L’approche des capabilités a été caractérisée par un développement fulgurant au cours des vingt-cinq dernières années. Bien que formulée à l’origine par Amartya Sen, détenteur du Prix Nobel en économie, Martha Nussbaum reprit cette approche dans le but de s’en servir comme fondation pour une théorie éthico-politique intégrale du bien. Cependant, la version de Nussbaum s’avéra particulièrement vulnérable à plusieurs critiques importantes, mettant sérieusement en doute son efficacité globale. À la lumière de ces faits, cette thèse vise à évaluer la pertinence théorique et pratique de l’approche des capabilités de Nussbaum, en examinant trois groupes de critiques particulièrement percutantes formulées à son encontre. / The capabilities approach has seen significant development over the past quarter century, branching out into a variety of fields and directions. Originally developed by Nobel Prize Laureate Amartya Sen, Martha Nussbaum has sought to extend this approach beyond its mainly instrumental role into a tangible foundation for a full-fledged ethical-political theory of the good. However, this move has attracted a great number of criticisms levelled against Nussbaum’s specific version of the capabilities approach. In this thesis, I identify three main groups of observations under which said criticisms can be classified, and assess their respective strength and tenability.

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Ce mémoire vise principalement à déterminer l’effet médiateur de la justice organisationnelle entre le leadership d’habilitation des supérieurs immédiats et la détresse psychologique des employés. Deux objectifs principaux sont poursuivis. Le premier consiste à identifier l’impact du leadership d’habilitation sur la détresse psychologique. Le second objectif vise à déterminer le rôle médiateur de la justice organisationnelle, plus précisément la justice distributive, la justice procédurale, la justice interpersonnelle et la justice informationnelle, entre le leadership d’habilitation exercé envers un subordonné et la détresse psychologique. Les données secondaires qui nous permettent de faire les analyses statistiques nécessaires ont été recueillies dans le cadre d’une étude réalisée dans le secteur de la fabrication métallique industrielle (FMI) du Québec. Un total de 741 employés ont été sondés à l’aide de questionnaires. Des analyses d’équations structurelles ont permis de compléter nos analyses. Les résultats indiquent que le leadership d’habilitation seul ne permet pas de réduire les niveaux de détresse psychologique d’un subordonné. Cependant, les hypothèses concernant le rôle médiateur de la justice distributive et de la justice procédurale ont été confirmées. Pour conclure, ces résultats montrent que le leadership d’habilitation jumelé à la perception d’un haut niveau de justice distributive ou procédurale a un impact significatif sur la diminution de la survenance de détresse psychologique. Ainsi, il est dans l’intérêt des organisations du secteur de la fabrication métallurgique au Québec d’influencer les supérieurs immédiats d’appliquer un leadership d’habilitation tout en portant une attention particulière à la distributive des ressources ainsi qu’à l’élaboration des procédures. / The main objective of this research is to determine the mediating effect of organizational justice between the empowering leadership of immediate superiors and the psychological distress of employees. Two main objectives are pursued. The first is to identify the impact of empowering leadership on psychological distress. The second objective aims to determine the mediating role of organizational justice, more precisely distributive justice, procedural justice, interpersonal justice and informational justice, between the empowering leadership exercised towards a subordinate and psychological distress. The secondary data that allow us to make the necessary statistical analyzes were collected as part of a study carried out in the industrial metalworking sector of Quebec. A total of 741 employees were surveyed using questionnaires. Analyzes of structural equations completed our analyzes. The results indicate that empowering leadership alone does not reduce a subordinate’s levels of psychological distress. However, the hypotheses concerning the mediating role of distributive and procedural justice have confirmed. To conclude, these results show that empowering leadership combined with the perception of a high level of distributive or procedural justice has a significant impact on the reduction of the occurrence of psychological distress. Thus, it is in the interest of organizations in the metalworking sector of Quebec to influence the immediate superiors to apply empowering leadership while paying particular attention to the distribution of resources as well as to the elaboration of procedures.

