Religion has often been viewed as a source of conflict and violence in international relations. Yet history provides that religion has also been a source and inspiration for peace building and non-violent resistance. The role of religious leaders in conflict transformation has been treated as a marginal phenomenon. Appleby (2000) points out that identifying and documenting the roles of religious actors in resolving protracted conflicts remains an unfinished task. This thesis is an attempt to meet such challenge by focusing on religious leaders and their role in search of solutions in deeply rooted conflicts. Working from the premise that religious leaders can make a substantial contribution in conflict transformation, the overarching goal of this thesis is to examine what roles religious actors play and how equipped they are to serve their communities in their capacity as peacemakers.

This Master's work is focused on financial consultancy. The work is split into two parts, theory and practice. In the theoretical part the concepts of financial market, entity on the financial market, financial consultancy, mediation activity, insurance, code of ethics and the ten consumer points are defined. The practical part of the thesis is based on research conducted using a questionnaire survey. In the practical part research questions and hypotheses are first formulated. The paper further describes the research methodology and research results evaluated on the basis of respondents' answers. The aim of the research is to confirm or refute the hypotheses. The conclusion summarizes the results of the research.

Reports from the IPCC have been consistent in their findings: climate change is happening and human activity is the cause. The temperature of the earth’s climate has been steadily rising since the industrial revolution, with profoundly negative consequences for the natural environment. Britain is amongst the top 10 global contributors towards climate change, producing more CO2 per capita than China, and yet little is known about the relationship the British public have with the natural environment. Drawing upon DEFRA’s 2009 Survey of Public Attitudes and Behaviours Towards the Environment, a nationally representative sample of the UK, this study aims to (1) explore environmental attitudes in the DEFRA sample; (2) identify the types of environmental concern that exist in the UK and; (3) examine how environmental concern is associated with pro-environmental behaviours. The overall goal is to develop a better understanding this attitude-behaviour relationship. The thesis has 3 main findings. First, environmental concern is formed of three environmental attitudes: (a) a cognitive appraisal of plant and animal welfare (ecocentric attitude); (b) welfare of the human race (human-centric attitude); and (c) a prioritisation of the self, alongside dismissal of environmental problems (denial).Second, members of the British public can be assigned to one of four groups based on their environmental concern: Pro-environment, Neutral, Disengaged and Paradoxical (the latter 2 groups are apathetic towards environmental issues though in different ways).Third, when examining behaviour variation across these environmental concern groups, it was found, unsurprisingly, that membership of the pro- environmental group is strongly predictive of pro-environmental behaviour. What was surprising was that pro-environmental concern predicts a variety of behaviours, both easy and challenging (i.e. easy behaviour such as recycling household waste as well more challenging behaviour such as an increase use of public transportation over driving), whereas previous studies have typically found such behaviours to be unaffected by attitudes. Membership of the Neutral group also predicts pro-environmental behaviours, although this relationship is weaker and exists for fewer measures of behaviour. Disengaged and Paradoxical forms of concern are not significant predictors of behaviour. Upon examining the effect of socio-economic status (SES) on group membership and this attitude-behaviour relationship, it was found that SES does not moderate the attitude-behaviour relationship, but it does influence group membership. Respondents with higher SES were more likely to belong to neutral or pro-environment groups. After reviewing these findings, it is concluded that environmental attitudes do clearly predict behaviour, but a large portion of the UK population do not possess environmental attitudes strong enough to do so (the Disengaged and Paradoxical groups amount to 36% of the population). Future studies should focus on these apathetic groups in an attempt to understand them, determine effective methods of engagement and identify factors that increase the probability of members transitioning out of these groups.

