Citizens of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation fight for justice with their bodies at the frontlines of environmental catastrophe. This dissertation employs a biopolitical and interpretive analysis to examine these struggles in the polluted heart of Canada’s ‘Chemical Valley’. Drawing from a discursive analysis of situated concerns on the ground and a textual analysis of Canada’s biopolitical ‘policy ensemble’ for Indigenous citizenship, this dissertation examines how citizens and public officials respond to environmental and reproductive injustices in Aamjiwnaang. Based upon in-depth interviews with residents and policy-makers, I first document citizens of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation’s activities and practices on the ground as they cope with and navigate their health concerns and habitat. Second, I examine struggles over knowledge and the contestation over scientific expertise as the community seeks reproductive justice. Third, I contextualize citizen struggles over knowledge by discussing the power relations embedded within the ‘policy ensemble’ for Indigenous citizenship and Canadian jurisdiction for on-reserve environmental health. From an interpretive lens, inspired by Foucault’s concepts of biopower and governmentality, the dissertation develops a framework of “ecological citizenship”, which confronts biopolitics with a theoretical discussion of place to expand upon existing Canadian citizenship and environmental studies literature. I argue that reproductive justice in Aamjiwnaang cannot be separated from environmental justice, and that the concept of place is central to ongoing struggles. As such, I discuss “ecological citizenship’s double-edge”, to contend that citizens are at once bound up within disciplinary biopolitical power relations and also articulate a radical form of place-based belonging.

This thesis explores EU borders and bordering in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in the context of the 2004 EU enlargement, the 2007 extension of the Schengen zone and the 2004 Eastern Dimension of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) that, in 2009, was upgraded to the Eastern Partnership (EaP). The thesis links borders with identities and governing orders to argue that while the EU has successfully included, inter alia, Czechs and Poles, it has excluded Ukrainians sufficiently to impact negatively on their lives and on the achievement of EU goals in the neighbourhood. The de-bordering and re-bordering inherent to enlargement, Schengen, ENP and EaP have (partially) displaced CEE borders from traditional locations at state frontiers. Bordering activities still take place within the supposedly borderless Schengen zone as well as at external frontiers with neighbouring states, but the EU has also exported border practices onto the territories of its neighbours. These processes prompted the questions addressed in this thesis: where, how, why and with what effects the EU makes its borders in CEE. An analytical framework – the ‘Borderscape’ – is developed to explore the complex manifestations of post-frontier bordering and to understand its socio-political, spatial and temporal underpinnings, and the consequences that EU bordering has for identities and subjectivities, order and governance in CEE. The borderscape encompasses border features, bordering discourses and bordering practices, which are constituted by EU and national governmental actors, border security and law enforcement agencies, by civil society actors and the people who move and dwell in the region. The borderscape is tailored to the regional particularities of CEE, with specific reference to processes of post-communist transition, EU accession and the EU’s engagement with its neighbours, specifically Ukraine. The findings of the research are based on extensive, interpretive fieldwork conducted in the Czech Republic, Poland and Ukraine. The thesis shows the various sites, forms and functions of contemporary EU bordering that comprise a diverse yet connected border archipelago stretching from the Schengen interior into the Eastern neighbourhood. The EU’s bordering discourses are shown to be plural and often contradictory: notions of freedom, security and justice and the desire to benefit from sharing these with Central and Eastern Europeans are juxtaposed with narratives of fear, suspicion and narrow-minded self-interest. The EU’s Europeanised bordering practices, including Risk Analysis and the protection of both borders and migrants, have enhanced mobility for EU-Europeans (such as Czechs and Poles) who now share in the highly desirable form of order that it has created. However, the EU has also restricted mobility for Ukrainians, who are still seen as ‘Eastern-Europeans’. The borderscape betrays the EU’s internal crises of identity and confidence, which has had psycho-social exclusionary effects on Ukrainians and contributed to the politico-strategic crisis in the Eastern Neighbourhood. However this analysis also points to ways that the EU can address these issues.

Psychology's literature regarding fatherlessness is not only grim, mainly pointing out the negative consequences of fatherlessness, but it also does not provide much specific information about fatherless individuals' experiences. A pilot study revealed that fatherless individuals do not always suffer from the loss of their father and that they also have the ability to overcome the negative consequences commonly associated with father loss. The research questions for this study presented themselves naturally after reviewing the literature and after considering the results of my pilot study, namely, “What do fatherless individuals actually experience in being fatherless, and what is the nature of the experience of being fatherless in people who seem to display successful coping and resilience?” Phenomenology and the Grounded Interpretive research method were employed to explore in depth the lived experience of three participants. My interviews show that cultural, family, and educational background and the individual's interpretations of his or her situation significantly contributed to how fatherlessness was experienced. In contrast to the generally grim literature on fatherlessness, the results of the present study suggest that the consequences of fatherlessness do not have to be as grim as they are generally portrayed. While fatherlessness is difficult, there is hope for the fatherless in that they can overcome the negative implications of their situation-a finding that contributes to a more holistic understanding and a perspective of fatherlessness that has not yet been sufficiently been documented by the literature.