La Guinée, depuis son accession à l’indépendance en 1958, a été dirigée par des régimes autoritaires successifs et a traversé des périodes marquées par de graves victimisations dont les plus remarquables se sont produites entre 1958 et 1984, sous le règne d’Ahmed Sékou Touré, puis dernièrement en 2009, sous le règne du Capitaine Moussa Dadis Camara. Ces crimes contre l’humanité ont eu des impacts directs et indirects sur la vie des victimes, leurs familles, et proches. Ils ont causé des milliers de morts, provoqué l’exil d’innombrables individus et occasionné le viol de centaines de femmes (Human Rights Watch, 2011). Bien que l’État guinéen ait entrepris de nombreuses actions visant ostentatoirement à faire justice aux victimes de ces faits, ces dernières demeurent insatisfaites et persistent dans leur quête de justice. Ceci nous conduit à des questionnements : qu’est-ce que la justice pour les victimes de crimes contre l’humanité en Guinée ? Comment les victimes arrivent-elles à ce sentiment de justice ? Dans cette thèse, nous explorons le sentiment de justice de 31 victimes de crimes contre l’humanité commis en Guinée. Plus précisément, nous utilisons, comme cadre théorique la théorie de la justice pour examiner les perceptions et expériences de victimes par rapport à la justice afin de promouvoir la réconciliation et la paix durable. Les résultats indiquent que la justice a plusieurs dimensions, à savoir la justice distributive, la justice procédurale et la justice interactionnelle. Bien que la justice distributive (punition et réparation) soit évoquée plus rapidement dans le discours des victimes, la justice procédurale (neutralité des autorités, constance, etc.) et la justice interactionnelle (respect, information, etc.) ont toutes aussi leur importance aux yeux des victimes. Il existe plusieurs similarités entre les deux groupes de victimes étudiés, entre celles de 1958-1984 et celles de 2009, quant aux violences commises, à leurs conséquences et à la définition de la justice. Mais, ces deux groupes diffèrent sous plusieurs autres coutures, notamment par rapport aux types de violences, à la durée de la commission des crimes, à la méthode utilisée pour les commettre, à l’interchangeabilité des rôles victimes-bourreaux, à la durée des conséquences des crimes et à l’importance des éléments compris dans la définition de la justice. Certains éléments de la définition de la justice seraient plus importants que d’autres pour chaque groupe de victimes compte tenu du temps passé depuis la commission des crimes, du décès de la plupart des bourreaux, et de l’interchangeabilité des rôles bourreaux victimes. Cela dit, la justice dans son ensemble est une condition à la réconciliation. Toutefois, le manque de justice vécue par les victimes remet en question la réconciliation en Guinée. / Since its independence in 1958, Guinea has been ruled by authoritarian regimes that caused many victims of serious violations, the most notable dating from 1958 to 1984 under the reign of Ahmed Sékou Touré and recently in 2009 under the reign of Moussa Dadis Camara. The crimes against humanity in Guinea had direct and indirect impacts on the lives of the victims, their families, and their loved ones. They have left thousands of dead, they resulted in the exile of countless individuals and the rape and abuse of hundreds of women (Human Rights Watch, 2011). While some efforts have been made to address this violence, victims nevertheless persist in their demand for justice. This raises many questions: what is justice for the victims of crimes against humanity in Guinea? How do victims come to the sense of justice? In this paper, we explore the perceptions of justice of 31 victims of crimes against humanity in Guinea. More specifically, we use justice as a theoretical framework to examine perceptions and experiences of victims in relation to justice in order to promote reconciliation and lasting peace. The results indicate that justice has several dimensions, namely distributive justice, procedural justice and interactional justice. Although distributive justice (punishment and reparation) comes more quickly in victims’ discourse, procedural justice (neutrality of authorities, constancy, etc.) and interactional justice (respect, information, etc.) are equally important in the eyes of the victims. There are several similarities between the two groups of victims (1958–1984 and 2009) as regards the violence committed, their consequences, and the definition of justice. However, there are differences as well, particularly regarding the types of violence, the duration of the crimes, the method used to commit the crimes, the interchangeability of victim-offender roles, the duration of the consequences of crimes and the importance of the elements included in the definition of justice. Some elements included in the definition of justice would be more important than others for each group of victims given the time that has passed since the commission of crimes, the death of most perpetrators, and the interchangeability of victims perpetrators’ roles. That said, justice as a whole is a condition for reconciliation. However, the lack of justice experienced by the victims calls into question reconciliation in Guinea.

