Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis is a practice-based investigation into the mutual coming into being of artist and artwork within the process of signification as described by Julia Kristeva. The investigation is done from an unstable subjective position and requires innovative research methodologies and a sustained close connection with the practice in order to accommodate the complexity inherent to the process. The exploration involves a closer look at the process of making of the work, the possible meaning embedded in the artworks and the impact on the maker of the work. The situated knowledge acquired through the praxis provides new insight supported by the theories of Julia Kristeva and others. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis is ’n praktykgebaseerde ondersoek na die wedersydse totstandkoming van kunstenaar en kunswerk binne die proses van signifikasie soos beskryf deur Julia Kristeva. Die ondersoek word gedoen vanuit ’n onstabiele subjektiewe posisie en vereis innoverende navorsingsmetodologieë en ’n volgehoue nóú verbintenis met die praktyk om voorsiening te maak vir die kompleksiteit inherent aan die proses. Die ontleding behels ’n verkenning van die werksproses, die moontlike betekenis verskuil binne die kunswerke en die impak op die maker van die werk. Die gesitueerde kennis wat uit die praxis voortspruit verskaf nuwe insigte, gesteun deur die teorieë van Julia Kristeva en ander.

政務官面對急速變遷的環境，必須洞察時代的脈動，妥為因應，才能永續發展組織的業務。因此，不論工作計畫的擬定、問題的解決、或危機處理，必須掌握先機，蒐集資訊，並運用決策模型，縝密分析後採取行動，才能達到預期的目標，而正確的決策，對於機關業務的推動，更具關鍵性的影響。 　　本研究主要採取文獻探討、比較分析、深度訪談等研究方法。為能更深入了解我國政務官決策之方法、過程及面臨之困境，本研究參考決策相關理論，諸如，認知性決策過程、理性選擇、結構式溝通、利益團體、影響決策過程因素、政治系統過程等問題設計訪談題綱，並抽樣分別向行政院所屬相關部會，如法務部、經濟部、教育部、大陸委員會、勞工委員會、青年輔導委員會、蒙藏委員會等機關首長深度訪談，從其決策經驗及實案分析，以了解其決策之模型，並避免本研究流於理論之空談。 　　本研究發現：一、政務官在決策前，對於政策都能充分理解。二、政務官的決策方式，都有採用有限理性模型。三、政務官的決策方法，都有採用群體決策。四、政務官對於利益團體的活動，都認為有其必要性。五、政務官認為影響其決策的因素，可歸納為時間的壓力、輿論的反應、預算的通過、高層意見、立法院、法律限制等。六、政務官對於國內的政治生態環境皆能適應。 　　根據文獻探討及深度訪談發現，本研究提出以下建議，作為政務官決策之參考：一、理解政策問題。二、確定政策目標。三、建構備選方案。四、設定篩選準則。五、爭取政策支持。六、監督政策執行。 / Government officials especially for those who are responsible for ministerial portfolio have to make decisions in response to the constantly changing environment. Hence, it requires takes excellent foresight, good data mining skills, superior strategic models and deliberate analysis to draft plans, solve problems, and deal with the crisis. Making the right decision serves as the key factor in the process of successful governance. 　　In this research, the author applies the methods of literature review, comparative analysis, and in-depth interview in order to understand the decision-making process, decision methods, as well as decision dilemma confronting ministerial officials with portfolio. Further more, this research uses relevant decision -making theories, such as cognitive decision process, rational choice, structured communication, and factors affecting decision-making process, such as interest groups & political system process. Based on the parameters of literature review, the author designs the outlines of interviews and selects ministerial officials with portfolio from the ministry of justice, ministry of economic affairs, ministry of education, mainland affairs council, national youth commission, and Mongolian and Tibetan affairs commission and conducts in-depth interviews. 　　There are several important findings derived from our 〝empirical〞case studies. First, before a government official makes his decision, he has a full grasp with the policy issue. Second, the decision models of government officials are mostly based on limited-rational model. Third, government officials often make decisions based on group consensus. Fourth, government officials think it is necessary to take opinions of interest groups into account. Fifth, government officials spend a lot of time in response to public pressure, budget & legal constraints demands of Legislative Yuan and in fathoming the attitudes of higher authorities before they make their decisions. Sixth, most government officials are quite accustomed to the political environment. 　　According to our literature review and in-depth interviews, this study makes the following suggestions before a government official makes his or her policy decision. First, fully comprehend the content and implications of a policy. Second, set an objective for the policy. Third, keep a substitute project on hand. Forth, set criteria or standards for policy implementation. Fifth, to garner for support from government and related actors. Sixth, monitor the execution of a policy.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Children nowadays are exposed to a huge amount of advertisements wherever they go. It appears that children are a very attractive target group because of their ability to influence their parents to buy them preferred products and brands. This Thesis focuses on analysis of children's influence on their parents' purchase decisions. The Thesis consists of 5 chapters. First three parts are theoretical. The introductory chapter deals with the consumer's purchase decision-making process and factors that affect this process. The second part describes family as a special consumer unit which forms individual consumer behaviour. Final theoretical chapter focuses on the child as a specific consumer and customer. In the practical part the reserach is conducted to reveal into what extent children influence their parents about purchase. At the end the recommendations for successful children advertisement are set up.

