Security Policy of the EU began to play more prominent role on EU policies together with incorporating the efforts on the issue of fight against terrorism both to EU’s external relations and to its security dimension. Therefore, in this study, the author analyzes the research question of the development of the CFSP of the EU together with the impact of the issue of terrorism in this transforming security environment. Since examination of such a complex security issue necessitates multidimensional approach, then liberal and realist theories are used as complementary analytical instruments guiding the theoretical framework of the study.</p>

<p>Purpose: Although under the last decade there has been increased interest in management of project-based teams and numerous examples of such relationships exist, relatively little is known about “the dynamics of shorter relationships”. Management of communication between partners involved in short-term project-based relationships and the ways, in which multiparty value is created as a result, form a task for important and necessary research in marketing theory and practice. This study aims to define whether there exists a positive relationship between management activities that can influence the communication environment within project-based groups and effectiveness of collaboration between participants.</p><p>Research question: In what role management incentives can positively influence communication and collaboration within a network of the external parties involved in a project?</p><p>Approach: The research design for this study includes a literature review and a longitudinal observational case study. The aim was drawing on and extending important ideas of research on organizational management of project-based teams. On the basis of literature review aspects that have the most influential impact on communication within project-based networks are organized in a integrative framework that gives an image of factors influencing relationships in project-based teams. The theoretical model is proved through a qualitative study of project-based teams performance. Data was collected through the use of meetings observations, email interviewing of participants and informal interviews.</p><p>Findings: Although sensemaking and relational exchanges are distinct concepts in the extant literature, this study illustrates the ways in which the two are interconnected: the social processes of relational exchanges between project participants engaging in the proceses of sensemaking and the ways of approaching relational exchanges that would facilitate the process of sensemaking. On the basis of the theoretical discussion how projects are operated while being embedded in a context of networks of external participants we elaborated that for successful project performance management of project-based networks should play facilitating and supportive role of creating a framework enabling mindful behaviour and collaborative processes of problem-solving.</p><p>Research limitations/implications: Even this study highlights previously overlooked connections between literatures on relational exchanges and organizational sensemaking by giving attention to a diverse range of issues concerning project-based business networks, further research in this direction may be useful for deeper understanding of the processes. Firstly, the generalizability of the findings presented here remains to be tested. Secondly, the aspects influencing relational exchanges in short-term project setting identified here may not be exhaustive: they could be supplemented by the discovery of other aspects, perhaps through data collected from project setting of different type. Thirdly, although relational exchanges can vary in sense of communication and collaboration intensity, it was outside the scope of this study to address the issue at this level of analysis. Despite these limitations, this study has made an attempt to draw up the findings that may have some implications for both research and practice.</p><p>Value of research: As revealed in our study, a set of management incentives may help in creating a positive environment for efficient communication and collaboration within a project. It suggests that management incentives should try to organize a trust like environment that will provide much of incentive for partners to work together non-opportunistically during their relational exchanges and much of the assurance necessary for exchange partners to feel comfortable with this arrangement. The results of the study clearly shows that applying management methods will help shortcut the process necessary to establish the working norms necessary for functional communication and collaboration between participants.</p>

In the post Cold-War era, world politics was transforming itself through its emerging complex issues such as terrorism and influential and interdependent actors such as the European Union. In this new era, the European Union was developing its Common Foreign and Security Policy pillar both to present a coherent and unified EU policy and to prove its political potent in order to become an influential actor on world politics. On the other side, security environment was also transforming its content through emerging actors and issues. As one of the most prominent actors of the world politics, the EU was influenced by the transformation of security environment, whose economic ‘soft power’ proved necessary but insufficient for being a global power in this emerging security environment. Insufficiency of economic power in solving security problems became more visible with the terrorist attacks of September 11 and March 11 which proved the seriousness of a globalized security threat posed by terrorism. After the events took place, the EU’s security approach and threat assessment have been transformed in which the issue of terrorism occupied more profound place by ‘securitization’ of its context. The Common Foreign and Security Policy of the EU began to play more prominent role on EU policies together with incorporating the efforts on the issue of fight against terrorism both to EU’s external relations and to its security dimension. Therefore, in this study, the author analyzes the research question of the development of the CFSP of the EU together with the impact of the issue of terrorism in this transforming security environment. Since examination of such a complex security issue necessitates multidimensional approach, then liberal and realist theories are used as complementary analytical instruments guiding the theoretical framework of the study.