The purpose of this diploma thesis is to connect the perceived income justice and inter-industry income differentiation in the Czech Republic. One of the aims of the thesis is to place these two topics in a theoretical, and a historical framework, which is the subject of the theoretical part of the thesis. The practical part is focused on secondary data analysis. In the first part of the analysis, a description of the actual form of inter-industry income differentiation is carried out. Subsequently, an analysis of the main determinants of employees' income levels is performed, and lastly, identification of those determinants which may have an impact on employees' perceptions of income justice is made. The thesis therefore seeks to answer the question of what structure the inter-industry income differentiation took in the year 2018 and whether this factor of theeconomic sector, among others, has an impact on the perception and evaluation of income justice, if we control the influence of the characteristics of the employees who work in them.

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Cette thèse a été réalisée dans le cadre d'une formation doctorale en bioéthique au département de médecine sociale et préventive à l'École de santé publique de l'Université de Montréal (ESPUM). Elle a été complétée grâce au soutien financier des Fonds de recherche du Québec - Santé (FRQS) et des Instituts de recherche en santé du Canada (IRSC). / L’épigénétique est un champ de recherche qui s’intéresse aux variations dans l'activité des gènes n’impliquant pas de modification de la séquence d'ADN et pouvant être transmises lors des divisions cellulaires. Les chercheurs dans ce domaine se penchent principalement sur le rôle de changements très précis dans la structure 3D de l’ADN, qui sont imposés par la méthylation de l’ADN et d'autres réactions biochimiques et qui ont pour effet de contraindre ou de faciliter la lecture des gènes en fonction du besoin des cellules. De nombreuses maladies ont été associées à une perturbation des mécanismes épigénétiques, comme les cancers, les maladies cardiovasculaires, les désordres hormonaux et métaboliques, les maladies inflammatoires chroniques et les troubles neuropsychologiques. Au cours des quinze dernières années, l’épigénétique a connu un essor fulgurant. Elle fut particulièrement propulsée par la recherche en épigénétique environnementale, une spécialité qui s’intéresse aux causes externes de l’altération des mécanismes épigénétiques. Cette branche de la recherche a récemment suscité une vive attention de la part des médias et des chercheurs en sciences sociales et humaines, parce qu’elle met en évidence, au niveau moléculaire, l’influence critique de l’environnement physico-chimique et psychosocial des personnes sur leur santé. Elle apporte ainsi un éclairage supplémentaire sur la relation étroite qui existe entre les inégalités sociales et les inégalités de santé. L’épigénétique environnementale pourrait donc nous encourager, non seulement à imaginer des technologies biomédicales capables de renverser les perturbations acquises, mais aussi à élaborer des stratégies de santé publique préventives, soucieuses des considérations de justice sociale qui affectent la santé des personnes et des populations. Dans cette thèse, nous proposons une exploration des implications éthiques, légales et sociales de l’épigénétique (EpigELS). Nous présentons d’abord une revue exhaustive des différentes observations, interprétations et spéculations exprimées dans la littérature en sciences sociales et humaines au sujet des conséquences épistémologiques et normatives de ce jeune champ de recherche. Nous procédons ensuite à une analyse en trois temps de l’application des connaissances. Une première approche, que nous appelons la perspective rhétorique, fait la promotion de l’épigénétique environnementale comme plaidoyer en faveur de politiques de santé préventives et de l’expansion de la bioéthique nord-américaine pour y inclure les préoccupations environnementales et les enjeux relatifs aux déterminants sociaux de la santé (article 1). Une seconde approche, que nous appelons la perspective dialectique, offre un regard critique sur l’attribution de responsabilités morales fondée sur les découvertes en épigénétique. Elle démontre toute la complexité de cette entreprise en