Masters of Commerce / The practice of career guidance in the Palestinian community inside Israel is a relatively recent phenomenon which became prominent after the emergence of approximately 30 career guidance centres across the country. The development of career guidance in a context that is characterised by continuous social underdevelopment, injustice and discrimination raises many questions around the effectiveness of career guidance and its role in fighting unemployment as well as the extent to which career guidance services can deliver results on the ground – within the Palestinian community. In the twenty-first century, we need to consider the changing social structures and contexts in which career guidance is practiced (Arthur, Collins, McMahon & Marshall, 2009). Such challenging environment interferes with the practice and its deliverables making it more difficult for Palestinian practitioners. Hence, in the light of such challenges, there exists a great need to determine the effectiveness of the services by focusing on a number of areas such as; the types of career guidance interventions used; the kind of challenges Palestinian practitioners are faced with; the theoretical framework for career guidance; the future needs and skills of career guidance practitioners. To achieve these objectives, the study interviewed a sample consisting of (N=8) Palestinian career guidance practitioners, who were drawn using convenience and snowballing sampling, using a qualitative approach; semistructured interviews. The results showed that Palestinian career guidance practitioners understood the role and function of career guidance and used a wide range of useful interventions that correspond to those in international literature. However, they were critical of Holland-based assessment that was used considering it to be incompatible with the Arab community. Participants further reported that they were faced with a spectrum of challenges that are multi-faceted in nature and felt that the key to having effective career guidance with concrete outcomes, is by dealing with it on a policy level.

Welfare state attitudes are often studied from the perspective of the individual's characteristics and/or national or regime-type contexts. This thesis instead seeks explanations for individuals' varying attitudes towards the welfare state at the level of local contexts (municipalities). Sweden is used as a case for testing whether there are such contextual effects. The general aim is to find out whether social, political, and institutional aspects of local context influence the attitudes of individuals. Since the general aim of this thesis is to examine how background characteristics of individuals and characteristics of local contexts simultaneously act in shaping individuals' attitudes, I use multilevel modelling in order to handle individual-level and contextual-level data simultaneously. Latent-class analysis (LCA) is also employed in the analyses to explore the patterning of variables. This is mainly done in order to create dependent variables and to distinguish between categories of municipalities sharing similar characteristics.  The data consist of Swedish survey data, which have been complemented by municipal-level data. The findings indicate that the social and political context of municipalities can matter for individuals' attitude formation. Variation across municipalities in terms of the prevalence of social problems and risks seems to influence how individuals view the welfare state. Local municipal contexts characterized by many social problems and risks tend to be associated with more welfare state friendly attitudes among the local inhabitants, after taking individual-level determinants into account. Support for high social spending is greater in such milieus as is the tendency to view welfare beneficiaries with less suspicion regarding the potential abuse of welfare policies. Regarding the influence of local public service provision on attitudes, no evidence was found for feedback effects on individuals' attitudes toward public service privatization. In their attitudes towards the welfare state, individuals are to some extent influenced by their local environment. There seems to be a 'built in' thermostat in the Swedish welfare state. Local circumstances characterized by social problems and risks tend to be associated with a local citizenry having more welfare state-friendly attitudes.

abstract: Public participation is considered an essential process for achieving sustainable urban development. Often, however, insufficient attention is paid to the design of public participation, and processes are formulaic. Then, participation may not match the local context of the communities within which a project is conducted. As a result, participation may become co-optative or coercive, stakeholders may lose trust, and outcomes may favor special interests or be unsustainable, among other shortcomings. In this research, urban public participation is a collaborative decision-making process between residents, businesses, experts, public officials, and other stakeholders. When processes are not attuned with the local context (participant lifestyles, needs, interests, and capacities) misalignments between process and context arise around living conditions and personal circumstances, stakeholder trust, civic engagement, collaborative capacity, and sustainability literacy, among others. This dissertation asks (1) what challenges arise when the public participation process does not match the local context, (2) what are key elements of public participation processes that are aligned with the local context, (3) what are ways to design public participation that align with specific local contexts, and (4) what societal qualities and conditions are necessary for meaningful participatory processes? These questions are answered through four interrelated studies. Study 1 analyzes the current state of the problem by reviewing public participation processes and categorizing common misalignments with the local context. Study 2 envisions a future in which the problem is solved by identifying the features of well-aligned processes. Studies 3 and 4 test interventions for achieving the vision. This dissertation presents a framework for analyzing the local context in urban development projects and designing public participation processes to meet this context. This work envisions public participation processes aligned with their local context, and it presents directives for designing deliberative decision-making processes for sustainable urban development. The dissertation applies a systems perspective to the social process of public participation, and it provides empirical support for theoretical debates on public participation while creating actionable knowledge for planners and practitioners. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Sustainability 2015