Purpose: Although under the last decade there has been increased interest in management of project-based teams and numerous examples of such relationships exist, relatively little is known about “the dynamics of shorter relationships”. Management of communication between partners involved in short-term project-based relationships and the ways, in which multiparty value is created as a result, form a task for important and necessary research in marketing theory and practice. This study aims to define whether there exists a positive relationship between management activities that can influence the communication environment within project-based groups and effectiveness of collaboration between participants. Research question: In what role management incentives can positively influence communication and collaboration within a network of the external parties involved in a project? Approach: The research design for this study includes a literature review and a longitudinal observational case study. The aim was drawing on and extending important ideas of research on organizational management of project-based teams. On the basis of literature review aspects that have the most influential impact on communication within project-based networks are organized in a integrative framework that gives an image of factors influencing relationships in project-based teams. The theoretical model is proved through a qualitative study of project-based teams performance. Data was collected through the use of meetings observations, email interviewing of participants and informal interviews. Findings: Although sensemaking and relational exchanges are distinct concepts in the extant literature, this study illustrates the ways in which the two are interconnected: the social processes of relational exchanges between project participants engaging in the proceses of sensemaking and the ways of approaching relational exchanges that would facilitate the process of sensemaking. On the basis of the theoretical discussion how projects are operated while being embedded in a context of networks of external participants we elaborated that for successful project performance management of project-based networks should play facilitating and supportive role of creating a framework enabling mindful behaviour and collaborative processes of problem-solving. Research limitations/implications: Even this study highlights previously overlooked connections between literatures on relational exchanges and organizational sensemaking by giving attention to a diverse range of issues concerning project-based business networks, further research in this direction may be useful for deeper understanding of the processes. Firstly, the generalizability of the findings presented here remains to be tested. Secondly, the aspects influencing relational exchanges in short-term project setting identified here may not be exhaustive: they could be supplemented by the discovery of other aspects, perhaps through data collected from project setting of different type. Thirdly, although relational exchanges can vary in sense of communication and collaboration intensity, it was outside the scope of this study to address the issue at this level of analysis. Despite these limitations, this study has made an attempt to draw up the findings that may have some implications for both research and practice. Value of research: As revealed in our study, a set of management incentives may help in creating a positive environment for efficient communication and collaboration within a project. It suggests that management incentives should try to organize a trust like environment that will provide much of incentive for partners to work together non-opportunistically during their relational exchanges and much of the assurance necessary for exchange partners to feel comfortable with this arrangement. The results of the study clearly shows that applying management methods will help shortcut the process necessary to establish the working norms necessary for functional communication and collaboration between participants.

<p>The goal of this dissertation is to inquire into how states balance economic motivations and security concerns when pursuing sovereignty at borders. More precisely, the dissertation examines tradeoffs between interdependence sovereignty -control over transborder flows--and Westphalian sovereignty defined as exclusion of external actors from states' authoritative space. Focusing on control over cross-border human mobility as the issue area, I put forward the <italic>securitized interdependence framework</italic> as a theory that encompasses economic and security logics of policy-making. Because migration control rests at the nexus of economic/material and geopolitical/military dimensions of state security, it provides an ideal testing ground for observing the interaction of economic and security motives. The theoretical framework draws on the literature on complex interdependence and the logic of the trading state to postulate empirically verifiable propositions on migration control policies. </p><p>The central claim of the dissertation is that human mobility is conditionally securitized and that security logics are modulated by material/economic incentives. Facing informational asymmetries vis-à-vis transnational terrorists, states rely on migration and border control strategies to screen and deter non-state threats to security. However, economic interdependence--trade and capital ties--mitigates fears over transnational terrorism by reconfiguring state preferences, bolstering the relative salience of material concerns in policy-making, tempering perceptions of threat, and creating vested interests at the domestic level. </p><p>To test the theory I have collected and compiled data on i)visa restrictions for pairs of 207 X 207 directed dyads ii)visa rejection rates for European Union and/or Schengen member countries for the period 2003-2007, and iii)asylum recognition rates for 20 select OECD recipient states for the period 1980-2007. I then use this data to test the implications of the theory by distinguishing between economic/voluntary and political/involuntary migration. Additionally, I tease out the distinct effects of two different types of security concerns over transnational terrorism: a reputational effect that considers origin country citizens' involvement in terrorism incidents worldwide and a targeted/directed impact through which states take into account past experience as targets of terrorism. To illustrate the effect of economic interdependence, I analyze trade and capital flows separately and illustrate that both types of commercial ties facilitate liberalization of controls over human mobility through direct and indirect mechanisms. </p><p>I employ a variety of statistical techniques to study the effect of economic and security concerns including several cross-sectional time series techniques, structural break and recursive residual tests for temporal change, and maximum likelihood. Furthermore, I complement my quantitative empirical analysis with an in-depth process tracing approach that traces the evolution of Turkey's migration policies in the context of Turkey's post-1980 economic liberalization. The qualitative analysis makes use of primary and secondary resources obtained from archival field work in Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey.</p><p>The dissertation demonstrates that the impact of security concerns over transnational terrorism is contingent on the type of migration policy under consideration. In particular, policies of control over involuntary/political migration are guided by humanitarian and normative motives, limiting the effect of security concerns. Furthermore, the securitization of visa policies is strongest if recipient states are directly targeted by incidents of transnational terrorism perpetrated by origin country nationals. While states take into account incidents of global terrorism ---attacks against other country nationals or territories by origin country citizens-- this channel of impact is more modest. Additionally, empirical results show that economic interdependence effectively undercuts the effect of global terrorism, driving migration control policies towards liberalization. In sum, the dissertation demonstrates that ways in which states assert interdependence sovereignty exhibit temporal and cross-sectional variation as well as functional differentiation across types of border and migration control policies.</p> / Dissertation