Customers today use travel agencies that exist on the internet more frequently. However, what makes the customer trust a specific website? The purpose of this study is to examine if a customers’ trust towards a travel agency is affected by the agency’s website and the role trust plays in customers’ decision-making process. To examine this purpose a web survey and interviews were carried out. The web survey totals 110 responses and 15 people were selected through snowball sampling for the interviews. Results demonstrate that customers are affected by the design of the website in a way that it decides whether or not the customer will invest time and use the website. Furthermore, after getting past the first stage customers then decide whether or not a website is trustworthy depending on a set of factors including but not limited to security, information and navigation. The customers’ decision-making process is affected by trust in a later stage when the customer evaluates the possible alternatives. However when it comes to choosing a website, a customer might choose to buy a product from a website he/she has previously used due to already having built a trust towards the website and therefore refrains from using an unknown website. In that sense, trust is present from previous experiences and affects the customer in an earlier stage of the decision-making process. / Användningen av internet i vardagen har ökat under de senaste två decennierna. Som en form av marknadsföring är internet rätt ny och kan därmed medföra utmaningar för marknadsförare. För att kunna locka till sig kunder via internet samt behålla dem måste ett företags hemsida kunna tillfredsställa kunderna på olika sätt. Om en hemsida misslyckas med detta kan resultatet bli att kunderna avstår från att använda sig av en hemsida och använda andra företags hemsidor. Kunder använder idag resebyråer som finns på internet oftare. Men vad får kunden att ge sitt förtroende till en viss hemsida? Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om kunders förtroende mot en resebyrå påverkas av resebyråns hemsida och vilken roll förtroendet spelar för kundernas beslutsprocess. För att undersöka detta syfte genomfördes en websurvey och intervjuer. Websurvey uppgick till 110 svar och 15 personer valdes genom snöbollsurval för intervjuerna. Resultatet visar att kunderna påverkas av designen på ett sätt som avgör om kunden kommer investera tid och använda hemsidan eller inte. Efter att ha tagit sig förbi det första steget bestämmer kunderna huruvida en hemsida är pålitlig eller inte beroende på en uppsättning faktorer, inklusive men inte begränsat till säkerhet, information och navigering. Kundernas beslutsprocess påverkas av förtroende i ett senare skede när kunden utvärderar möjliga alternativ. Men när det gäller att välja en hemsida kan en kund välja att köpa en produkt från en webbplats som hen tidigare använt på grund av att hen redan har byggt upp tillit till hemsidan och därför avstår från att använda en okänd hemsida. På så sätt är förtroendet närvarande från tidigare erfarenheter och påverkar kunden i ett tidigare skede av beslutsprocessen.