儘管有些人認為冷戰的結束代表著「歷史的終結」，但中共領導人們卻不這麼認為。他們認為冷戰的結束把我們從「兩極對抗」的世界帶入「多極化世界」。 進一步研究中共冷戰後的公開文件，我們可以發現「多極化世界」的提法無所不在。一方面，「多極化世界」不斷出現在重要的對內與對外文件，以致於我們有理由相信「多極化世界」的概念對冷戰後的中共具有相當的重要性。另一方面，「多極化世界」的概念具有相當強的延續性，從鄧小平晚期到習近平的公開記錄中，我們都可以發現它的蹤跡。 因此，「多極化世界」的特殊性成為本研究的研究動機，而這個概念本身則成為本研究的研究目的。本研究欲探究的問題有兩個：第一，「多極化世界」的本質是什麼？第二，以「多極化世界」這個概念為主軸的中共，在經歷國力快速增長後，是否會符合「國強必霸」的命題？ 為了探究這樣的課題，本研究採取詮釋學理論途徑做為研究途徑。在此研究途徑下，本研究將以大量文獻作為根基，並以中共領導人的談話記錄或演講記錄為對象，進行詮釋分析。希望透過這樣的努力，能更深入的理解「多極化世界」這個概念背後的意涵。 / Although some might consider the end of the Cold War as the end of history, however, leaders of PRC do not think so. They think the end of the Cold War brought us from a bipolarity world to a world with Multi-polarity tendency. When we study public documents of PRC after the Cold War，we can find the keyword “World with Multi-polarity Tendency” everywhere. On one hand, we can find the keyword “World with Multi-polarity Tendency” in many important public documents, whether its audience is PRC’s people or other countries in the world, which makes us have good reasons to believe the significance of the key words “World with Multi-polarity Tendency”. On the other hand, the concept of “World with Multi-polarity Tendency” has great continuity. We can find it from Deng, Siao-Ping to Si, Jin-Ping. Because of the reasons above, to understand the concept of “World with Multi-polarity Tendency” is the motivation of this study. And the concept of “World with Multi-polarity Tendency” itself is the target of this study. We get two main questions in this study：First, what is the nature of “World with Multi-polarity Tendency”？ Second, if PRC really take this concept as its main idea, will PRC become a hegemony power after it become strong？ This study chooses interpretive research as its approach, and taking PRC leaders’ public documents as targets to analyze the concept of “World with Multi-polarity Tendency”. Hoping through these works, we can have a deeper understand about it.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Since the early 1990s, religion and matters of faith and spirituality have become a focal point in numerous arenas beyond the individual and traditionally sacred. With President George W. Bush's White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives of 2001, the Charitable Choice provision of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act that preceded it in 1996, and the myriad of legal challenges that followed, matters of religion have become paramount in political discourse regarding social welfare. The viability of faith-based social service provision and the organizations providing the direct services have been the focus of speculation, debate, and a growing amount of research. Few studies, however, have explored the role of faith-based advocacy or lobbying organizations in shifting the social welfare climate, in proposing or opposing policy changes in the social welfare system, or in defining social welfare. Little is empirically known about the organizational dynamics of religious advocacy groups whose attempts at structural influence are, in part, affected by theological positions and religiously-informed values.Considering the dearth of research on such organizations, particularly those that operate on the state level, this study explored faith-based advocacy organizations that seek to influence social policy in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Within an interpretive paradigmatic and theoretical framework that allowed for the exploration of meaning associated with advocacy activities, the inquiry asked the following questions, How do faith-based organizations engage in legislative advocacy in the Commonwealth of Virginia? What meaning do the organizations assign to their advocacy activities? The inquiry's findings, congruent with interpretive research assumptions, are tentative in nature and suggest that while the focal organizations' advocacy activities appear similar to other interest groups, their religious mandates for action distinguish them from their secular counterparts. Interpretations of these mandates significantly influence the organizations' decision-making, their representation of multiple constituencies, and their definitions of success. Unlike previous studies that suggest these organizations distance themselves from insider politics, the religious advocates in the study suggest that fidelity to their mandate means actively participating in the political process while retaining their unique voice as representatives of God and religious traditions.