faisant la lumière sur les incertitudes scientifiques et les contradictions internes apparentes de ce champ d’étude, spécialement autour des concepts de norme épigénétique et de plasticité épigénétique (article 2). Une troisième approche, que nous appelons la perspective réflexive, se penche sur l’influence potentielle du paysage biopolitique contemporain – molécularisation de la santé et biomédicalisation de la vie – sur l’application des connaissances. Dans ce ‘régime de vérité’ néolibéral, qui favorise les processus d’internalisation, d’isolement, de marchandisation et de technologisation, il est probable que l’application clinique des découvertes en épigénétique soit injustement privilégiée, par défaut, au détriment de leur application en politiques de santé préventives (article 3). Nous terminons par une ouverture sur l’avenir du domaine EpigELS et une brève discussion sur la nature en partie interprétative du processus de passage des connaissances à la pratique. / Epigenetics is a field of research focusing on variations in gene activity that do not involve changes in the DNA sequence and that can be transmitted during cell divisions. Researchers in this field are studying the role of very precise changes in the 3D structure of DNA, imposed by DNA methylation and other biochemical reactions, that impede or facilitate the reading of genes depending on the need of the cells. Many diseases are associated with a disruption of epigenetic mechanisms, such as cancers, cardiovascular diseases, hormonal and metabolic disorders, chronic inflammatory diseases and neuropsychological disorders. Over the past fifteen years, epigenetics has grown rapidly. It was particularly propelled by research in environmental epigenetics, which is interested in the external causes of the alteration of epigenetic mechanisms. This branch of research has recently attracted considerable attention from the media and researchers in social sciences and humanities because it highlights, at the molecular level, the critical influence of the physico-chemical and psycho-social environment on people’s health. It also sheds additional light on the close relationship between social inequalities and health inequalities. Thus, environmental epigenetics could encourage us not only to conceive biomedical technologies capable of reversing the acquired detrimental variations, but also to develop preventive public health strategies that take into account social justice considerations affecting the health of individuals and populations. In this thesis, we propose an exploration of the ethical, legal and social implications of epigenetics. We begin by presenting a comprehensive review of the various observations, interpretations and speculations expressed in the social sciences and humanities literature about the epistemological and normative consequences of this young field of research. We then proceed to a three-step analysis of knowledge translation. A first approach, that we call the rhetorical perspective, promotes environmental epigenetics as an advocacy tool for preventive health policies and the expansion of North American bioethics towards a view that includes environmental concerns and social determinants of health (Article 1). A second approach, that we call the dialectical perspective, offers a critical look at the assignment of moral responsibilities based on epigenetic discoveries. It demonstrates the complexity of this endeavor by shedding light on the scientific uncertainties and apparent internal contradictions of this field of study, especially with regards to the notions of epigenetic normality and epigenetic plasticity (Article 2). A third approach, that we call the reflexive perspective, examines the potential influence of the contemporary biopolitical landscape – molecularization of health and biomedicalization of life – on knowledge translation. In this neoliberal ‘regime of truth’, which favors the processes of internalization, isolation, commodification and technologization, it is likely that the clinical translation of epigenetics will be unduly privileged, by default, impeding its translation into important preventive health policies (Article 3). We conclude with a view towards the future of the field of EpigELS and a brief discussion on the partly interpretive nature of the knowledge-to-practice process.