Esta tese tem como objetivo analisar os processos decisórios, as condições causais e os principais atores, seus interesses e suas influências que culminaram na criação da Política de Regularização Fundiária da Amazônia (PRFA), conhecida como Programa Terra Legal (Lei Federal nº 11.952/2009), durante o governo do presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2011). O propósito dessa política pública é regularizar ocupações consolidadas em terras públicas da União, situadas na Amazônia Legal, transferindo-as para domínio particular. Ao mesmo tempo que ela tem sido criticada por eventuais legalizações de grilagens e consumação de danos ambientais, tem recebido aplausos por fazer justiça social. A questão central que orienta esta pesquisa é a seguinte: por que o Estado brasileiro, no ano de 2009, adotou a PRFA? As hipóteses para a pergunta formulada consideram que, no interior do heterogêneo governo Lula, a política pública foi resultado da prevalência dos interesses de atores que utilizam a terra como um instrumento de poder e exploração predatória de elementos naturais (setores do agronegócio, políticos ruralistas, latifundiários e grileiros), ou então a política pública resultou da preocupação do Estado em regularizar pequenas e médias ocupações, sendo que eventuais legitimações de grilagens e danos ambientais seriam o resultado de imperfeições da lei. Para tanto, dentro da perspectiva interdisciplinar da Ciência Ambiental e utilizando-se de elementos teóricos do modelo dos Múltiplos Fluxos, de John W. Kingdon (1995), esta tese procura integrar conhecimentos da geografia, da ciência jurídica e, notadamente, da ciência política, de onde se extrai a base teórica e metodológica de análise. Assim, tendo como pano de fundo o neoinstitucionalismo, estudado por Hall e Taylor (2003), Immergut (2006) e outros, complementado pelo incrementalismo de Charles Lindblom (1959/2009; 1979/2009), este trabalho analisa a formação da agenda alusiva ao caos fundiário e ambiental da Amazônia, no começo do governo Lula (2003), a elaboração de alternativas de regularização fundiária e a tomada de decisão que resultou na PRFA (2009), identificando os atores chaves dentro e fora do governo, seus interesses e os espaços institucionais que ocuparam, as sequências históricas e os mecanismos causais que resultaram na política pública. O trabalho colheu evidências que corroboram a hipótese levantada a respeito da participação de membros da bancada ruralista, mas descortinou outros fatores que tiveram um peso muito maior dentro de um intricado xadrez político, como a pressão de vários atores que redundou em um humor amazônico para a regularização fundiária, a heterogeneidade da coalizão partidária do governo Lula, a saída da ministra Marina Silva do Ministério do Meio Ambiente (2008), o trabalho empreendedor o ministro Mangabeira Unger e de atores do Ministério do Desenvolvimento Agrário e do INCRA e disputas por jurisdição. / This thesis aims to analyze the decision-making processes, the causal conditions and the main actors, their interests and their influences that culminated in the creation of the The Amazonian Public Policy for Land Regularization (PRFA), known as Legal Land Program (Federal Law 11.952/2009), during the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2011). The purpose of this public policy is to regularize consolidated occupations on public lands of the Union, located in the Legal Amazon, transferring them to private domain. But, at the same time that it has been criticized for possible legalization of land-grabbing and consummation of environmental damage, it has been receiving applauses for doing social justice. The central question that guides this research is the following: why did the Brazilian State, in 2009, adopt the PRFA? The hypotheses for the asked question consider that within the heterogeneous Lula government, the public policy was the result of the preponderance of actors who use the land as an instrument of power and perpetuation of the predatory exploitation pattern of natural resources (agribusiness sector, rural parliaments, landowners and land-grabber), or by the public policy derived from the State\'s concern to regulate small and medium occupations, and any legitimations of land grabbing and environmental damage would be the result of natural imperfections of the law. To do so, within the interdisciplinary perspective of Environmental Science, this thesis seeks to integrate knowledge of geography, legal science and, especially, political science, from where it has extracted the theoretical and methodological basis of analysis. Thus, in the context of the neoinstitutionalism, studied by Hall and Taylor (2003), Immergut (2006) and others, complemented by the incrementalism of Charles Lindblom (1959/2009, 1979/2009), this thesis analyzes the elaboration of the allusive agenda to the land and environmental chaos in Amazon in the beginning of Lula government (2003), the elaboration of land regularization alternatives and the decision-making process that resulted in the PRFA (2009), using theoretical elements of the Multiple Stream Model of John W. Kingdon (1995). In this sense, the thesis identifies and analyzes the key actors inside and outside the government, as well as the historical sequences and mechanisms, as well as the causal processes that have resulted in public policy. The thesis has gathered evidences that support the raised hypothesis regarding the participation of members of the ruralist parliments, but it revealed other factors that had a much greater weight within an intricate political chessboard, as the pressure of several actors that resulted in an amazonian mood for the land regularization, the heterogeneity of the party coalition of the Lula government, the departure of Minister Marina Silva from the Ministry of Environment (2008), the entrepreneurial work of Minister Mangabeira Unger, of actors from the Ministry of Agrarian Development and INCRA and jurisdiction disputes.

This thesis examines the role of civil society in promoting good governance and development in Zimbabwe. This is done through a case study of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA). Specifically, the thesis looks at the role of constitutionalism as a tool in promoting good governance and development by situating the Zimbabwean struggle for constitutional reform within the context of an unprecedented socio-economic and humanitarian crisis that engulfed Zimbabwe at the beginning of 2000. One of the central questions explored in this thesis is that of the value of the concept of civil society in understanding African post-colonial situations in general and the Zimbabwean situation in particular. The thesis looks at the history of constitutionalism in order to assess if the Zimbabwean crisis could be understood within the context of a constitutional crisis. Therefore, the thesis ventures into the complex dynamics of state-civil society relations while at the same time examining the formation, structure and programmes of the NCA. This is meant to highlight how the NCA’s internal governance system, its leadership style and accountability worked as well as if it reflected good governance or not. An analysis of NCA’s relationship with donors is also presented in order to dispel or validate claims that civil society is just a front for western interests to effect regime change in Zimbabwe. Of critical importance in this study is how civil society (represented by the NCA) interacted with the government and the opposition political parties. The NCA actively participated in opposition politics coming in the open to urge its supporters to vote for the opposition and later ditched the opposition when they had disagreements but their reputation as impartial actors had been destroyed. The thesis concludes by questioning the strategies that are used by civil society in engaging with the government and that in their present structure they should not be antagonistic to the state but should work in tandem with the state for the attainment of good governance and development. Civil society organisations should be politically neutral in their pursuit of developmental goals and ought to practice what they preach by being democratic and accountable themselves. / Development Studies / M. A. (Development Studies)

