The changing working environment and ageing workforce suggest that many workers will inevitably reach a career plateau, a stage where people regard future promotions as unlikely, or no longer feel challenged at work. Experiencing career plateau is found to be associated with negative job attitudes and performance in the workplace. However, existing studies have been mainly cross-sectional in design and few of them investigate the mechanisms and the conditions that influence the negative relationship. This study follows a quantitative longitudinal research design to further enhance the understanding of the relationships between career plateau and job outcomes. The job outcomes in this research include work attitudes such as job satisfaction, organisational commitment, turnover intentions and three aspects of job performance. Specifically, the three research aims of this thesis are: (1) to understand the causal directions between career plateau and job outcomes, (2) to examine whether employees’ unmet expectations may explain these relations and (3) to investigate whether employees’ age may modify the mediation effects of career plateau on job outcomes via unmet expectations. Three waves of data were collected from working individuals in various industries over an eight-month period. The majority of the participants were working in the UK or in Taiwan. Results showed that unmet expectations partially explain the negative relationship between career plateau and job attitudes over time but not for job performance. Furthermore, age did not affect the strength of the mediation effect of career plateau on the job outcomes through unmet expectations. The significance of this research is three-fold. First, it provides a new explanation for the unfavourable work attitudes of plateaued individuals. The findings that career plateaued employees have lower job satisfaction, lower organisational commitment and higher turnover intentions can partly be explained by unfulfilled expectations in receiving promotions or challenging tasks. Second, the study signals the danger of career plateau at any age, as younger and older workers were found to be equally influenced by career plateau. Finally, this is the first study in the area that seeks to resolve the debate over the directional relationship between career plateau and job outcomes. The implications in theory and in practice, limitations and suggestions for future research directions are discussed.

LL.M. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

[pt] O presente trabalho tem como objetivo a análise das novas configurações assumidas pelo primeiro damismo dos municípios do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. O estudo se fundamenta nas diferentes perspectivas de identidades sociais com as quais as mulheres se apresentaram no espaço público ao longo de um processo histórico. Assim, analisa figuras femininas representativas de diferentes imagens sociais, com relação ao papel das mulheres na sociedade, tanto no período da realeza portuguesa quanto no pós anos 30 brasileiro. Fazem parte desta análise conceitos de mediação social e cultura política assim como a sua relação com a implementação da Assistência Social enquanto política pública descentralizada em nível dos municípios. Estes se deparam com a necessidade de mudanças na sua forma de atuação, incluindo o primeiro damismo. Diante desta nova realidade apresentada, as primeiras-damas estão sendo compelidas a assumir tanto papéis de caráter mais técnico, definidos na gestão da política pública, quantos aqueles decorrentes do imaginário social acerca da mulher contemporânea. Em consequência, vimos que as mulheres - primeiras-damas dos municípios analisados - assumem novas roupagens em suas atuações sociais. / [en] The present study claims to analyze the new settings taken by the first layness in the metropolitan regions of RJ. The study on based in the different perspectives of social identities and images related to the role of women in society since the Portuguese royalty period until the Brazilian post-30. Mediating concepts and political culture and their relation of the implementation of the social work while decentralized public politics at municipal level many be part of the analysis. These places - the municipalities - have the need to change their form of action including the first ladyness. According to the new presented scenario, the first ladies are being compelled to take roles of more technical character, defined by the public politics ways, and also those taken from the social imaginary of the contemporary woman. As a result, we may notice that the firstladies from the analised places take new clothes in their social acts.