M. Tech. (Department of Labour Relations Management, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / In South Africa, rail transport is an important element to support economic development and this service is provided by the railway company as the focus of this study. Similar to other companies, the selected railway company depends on its employees as a crucial resource to execute duties aimed at the realisation of its objectives. For the company to remain successful, its employees must have positive behaviours and attitudes and have the ability to work in a fair and just environment. Organisational justice, as an indicator of a fair and just work environment, and organisational citizenship behaviour, influence work-related behaviours and attitudes and are critical for the smooth operation of any organisation. Currently, the railway company seems to have a high number of reported incidents relating to organisational citizenship behaviour including misconduct, disciplinary, criminal and/or civil action. This might be an outcome of employee perceptions of organisational justice. This study examines the relationship between organisational justice and organisational citizenship behaviour for the first time in the rail industry in South Africa. Drawing on the Social Exchange Theory, the primary aim of this study is to investigate employees’ perceptions of organisational justice and their effects on organisational citizenship behaviour in a railway company in Johannesburg, Gauteng. The study adopted a deductive research approach and a quantitative method was used to collect data. Utilising a structured questionnaire, respondents were solicited to provide their demographic variables and their responses to four different measurement scales, namely procedural justice, distributive justice, interactional justice and organisational citizenship behaviour using a seven-point Likert scale ranging from 1=strongly disagree to 7=strongly agree. Using convenience sampling, questionnaires were distributed to 400 identified employees of the railway company in Johannesburg, Gauteng. A total of 378 questionnaires were returned and this constituted the sample size of the study. The Spearman’s rho correlation coefficient was used to find the strength of relationships with the use of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.0. To assess the employees' perceptions of organisational justice, their levels of organisational citizenship behaviour and the relationship between the constructs, descriptive statistical analysis, correlation and regression analysis were used. Based on the findings, the results of the correlation analysis revealed no significant relationships between all three dimensions of organisational justice (procedural justice, distributive justice, interactional justice) and organisational citizenship behaviour. Regression analysis also resulted in no predictive relationships between organisational justice and organisational citizenship behaviour. Evidence indicates that the fairness of distribution, procedures and interactions are not the key contributors in affecting the level of organisational citizenship behaviour of employees at the railway company. The study makes various recommendations including that management should treat employees fairly and equally and apply fair decision-making processes with fair outcomes. Additionally, to improve, increase and keep the standard of OCB, an organisational policy on organisational justice should be in place, which must constantly be updated. Research on OJ and OCB is still limited, particularly in the field of rail transport, as this study is the first and only study that has been conducted in South Africa. This represents an opportunity for academics and labour relations practitioners to further engage in research on antecedents and outcomes of organisational behaviour in the railway industry.

Today, some twelve million immigrants are unlawfully present in the United States. What response to this situation does Christian theology suggest for these immigrants and those who receive them? To this question about the status of immigrants before the law, the theological literature lacks an understanding of how federal U.S. immigration law developed, and it lacks a robust theological account of the governance of immigration. To fill this gap, the thesis presents three stages in the formation of the laws that designate some immigrants as aliens unlawfully present or illegal aliens, drawing out the moral argumentation in each phase and responding with moral theology. In the first stage, non-citizens were called aliens in U.S. law. In response to the argument that aliens exist as a consequence of natural law, Christian teaching indicates that immigrants are not alien either in creation or for the church. In the second stage, the authority of the federal government to exclude and expel aliens was established, leaving those who do not comply to be designated illegal aliens. To the claim that the federal government has unlimited sovereignty over immigration, interpretations of the Christian Scriptures respond that divine sovereignty limits and directs civil authority over immigration. In the third stage, legal reforms that were intended to end discrimination between countries allowed millions from countries neighboring the U.S. to become illegal aliens. These reforms turn out to be unjust on philosophical grounds and unneighborly on theological grounds. While federal law classes many as aliens unlawfully present in the United States, Christian political theology indicates that immigrants are not alien, the government of immigration is limited by divine judgment, and nationals of neighboring countries deserve special regard.