A presente Tese de Doutorado tem como objetivo analisar o comportamento do Brasil nas negociações comerciais multilaterais no sistema GATT/OMC, mediante o estudo do processo decisório doméstico que estruturou a atuação do país nas negociações agrícolas na Rodada Uruguai (1986-1994) e, na Rodada Doha (2001 2008), com foco no entendimento do processo de formulação das posições apresentadas, no Grupo de Cairns e, no G-20, respectivamente. A partir desses dois estudos de caso e da análise comparada do processo decisório, incorporando parte da literatura de Análise de Política Externa, pretendemos analisar, em dois momentos, no mesmo tema, a receptividade da política externa brasileira às pressões domésticas. O trabalho procura suprir certa lacuna da literatura sobre coalizões no sistema GATT/OMC, pois, a maior parte dos estudos tem dificuldade em incluir aspectos que se localizam, no interior dos sistemas decisórios nacionais, enquanto variáveis relevantes que ajudam a entender o comportamento dos países em coalizões. / The objective of this thesis is to analyze Brazilian behavior in multilateral trade negotiations in the GATT/WTO system, through the study of the domestic decision making process that structured the country positions in the agricultural negotiations during the Uruguay Round (1986 1994) and the Doha Round (2001 2008). Our focus is to understand the domestic decision making process that structured the positions presented by Brazil in the Cairns Group and in the G-20, respectively. From these two case studies, the comparative analysis of the decision making process and incorporating the Foreign Policy Analysis literature, we intend to analyze at two different moments on the same issue, the openness of the Brazilian Foreign Policy to domestic pressure. The work seeks to fill the gap in the literature on coalitions in the GATT/WTO since most studies do not include aspects related to the national decision making process as important variables useful to understand countries behavior in coalitions.

Afin d’expliquer la diversité des pratiques des agriculteurs, cette thèse explore le rôle des caractéristiques du processus de décision dans les choix opérationnels réalisés. Sur la base d’une méthode à deux volets (modélisation et enquêtes), nous avons proposé un modèle conceptuel du processus de prise de décision des agriculteurs, caractérisé les différences possibles au sein de ce processus (appelées modes de décisions), mis en évidence le lien entre ces modes et les pratiques, précisé les modalités de simplification du processus de décision et identifié de nouveaux leviers d’action pour l’accompagnement des agriculteurs. De nature générique, les modèles et les méthodes d’enquêtes proposés ont été appliqués à un cas d’étude qui à permis d’expliquer l’hétérogénéité des pratiques antifongiques des agriculteurs sur le blé tendre en MidiPyrénées par leurs caractéristiques personnelles, par les caractéristiques de leurs exploitations et par leurs modes de décision / In order to explain the diversity of farmers’ practices, this these explores the decision-making process features involved in operational choices. Using a modeling and survey-based approach, we built a conceptual model of the farmer’s decision-making process, distinguished different use of the decision-making process (referred to as decision modes), highlighted the link between thesedecision modes and farmers’ practices, showed some simplification made by farmers in their decision-making process and offered suggestions for improving the decision support means to farmers. Both the models and the survey design are generic. They have been applied in a case study that makes it possible to explain the heterogeneity of fungicide use on soft wheat between farmers in the Midi-Pyrénées region by their personal characteristics, the characteristics of their production situation and their decision modes.

Understanding managerial behavior and its underlying motivations is of key interest in times where the role of business in society is generally viewed critically. While CEO influence on strategy making processes is almost undisputed, little attention has explicitly been paid to how CEO values and the characteristics of the top management team (TMT) interact in shaping corporate strategy making. This is surprising if one follows the assumption that top managers who work closely together will by necessity influence each other's actions. Hence, we would expect the CEO-TMT interface to be vital in understanding how leadership influences strategy making. To address this, we propose a model in which the personal values of the CEO have a direct effect on the characteristics of corporate strategy making processes yet where this association is moderated by TMT diversity. We test the model with data from Austria and Germany obtained through a large-scale survey conducted in spring 2015 and a follow-up survey conducted in fall 2015 and find general support for our model. CEO values geared towards self-transcendence (as opposed to selfinterest) seem to be associated with more formal strategy making processes, while values geared towards openness to change (as opposed to conservation) are found to be associated with more flexible and less externally open ones. TMT diversity moderates all of these relationships. Our results add to upper echelon theory as well as to strategy process research and highlight promising avenues for future research.