Agile project management emphasizes flexibility and adapting to change. Embracing change often means that specified requirements get changed, removed or replaced under the course of a software project. Another consequence of the nature of agile projects is that everything that does not directly contribute to the working software gets dropped from the product lifecycle. Traceability – the ability to trace requirements back to their origins and forward to design artifacts, code, and testcases – is one such thing that may be overlooked. At the same time, traceability may be crucial to making sure that the delivered product meets the product goals. This thesis investigates the concept of decision traceability – the ability to trace decisions that relate to the evolution of a software product, as well as the fulfillment of product goals. The purpose of this thesis is to understand the importance of decision traceability in relation to product goals and changing requirements in agile software projects. For this purpose, two research questions were developed. (1) What are the challenges of achieving decision traceability in agile projects? And (2) What are important aspects of achieving decision traceability in agile projects? An interpretive qualitative case study was conducted at an IT-consultancy firm. In the case study, two of the organization’s in-house projects were observed, and six informants were interviewed. In answer to the research questions, seven challenges and six important aspects of achieving decision traceability were identified. A conclusion that can be made from the findings is that other aspects than just well-defined processes– such as team engagement, value perception, and communication – may be essential to achieving decision traceability in agile software projects.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

This dissertation investigates how executives engage in information technology projects and how organizational control of IT projects forms and evolves over time. It contains an in-depth account of a large, multi-year IT project in a financial company. The story of the “New Deposit System” project provides insights into the dynamics of IT projects in organizations and the challenges facing executives engaging in the governance of these complex undertakings. Several characteristics of IT projects, such as their abstract nature, technological complexity and non-repetitiveness, render several of the manager’s trusted forms of control impracticable. Even the ideal of “strong top management support” is found to be problematic: it is an extraordinary measure unlikely to translate well into regular organizational practice. What we find instead are actors in search of means and ways to exercise influence. We find control to be reciprocal and dynamic, influenced by the organization and its history, by the principles and practices of corporate IT management and by the values and norms of the IT profession. In this environment, selection of key people, evolving trust, other people’s assessments and the construction and reshaping of a project image become important parts of the managerial repertoire for IT project governance. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2002

Many different approaches have been proposed with the aim of facilitating sound and successful information management (IM) and knowledge management (KM) practices within business contexts. These approaches seek to identify organizational factors (e.g. culture or information technology practices) or to suggest management processes (e.g. human resources management) required to establish environments conducive to IM and KM. Most of these approaches, often presented as frameworks (as they are referred to in this study) for organizational IM or KM, are exemplified by the following features.Firstly, they have emerged as unrelated notions, with little reference to each other or to foundational studies in the area. Secondly these frameworks are not based on any theoretical foundation. Thirdly, these frameworks have tended to focus on either information or knowledge management activities but not both, even though organizational IM and KM exist in a complementary and co-dependent relationship. The usefulness of these frameworks is made problematic by muddled use of the terms 'information', 'knowledge', 'IM' and 'KM', which are often transposed or used synonymously. The situation is further complicated by the inherent complexity of the organizational environments into which practitioners attempt to introduce information and knowledge management (IKM) initiatives. Early outputs of this research are explanations of how the terminology above is used in this study and a literature review that describes current IM and KM frameworks by analyzing their components. The literature review identifies current challenges in the research domain, including the need for sound foundation (referent model) on which future IKM frameworks can be based. A suitable referent model is proposed by integrating single and double feedback loops (from systems theory) with two concepts from the IM literature: IM processes and the domains of IM activity. Then, an interpretive multi-methodological research (MMR) approach is pursued consisting of three sequential phases: action research, transition and case study. The first phase, a 3-cycle action research project accompanied by a longitudinal descriptive case study and an embedded literature analysis, was conducted over a 31 month period. The key research outcome of the action research phase was a set of candidate enablers Information and Knowledge Management (IKM) in Business Contexts for organizational IKM, while the organizational deliverables included policies, strategies, process improvement and new information systems. The information gathered in phase one was rich and deep. However, in keeping with the goal of the research to produce a practical, useful IKM framework, the researcher sought a broader view from the IKM community. To achieve this practitioner view, a second research phase was designed to bridge the gap between the detailed examinations of IKM initiatives within one organizational environment, to the examination of IKM initiatives within other organizations. Therefore phase two - a transition phase - consisted of a series of surveys and interviews with IKM practitioners that explored their perceptions of organizational IKM activities and environments. The data collected in phase two supported the findings from phase one and informed the development of the case protocols for the third - case study - phase. In the third phase, six IKM projects in three organizations were studied. Documentary and interview data were examined to understand the relationships between IKM projects, the candidate enablers identified earlier in phases one and two, and other organizational factors implicated in IKM initiatives. When analyzed, the findings from the third phase converged with the data collected in the previous two phases, and provided a rich, deep and broad collection of material. The study culminates by synthesizing the data collected in the three research phases to (1) confirm a suitable referent model on which IKM frameworks can be based and (2) develop an integrated, multidimensional IKM framework that assimilates the referent model. The referent model, which is based on previous calls for IKM frameworks to have a sound theoretical foundation, incorporates two established concepts from the IKM literature: (a) the operational, analytical and strategic domains of IKM activity and (b) double and single loop feedback loops of systems thinking applied to IKM processes. The practical and flexible IKM framework, which assimilates these concepts, has three dimensions. These dimensions are (i) domains of IKM activity and feedback loops (ii) organizational enablers (iii) project context. It is envisaged that this framework be used by practitioners to identify and manage areas of the business environment that require attention to ensure success of IKM projects or initiatives.