This thesis analyzes the development of Multinational Corporations and their changing position and effects on International Relations. The historical evolution of multinationals with important historical milestones in their development, the definition, the concepts and their changing power capabilities and effects on nation states, international organizations and international relations will be discussed in this study. This thesis will also put forward some important case studies from the biggest American multinationals giving answers to questions such as to what extend can American multinationals effect inter-state relations or do giant multinationals became equivalent actors as nation states, what kind of interdependence do multinationals create among other actors.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the effectiveness of cross-border cooperation as a tool for local/regional development of underdeveloped border regions, and whether it is appropriate for Turkey&rsquo / s border regions. The basic statement is that the trajectories of intense economic relations do not always let cross-border co-operation / it can develop through supportive policies fed by the active participation of cross-border actors. The scope of this study is, - to examine changing theoretical ideas about borders and border relations, - to review some of the important changes affecting the cross-border cooperations / and the implications of transformations in the global mechanisms through new network relations determined within the multi-level governance approach, - to develop a framework for analysing the success of cross-border cooperation, - to discuss the cross-border co-operation trajectories through the world experiences and Turkish case, - to search for a new model This study will focus on a set of theoretical tools involving independent dimensions such as governance, economy and social structure. Along these theoretical perspectives, the importance of a cross-border co-operation for local/regional development will be emphasised through the case of Hopa-Batumi border region. Handling of this case will be an attempt to put forward the opportunities and barriers of a cross-border co-operation for Turkish border regions. This study is developed by the examination of theoretical literature, generating comparative analysis of world experiences with reference to available literature, and Turkish border regions executed with the newspapers archives and legal arrangements, and case study through in-depth interviews.

The purpose of this thesis is to gain a deeper insight of in which ways Swedish SMEs are dependent on their network when entering into Vietnam. In the introductory chapter there is a description of why it is interesting with the phenomenon globalization and of why Vietnam is an interesting market. This is followed by a discussion of the importance of network. The research question that evolved from this is: In what ways are Swedish SMEs dependent on their business network relationships when entering Vietnam? In the literature review the revised Uppsala model helps to gain a great knowledge of the importance of network when internationalizing. Furthermore, the core concept network is discussed from different angles. From this discussion we identified the following core concepts: embeddedness, complexity of relationships, network position, structure and bonds and trust and commitment, which the conceptual framework is based on. In the methodology chapter the approach, method and design that are used in this thesis are explained, together with the operationalization and an introduction of the respondents and the companies that they represent. In the empirical findings, the information gathered from different interviews is presented. The chapter about the empirical findings is structured based on the concept from the literature review, but also from the respondents, in order for the reader to easy be able to follow. This is followed by the analysis in which the respondents’ answers are compared to each other and then towards the conceptual framework. Lastly, the conclusion with the answer of the research question, implications and recommendations and suggestions for future research is stated. The main conclusions from this study are: • Swedish SMEs are dependent on their network when entering Vietnam. • Swedish SMEs are dependent on being locally anchored since it facilitates the interaction with the market. • Swedish SMEs are dependent on their network concerning travelling, communicating and interacting. • Swedish SMEs are dependent on their local personnel when conducting business in Vietnam. • Swedish SMEs are not dependent concerning obtaining institutional and political relationships when entering Vietnam.