[pt] No momento em que o museu repensa suas funções e sua relação com o visitante, trazendo novos questionamentos e desafios, propomos investigar o papel e a contribuição do design na mediação entre o museu e o público. Um público cada vez mais diversificado, que requer da instituição uma abordagem multi-interdisciplinar. Partindo dessas colocações, algumas questões sobre como criar e proporcionar uma experiência significativa e memorável para o público foram formuladas e, sob o viés do design, abordamos formas de pensar, planejar e executar ações inovadoras capazes de acolher o visitante no museu. Para tal, uma discussão é conduzida acerca do conceito de experiência, traçando um percurso do termo pelas áreas da filosofia, centrada em Walter Benjamin, e da educação, através das vozes de John Dewey e Jorge Larrosa, até chegar aos estudos recentes na área do design. A partir desta base conceitual chegamos a um entendimento de como se constitui uma experiência de visita memorável ao museu e que aspectos podem ser importantes para seu delineamento. A fim de problematizar a complexidade da experiência de visita no museu, recorremos a três pilares: as vozes dos visitantes; as iniciativas e o redirecionamento das práticas de comunicação em museus; e o pensamento dos profissionais que atuam na área. Desta forma, aprofundamos a discussão sobre a construção da experiência e traçamos um panorama do momento atual da instituição, compreendendo expectativas, práticas, desafios e reflexões sobre o museu e sua interação com o público. A triangulação dos dados nos permitiu compreender a experiência, em todas as suas nuances, destacando elementos que possibilitam a sua construção e podem ser trabalhados através do design. Por o design ser uma área entre-fronteiras e lidar com problemas complexos de forma diferenciada, ele não apenas se aproxima das demandas do museu atual, como contribui nesse cenário como um mediador de percepções e sentidos entre público e os museus. / [en] At a moment in which the museum rethinks its functions and its relationship with the visitor by bringing new questions and challenges, we propose to address the role and the contribution of Design in the mediation between the museum and the public. A public which is ever more diversified and which demands from the institution a multi inter-disciplinary approach. From these premises, some questions about how to create and provide a meaningful and memorable experience for the public were developed and, from the Design s perspective, ways of thinking, planning and novel actions capable of welcoming the visitor into the museum were addressed by us.In this regard, a discussion about the concept of experience is carried out, tracing the trajectory of this term on areas such as philosophy, centered in Walter Benjamin, and education, through the voices of John Dewey and Jorge Larrosa, to the recent studies in the area of Design. From this conceptual basis we get to an understanding of what constitutes a memorable museum experience and which factors can be of importance for its delineation.In order to problematize the complexity of the museum experience we make use of three pilar concepts: the voices of visitors; the initiatives and the redirecting of communication practices in museums; and the thoughts of practising professionals in this area. In this way, we deepen the discussion about the construction of experience and trace a panorama of the present moment of the institution, encompassing expectations, practices, challenges and reflections about the museum and its relationship with the public.The tracing of the data allowed us understand the experience in all its subtleties, highlighting important elements to make possible its construction and those that can be worked through Design. As an inter-frontiers area able to deal with complex problems in a distinct way, the Design not only gets closer to the present museum but can also, in this scenario, add as a mediator of perceptions and senses between public and museums.

Dans ce travail de thèse, nous nous intéressons au phénomène d'émergence du patrimoine européen. Dans une démarche interdisciplinaire, il s'agit d'aborder les processus d'appropriation, de médiation et de transmission du patrimoine comme européen dans le cadre particulier des Itinéraires Culturels du Conseil de l'Europe et selon une posture interculturelle. Grâce à un ensemble d'analyses communicationnelles et organisationnelles du Programme des Itinéraires Culturels du Conseil de l'Europe, mais aussi de trois cas d'Itinéraires Culturels (Via Regia, Via Francigena et Saint Martin de Tours), il s'agit d'appréhender le processus de patrimonialisation à l'échelle européenne en questionnant notamment les enjeux de sens, de visibilité et de lisibilité, de représentation et de légitimation qu'une construction européenne du patrimoine commun aux membres de réseaux transnationaux peut comprendre. Enfin, il s'agit de comprendre aussi comment, dans le cadre d'une labellisation de projets européens, la publicisation du patrimoine peut être le lieu de résistances vis-à-vis des institutions, qui peuvent alors influencer les discours sur les éléments patrimonialisés. / In this dissertation, we are focusing on the phenomenon of the emergence of European cultural heritage. In an interdisciplinary and intercultural approach, it is about getting into the processes of appropriation, mediation and transmission of cultural heritage considered as European in the specific framework of the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe. Based on a set of communicational and organisational analyses of the Program of the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe, but also of three cases of Cultural Routes (Via Regia, Via Francigena and Saint Martin of Tours), this works aims at comprehending the process of making heritage at a European level by questioning, among others, the meanings, the visibility and legibility plans, and the representation and legitimation strategies that are at stakes when members of transnational networks build a European sense of common heritage. Finally, it is also about understanding how, in the framework of the procedure of giving a label to European projects, publicizing heritage can be a place of resistance against institutions that can then influence the discourses about the heritage items.

Magister Legum - LLM / This research examines the effectiveness of these dispute resolution mechanisms in environmental disputes and what improvements should be made in order to make those mechanisms suitable for these types of disputes. / South Africa

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This paper argues that post conflict communities need capacity to effectively deal with violent conflicts. This study therefore examines avenues through which sport can be used as a catalyst for mediation programmes in Zimbabwe and South Africa, to address sustainable community healing. This will capacitate communities with the skills to mediate and resolve their own conflicts, thereby contributing to knowledge and changing the paradigm of post-conflict community healing. Grounded in the structural functionalist theory and John Paul Lederach’s Multilevel Leadership pyramid, this study was carried out in Mfuleni, Western Cape and Highfields, Harare, where mediation training for sport participants, community coaches, sports men and women were carried out. It was assessed at all the stages using the qualitative research methodology. This study discovered many benefits derived from the sport and mediation training. However, successful implementation of sport and mediation training in post-conflict communities can face challenges around language, different ways of interpreting terms and related issues by stakeholders; the extreme dominance of religion; superstition and use of magic in sport; lack of acceptance in communities on issues around age and gender, owing to patriarchy. It also noted that the school system is replete with loopholes that threaten the security of learners. Also, the school system is caught in the net of propagating patriarchal values, albeit in subtle ways. As such, the need to take all these into consideration cannot be overemphasised