This thesis examines the applicability of pre-dominantly Western theories of inclusive school development in countries of the Global South. Firstly, the findings of a review of research literature are used to develop a typology to describe the common features of inclusive schools, incorporating ways in which they might be supported. This typology was then used to explore the ways in which schools in the Lao People's Democratic Republic and Thailand developed inclusive practices. Engagement with school systems in these countries over a period of six years between 2003 and 2009 provided opportunities to work at several different levels with schools that in some way defined themselves as being 'inclusive'. Using data generated through field work with schools in an Inclusive Education Project in Laos and one school in Thailand, tensions were identified between the theoretical framework and my initial research findings. A revision of the typology was undertaken, drawing on a wider literature to take account of additional factors such as local and national culture and the impact of the policy context in these countries. The researcher often had the role of consultant, creating tensions in the way he constructed his position and also in the schools’ response. Reflecting on these tensions became a productive process in terms of understanding the factors which effectively promoted the development of inclusion in these different contexts. In particular, the process highlighted the relatively neglected significance of local context and knowledge and the way in which these factors impact on inclusive school development. In order to explore these issues in greater detail, further research was then undertaken in one school in Laos, creating a case study developed over four years. This detailed engagement revealed more clearly the limits of typologies in general and of Western theories in particular. Whilst they may offer a lens for examining inclusive school development they do not 'adequately' account for variable factors rooted in the local context. In conclusion, policy initiatives designed to support the development of more inclusive schools must allow for the creation of space at local levels for meanings to be constructed which will support teachers in developing their own sense of agency and making changes in their practice of which they have ownership.

The focus of this paper is second-generation immigrants and their labor market performance. With increased immigration from a more diverse ethnic background during the latest decades, it has become apparent that there is a difference between immigrant ethnic groups in labor market performance, in which some groups are more disadvantaged. Now more of these children have grown up, and research shows that the difficulties their parents had, affects the second generation. It is therefore of interest to understand what causes problems and generates opportunities for the second generation and try to understand the division between groups. One theory regarding the integration over generations and the differences between groups is segmented assimilation theory, proposed by Portes and Zhous (1993). According to this theory, both individual characteristics, and the context of immigrant lives are important. Starting with this theory, this paper looks deeper into individual characteristics and context, with special attention towards the implication of the context and the labor market. The thesis does this by testing if “local context,” a concept by Ellis & Almgren (2009) branched to understand the local geographical dimension at a smaller scale than national matter, in the shape of regions. The focus toward context and labor market is due to a small degree of research that attempts to explain how well the second-generation succeeds, depending on the labor market. The method for this is quantitative and builds on comparisons between regressions. A measurement called International Socioeconomic Index (ISEI) is used to explain the impact of the differences between ethnic groups. First are ordinary least square regressions with only ethnic groups, individual characteristics and no spatial aspect compared to a multilevel model based on labor market regions. Further are the spatial characteristics (whether a region is a big city or not), and the degree to which a region is knowledge-based. These factors are added in a multilevel regression to see if these spatial aspects can explain what it is about the regions that have an impact. The result shows a difference between both ethnic groups and regions, and that regions do explain some of the difference between the ethnic groups. The data also show that some non-European groups have higher status occupation than previous research has indicated. Other factors affecting immigrant groups are whether they live in a big city region or not, and how knowledge-based a region is, there it is an advantage living in regions with these factors. However, there is still an unexplained difference between ethnic groups, due to unknown factors. The result are also influenced of sample selection, it is therefore important to be aware that this result only show people with occupation and not labor market performance overall, as unemployment is not taken into account.

Sustainability in the tourism industry necessitates ongoing development. This thesis investigates the interrelations between indigenous and sustainable tourism in relation to sustainability definitions and specifically examines the contributions of indigenous values and knowledge to sustainability within the tourism industry. Through a qualitative methodology, two case studies were conducted with semi-structured interviews of two tourist organizations in Sweden and Canada, accompanied by a discourse analysis. The results show that the sustainability outcomes of indigenous tourism practices corresponded to sustainability in sustainable tourism and is in many ways aligned with the UNs global framework. Differences were identified in how sustainability was initiated and achieved. Possible improvements in sustainable tourism could be inspired by indigenous tourism. Key themes were connectedness and appreciation of the land and keeping operations localized. In a broader perspective indigenous knowledge could provide complementary approaches to the global framework of sustainable development in tourism which would lead to a more diversified, localized and authenticity-based development. The thesis contributes to the ongoing discourse on sustainable development in the tourism industry and emphasizes the importance of reflecting on the contested concept of sustainability.