The goal of the present study is to examine the enactive approaches of Susan Hurley and Alva Noë through the prism of Husserlian temporal constitution. In the first part we offer criticism to Hurley’s notion of ‘non-instrumental interdependence of perception and action’. Her grounding of this interdependence on the subpersonal level constitutional sensory input-motor output interdependence will be viewed as necessary but not sufficient for the first-personal level perception-action interdependence. That sufficiency can only be provided through an exposition of their constitutive interdependence at the first-personal level itself by a phenomenological analysis of perceptual and intentional acts. In the second part we examine Noë’s notion of the ‘virtuality’ of perceptual content. By interpreting his relevant concept of ‘free access’ according to the proposed motif of ‘expectation fulfillment’ we suggest that the problem of the virtuality of content should be interpreted as the problem of the constitution of the temporally enduring perceptual object. We shall work out this issue by appealing to the Husserlian account of perception. By a constructive reading of Husserl’s notions of ‘motivation’ and ‘kinesthesis’ we arrive at the ‘subjective temporal self-relating core’ of perceptual and motor acts. It is this functional temporal self-relatedness, described exclusively on the first-personal descriptive level, that finally offers us the sought after first-personal non-instrumental interdependence of perception and action. We finally suggest that augmented by this notion the sensorimotor approaches can have a better understanding of the neuroscientific explanandum and thus be better informed in their potential epistemological role. Some empirical literature is reviewed at the closure of the study in support of our case. / Στόχος της παρούσας εργασίας είναι η εξέταση των κιναισθητηριακών προσεγγίσεων της Σούζαν Χάρλεϋ και του Άλβα Νόε μέσα από το πρίσμα της χουσερλιανής χρονικής σύνθεσης. Στο πρώτο μέρος ασκούμε κριτική στην έννοια της ‘μη-εργαλειακής αλληλεξάρτησης αντίληψης-πράξης’, της Χάρλεϋ. Η θεμελίωση, εκ μέρους της συγγραφέως, της παραπάνω αλληλεξάρτησης στην συγκροτητική αλληλεξάρτηση αισθητηριακών εισόδων-κινητικών εξόδων του υποπροσωπικού επιπέδου περιγραφής θα χαρακτηριστεί ως αναγκαία αλλά όχι επαρκής για την αλληλεξάρτηση αντίληψης-πράξης στο πρώτο-προσωπικό επίπεδο. Η επάρκεια αυτή μπορεί να χορηγηθεί μόνο μέσα από την έκθεση της συγκροτητικής αλληλεξάρτησης τους στο ίδιο το πρώτο-προσωπικό επίπεδο, δια μίας φαινομενολογικής ανάλυσης των αντιληπτικών και προθεσιακών ενεργημάτων. Στο δεύτερο μέρος εξετάζουμε της έννοια της ‘δυνητικότητας’ του αντιληπτικού περιεχομένου, του Νόε. Ερμηνεύοντας της σχετική έννοια του της ‘ελεύθερης πρόσβασης’ με βάση το μοτίβο της ‘πλήρωσης προσδοκιών’ το οποίο εισάγουμε, προτείνουμε πως το πρόβλημα της δυνητικότητας των αντιληπτικών περιεχομένων θα πρέπει να κατανοηθεί ως πρόβλημα συγκρότησης του χρονικά διαρκούς αντιληπτικού αντικειμένου. Καταπιανόμαστε με αυτό το ζήτημα κάνοντας χρήση της χουσερλιανής άποψης περί αντίληψης. Μέσω μίας εποικοδομητικής ανάγνωσης των εννοιών της ‘κινητοποίησης’ (σχέσης-κινήτρων) και ‘κιναίσθησης’, του Χούσερλ, καταλήγουμε στον ‘υποκειμενικό πυρήνα χρονικού αυτοσχετισμού’ των αντιληπτικών και κινητικών ενεργημάτων. Είναι αυτός ο λειτουργικός χρονικός αυτοσχετισμός, η περιγραφή του οποίου γίνεται κατ’ αποκλειστικότητα στο πρώτο-προσωπικό επίπεδο, ο οποίος μας προσφέρει την ζητούμενη πρώτο-προσωπική μη-εργαλιακή αλληλεξάρτηση αντίληψης-πράξης. Καταλήγουμε προτείνοντας, ότι συνεπικουρούμενες από αυτή την έννοια οι κιναισθητηριακές προσεγγίσεις μπορούν να έχουν μία καλύτερη κατανόηση του νευροφυσιολογικού εξηγητέου και συνεπώς να δύναται να καταστούν πιο ενήμερες όσον αφορά τον πιθανό επιστημολογικό τους ρόλο. Η μελέτη κλείνει με μία ανασκόπηση μέρους της σχετικής εμπειρικής βιβλιογραφίας προς υποστήριξη των θέσεων μας.