Magister Educationis - MEd / Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), through the use of iPads in English Home Language in the Intermediate Phase, with a special focus on Grade six, at one primary school in the Western Cape. Through the lens of the Sociocultural and Constructivist theories, the study investigated how iPads were used for language and literacy development in the Grade six classroom where English was the main medium of instruction. The study was purely a qualitative single case study involving one teacher and one class of 28 learners at a well-resourced former-white school in Cape Town. Data was collected through classroom observations and interviews. The interviews were conducted with six selected learners, one Grade six teacher, the Head of Department (HOD) and the Principal. The analysis of the transcribed interviews, video recordings and documents was done through the Atlast.Ti 7 software package. The findings of the study show that Grade six learners had good access to ICTs, and had no difficulties in using iPads for language and literacy learning. Their competence was associated with their high socio-economic backgrounds as most of them were from middle class families. The findings also indicated that teacher disposition had a positive impact on ICT implementation in the English lessons. Another interesting finding was that while the school had successfully adopted ICT as a teaching and learning resource, the Grade six teacher’s pedagogical strategies did not enhance learners’ comprehension of certain language (English) aspects such as grammar because there was no special training for integrating ICTs in language teaching. Overall, the results showed that the iPad is an extremely potential tool for literacy development and it encourages not only learners’ active engagement and collaboration as directed by the teacher, but also learner initiated engagement and collaboration. The study concludes that while many well-resourced schools seem to do well with regard to access to ICT and its integration in teaching and learning, technology cannot completely replace the role of the teacher in the classroom. There is a need for teacher development to enhance their own understanding of ICTs and how to use it for effective language and literacy teaching and learning.

The development of private divorce mediation appears to offer a friendly and informal alternative to the "hostile" adversarial divorce. A close analysis of its claims, however, shows them to be largely unproven. Urgent attention should therefore be given to the philosophical base of the movement. There is also a need for empirical research and for standardised training. Further unanswered questions relate to the part to be played by different professions, and to professional ethics. It is submitted that the appointment of Family Advocates is a step in the right direction but that the establishment of a full Family Court will best protect children's interests.

L'évolution et la large diffusion des technologies mobiles a entrainé l'émergence de nouveaux types de divertissements donc les jeux pervasifs, qui exploitent les technologies de l'informatique pervasive pour étendre et brouiller les frontières spatiales, temporelles et sociales traditionnellement dévolues au jeu. Dans le domaine culturel institutionnel, les jeux pervasifs ont un fort potentiel en tant que dispositifs de médiation par leur capacité à susciter l'intérêt auprès des jeunes publics et à leurs caractéristiques intrinsèques telles que le flow et l'immersion. O, la conception de jeux pervasifs pour la médiation culturelle (ou Jeux Pervasifs Culturels) pose des difficultés relatives à leur nature de dispositif pervasif et de support de médiation culturelle et d'un manque d'outils conceptuels présentant un vocabulaire unifié, précis et structuré de description des jeux sans lequel il est difficile de comprendre précisément et de décrire ce qu'est le jeu pervasif ou d'appréhender les possibilités offertes par ce genre. Ces constats nous ont amené à exploiter les outils et technologies du Web sémantique (e.g. RDF - Resource Description Framework pour la description de ressources, OWL - Web Ontology Language pour la définition d'ontologies qui constituent un vocabulaire précis, structuré et partagé d'un domaine précis) afin de créer des outils d'aide à la conception. En particulier, nous avons construit l'ontologie ARAI (ARAI Ressource d'Aide à l'Idéation) que nous avons étendue en base de connaissances en y intégrant des instances issues d'un corpus des JPC préalablement construit et analysé. / The evolution and wide diffusion of mobile technologies lead to the emergence of new types of entertainment such as pervasive games (PGs), games which use pervasive computing technologies to extend and blur the social, temporal and/or spatial boundaries of a game. In the institutional cultural domain, pervasive games retain a strong potential as a mediation mean due to their ability to raise interest of young audiences as well as their intrinsic characteristics such as flow or immersion. The design of PGs as cultural mediation means (CPGs) brings difficulties related to the nature of CPGs as pervasive apparatus and cultural mediation mean. Moreover, the lack of conceptual tools based on a unified, precise and structured vocabulary for the description of games makes it difficult to understand precisely and to describe what is a pervasive game and to apprehend the possibilities offered by PGs. These observations lead us to exploit the tools and technologies of the semantic web (e.g. RDF - Resource Description Framework – to describe resources, and OWL - Web Ontology Language – to build ontologies, i.e. a precise, structured and shared vocabulary of a given domain) to create tools aimed at assisting the design of CPGs. To this end, we built the ARAI (ARAI Ressource d’Aide à l’Idéation) ontology, we then extended to a knowledge base by integrating instances from a previously built and analyzed corpus of CPGs.