Diese Doktorarbeit trägt durch eine Analyse der chinesischen Landgenossenschaften zum Verständnis von Politik und Prozessen im Ko-Management natürlicher Ressourcen bei. Im Mittelpunkt dieser Arbeit steht die Frage wie der lokale Kontext und Haushaltscharakteristika mit der Implementierung von Landgenossenschaften interagieren. Ich adressiere diese Frage in drei empirischen Forschungsartikeln. Im ersten Artikel untersuchen ich die Wirkung verschiedener lokaler Kontextvariablen in verschiedenen Dörfern auf den Anteil der Landflächen, der von einer Landgenossenschaft verwaltet wird. Es wird gezeigt, wenn lokale Eliten, wie Regierungsbeamte, Dorfkader oder gebildete Menschen, Genossenschaftsvorsitzende sind, ist der Anteil von Land, der an die Genossenschaft übertragen wird, deutlich größer. Im zweiten Artikel wenden ich uns der Haushaltsebene zu und untersuchen Bestimmungsfaktoren der Mitgliedschaft in einer Genossenschaft und die Auswirkungen der Mitgliedschaft auf die Allokation der verfügbaren Arbeitskraft. Ich stelle keinen allgemeinen Effekt von Genossenschaftsmitgliedschaft auf die Wahrscheinlichkeit der außerlandwirtschaftlichen Berufstätigkeit des Haushaltsvorstandes fest. Im dritten Artikel analysieren ich, wir den Zusammenhang zwischen Partizipation in Entscheidungsprozessen und Haushaltseinkommen aus Landgenossenschaften. Ich zeige, wohlhabendere Mitglieder und solche mit Mitgliedschaft in der kommunistischen Partei haben eine höhere Wahrscheinlichkeit an Entscheidungsprozessen teilzunehmen. Genossenschaftsmitglieder weniger von ihrer Mitgliedschaft profitieren, wenn sie nicht in Entscheidungsprozesse involviert sind. Zusammenfassend zeigt diese Dissertation, dass der lokale Kontext einen Unterschied in der Implementierung von Landgenossenschaften macht. Um die Genossenschaften zu fördern sollten politische Entscheidungsträger die Heterogenität der lokalen Bevölkerung. / This thesis contributes to the understanding of politics and processes in the co-management of natural resources through an analysis of Chinese land cooperatives. The focus of this work is the question of how local context and household characteristics interact with the implementation of land cooperatives. I address this question in three empirical research articles. In the first article, I examine the effect of different local context variables in different villages on the share of land area managed by a rural cooperative. It is shown that when local elites, such as government officials, village cadres or educated people, are co-operative chairmen, the proportion of land transferred to the cooperative is significantly larger. In the second article, I turn to the household level and examine determinants of membership in a cooperative and the impact of membership on the allocation of available labor. I do not state any general effect of cooperative membership on the probability of the head of household's non-agricultural employment. In the third article, I analyze the connection between participation in decision-making and household income from land cooperatives. I show that wealthier members and members of the Communist Party are more likely to participate in decision-making. Cooperative members benefit less from their membership if they are not involved in decision-making. In summary, this dissertation shows that the local context makes a difference in the implementation of land cooperatives. To encourage cooperatives, policy makers should consider the heterogeneity of the local population.

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy: Management Sciences (Peace Studies), Duban University of Technology, 2017. / Local peacebuilding practices require a systematic and reflective analysis in order for them to bring an impact. Successful peacebuilding pivots on the development of a set of skills to attend to the challenges presented by the conflict. The study was inspired by an observation that the emergence of CSOs working on peacebuilding in Zimbabwe was happening in a context where there was no proper training and organisational capacity development. Using an action-research design, and a case study of two CSOs operating in Bindura and Mazowe Districts in Mashonaland Central Province in Zimbabwe, the study involved a sample group of fifty-seven participants, and included a core Action Research Team (ART) of twelve participants to initiate the process of capacity development related to peacebuilding in Zimbabwe. Interviews, Focus Group Discussions, Document studies were used in a triangulation approach to enhance validity and reliability of the process. The preliminary assessment revealed that the peacebuilding environment in the two districts is highly polarised. There is a combination of both direct and indirect violence in the area. The state as well as traditional institutions are active perpetrators of both direct and indirect violence in the two district. The use of Local Peace Committees and the workshop method has not reaped the desired outcomes owing to the polarization. After a preliminary assessment of the peacebuilding environment in the area as well as a critique of the peacebuilding models being used by the two organisations, we then set out on a process of identifying strengths and weaknesses in both the programming as well as the delivery of the projects in the communities. A series of focus group discussions and organisational document analysis of the two organisations, we eventually agreed on the development of a training module for the Action Research Team. Five thematic issues were identified as forming the basis of the intervention programme. The five thematic issues were on the conceptual issues of conflict, violence and peace in a local context, conflict analysis skills, conflict sensitive programming, culture, conflict and change and lastly basic counselling skills for peacebuilders. A three-day training workshop was then held in order to develop capacity relating to the thematic issues. The short term evaluation of the intervention showed that the training was successful as the participants had already started implementing some of the new knowledge and skills. / D

How do individuals form their perceptions of economic matters? In this thesis I present three chapters which aim to demonstrate that individuals are influenced by their immediate environment in shaping their perceptions of the national economy or their economic status. In Chapter 1, I use cohabitation between young adults and their parents as a proxy for the economic difficulties experienced by individuals aged between 18 to 34. Using survey data from 32 countries, I show that parents' daily exposure to their adult child's difficulties negatively influences their perception of the national economy as well as the performance of the government. Chapter 2 deals with perceptions of an individual's economic status. I show that rising housing prices lead to economic anxiety among renters because of a fear of gentrification in their locality, as well as economic barriers to become home owner. My results are drawn from two survey experiments, one conducted in the United States, the other in Montreal. Finally, in Chapter 3 I take a more traditional approach to investigate the link between the local economic context and perceptions of the national economy. For this last chapter, I propose to reconsider the local economic context by taking into account not only the unemployment rate at the place of residence but also the place where adult individuals spend a large part of their time, i.e. their work. My results show that while the level of local unemployment is indeed correlated with the perception of the national economy, taking into account the average unemployment rate at the destination weakens this correlation. On the other hand, a global measure that takes into account the residential area as well as where individual's use to go on a daily basis is better correlated with the perception of the national economy. / Comment les individus forment-ils leur perception des questions économiques ? Dans cette thèse, je présente trois chapitres qui visent à démontrer que les individus sont influencés par leur environnement immédiat dans la formation de leurs perceptions de l'économie nationale ou de leur statut économique. Dans le chapitre 1, j'utilise la cohabitation entre les jeunes adultes et leurs parents comme indicateur des difficultés économiques rencontrées par les individus âgés de 18 à 34 ans. À l'aide de données de sondages provenant de 32 pays, je montre que l'exposition quotidienne des parents aux difficultés de leur enfant adulte influence négativement leur perception de l'économie nationale ainsi que leur perception de la performance du gouvernement en place. Le chapitre 2 traite des perceptions de la situation économique d'un individu. Je montre que la hausse des prix de l'immobilier entraîne une anxiété économique chez les locataires en raison de la crainte d'un embourgeoisement dans leur localité, ainsi que des obstacles économiques à l'accession à la propriété. Mes résultats sont tirés de deux expériences par sondage, l'une menée aux États-Unis, l'autre à Montréal. Enfin, dans le chapitre 3, j'adopte une approche plus traditionnelle pour étudier le lien entre le contexte économique local et les perceptions de l'économie nationale. Pour ce dernier chapitre, je propose de reconsidérer le contexte économique local en prenant en compte non seulement le taux de chômage du lieu de résidence mais aussi celui du lieu où les individus adultes passent une grande partie de leur temps, c'est-à-dire leur travail. Mes résultats montrent que si le niveau de chômage local est effectivement corrélé avec la perception de l'économie nationale, la prise en compte du taux de chômage moyen à la destination affaiblit cette corrélation. En revanche, une mesure globale prenant en compte la zone résidentielle ainsi que le lieu de déplacement quotidien des individus est mieux corrélée avec la perception de l'économie nationale.

Spain has an intricate relationship with their previous colonies. Relationships built up through centuries of intermingling have resulted in favourable integration trajectories for migrants from previous colonies in comparison with migrants from other countries. First through explicit favourable legislation, however this changed when Spain entered the European Union, meaning that the legislation had to be in line with the idea of controlled migration followed by the European Union. However, through the culturization, laborization and the criminalization of migration, it could be argued that migrants from previous colonies are still more favoured in comparison with migrants from different regions, exemplified by riots fueled by racism against labour migrants from North Africa in El Ejido in 2000. Besides the relationship with their previous colonies, Spain also has a long history with Northern Africa in which Maurophobia has played a significant role. This comparative case study compares the integration trajectory of two different migrant groups from both Latin America and Africa within Spain, more specifically into the local context of La Coruña. Even though Spain, and in the broader perspective the EU, are the authorities which create the legislation regarding migration and integration, the local authorities are the ones responsible for the implementation of these legislations. This study aims to demonstrate the importance of the analysis of integration in the local context as these could vastly differ from place to place, even within the borders of a nation-state. This case study compares the integration trajectory of Senegalese and Peruvian migrants within the context of La Coruña regarding access to the welfare state and the labour market.