The purpose of this thesis is to critically examine elements of public participation in environmental decision-making and to propose that public participation processes may be made more meaningful through the provision of comprehensive and flexible procedural mechanisms coupled with a true ability to affect the outcome of the process, rather than through simply granting more rights. Over the years, natural resources management has grown as a response to ecological concerns over the state and future of our environment. The law too, has developed to accommodate environmental concerns and define legal rights and procedures. Public participation becomes a vehicle for ensuring that affected interests are taken into account in environmental decision-making. In Chapter 1, the established and traditional means of involving the public in environmental decision-making such as litigation and public hearings are examined; however, they have been characterized as too restrictive, not only in terms of the parties who are included, but also the issues. Furthermore, agency administration of complex resource management issues has fuelled public discontent, as many groups understand it is an inherently political process and doubt its legitimacy. In exploring this phenomenon, this paper is first placed in a theoretical context, drawing upon ecological, legal, and ethical philosophies. However, it is also informed by the perspectives of local environmental groups and residents. The turn to other techniques, or Alternative Dispute Resolution, may seem a logical and appropriate evolution, suggesting ways for all affected parties to be involved. Chapter 2 reviews different forms of Alternative Dispute Resolution which provide some principles about the use of mediation and agreements to supplement the regulatory processes of resource management. It is important to consider the mediation process itself, the desire to remedy what is considered to be the failings of the traditional adversarial system, the psychological dynamics of the process, and the parameters for successful negotiations leading to implementation. Chapter 3 commences with an analysis of the legal context of public participation in British Columbia. It determines the discretionary authority of the administrative agencies, and the formal window of opportunity for public input, under the (federal) Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and the (provincial) British Columbia Environmental Assessment Act. This chapter also discusses an additional and interesting vehicle for public participation, although not yet implemented in British Columbia - the Environmental Bill of Rights. Chapter 4 provides a more concrete setting for the use of public participation processes, through the use of a case study - the British Columbia Transit Sky Train Extension Project. The "NIMBY", or "Not In My Backyard" scenario involved has the potential to facilitate negotiation; however, real inroads will be made through improving existing legal avenues of participation such as consultation. In fact, this key concern has been the sore point with respect to the Sky Train Project for many residents of Vancouver. In conclusion, the utility of public participation processes expressed in environmental legislation is reliant not only upon the ability of the law to be flexible enough to serve the various natural resource interests of all stakeholders, but also to be conducted in a manner that is inclusory and substantive. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate

L’appropriation des biotechnologies par les artistes en vue de créer des œuvres de « bioart » a souvent été considérée comme une démarche transgressive par rapport à la frontière qui délimite l’art et la science. Ma recherche vise à analyser un corpus de productions bioartistiques (Que le cheval vive en moi du duo Art orienté objet, Natural History of the Enigma, d’E. Kac et Ear on Arm de Stelarc) afin de mettre en perspective les « paramètres » par lesquels ont juge qu’il y a, notamment, appropriation et transgression, c’est-à-dire qu’il y a « art ». À partir de l’idée que les œuvres de bioart sont celles qui mettent à contribution les biotechnologies pour leur spécificité, c’est-à-dire la capacité à transformer le vivant, une analyse sémiologique met en évidence l’« incarnation » comme principale stratégie plastique du faire art dans les œuvres du corpus. En expérimentant les œuvres, le spectateur expérimente leurs conditions biologiques d’existence, qui sont similaires aux siennes. Il prend alors acte de cette incarnation, ce qu’une analyse phénoménologique met à jour. En comparant les modes de médiation des œuvres du corpus à ceux des icônes byzantines, une analyse médiologique révèle enfin l’équivalence entre incarnation et médiation et la transparence des œuvres de bioart à la technique dont la cybernétique est facteur de totalisation. Il semble qu’en créant des sujets vivants technicisés, les œuvres de bioart posent un jalon à l’évolution des objets techniques, telle qu’elle a été conceptualisée par Simondon : c’est l’intuition sur laquelle se referme cette thèse. / The purpose of my research is to define the aesthetic aims of works of bioart. Its starting point is the need to make an aesthetic analysis of some productions of this movement in order to understand its strategies, for these are wrongly considered as coming from Duchamp’s readymade, since bioartists tend to use biotechnologies to create works of art. This research suggests “bioart” gathers various works which involve biotechnologies inasmuch as they manage to transform the living. In this thesis, three bioartworks are studied: Que le cheval vive en moi, by French artists Art Objet orienté, Natural History of the Enigma, by American artist E. Kac and Ear on Arm by the Australian Stelarc. In order to define the aesthetic aims of these three works of art, an analysis grid inspired by semiology highlights aesthetical mechanisms. This analysis shows that “embodiment” is the main plastic way to art. This embodiment provokes a “sense of presence” in the works of the corpus, which can be identified as their “aura”. The aura allows the viewer to become aware of the biological realm of existence he shares with the artworks themselves. Therefore the aura is the manifestation of the contact between the viewer and the biotechnological meaning of the work. This implies that the works of the corpus embody their messages. The corpus has been compared to the Byzantine icons, which also “embody” their messages, in order to understand to what extent the biotechnological production of the living in art represents such a shift in art theory. By using biotechnologies, the works of the corpus testify about cybernetics, which is one of the main organizing principles of globalization and of the increasing presence of technology in human ways of life. It even appears that with the creation of technical living subjects, they pave the way for the evolution of technical objects, as it was conceptualized by Simondon – this is how the thesis comes to its conclusion.

« Etre esclave de », perdre son autonomie, voir sa liberté personnelle entravée ; autant de manières de vivre l’asservissement que représente toute addiction. Un comportement répétitif lié à une dépendance entraînant une consommation excessive, c’est ainsi qu’on définit l’addiction, ce qui la rattache à une forme d’esclavage et, par extension, élargit le champ des recherches au domaine des troubles alimentaires. En effet, ceux-ci impliquent le plus souvent un comportement de dépendance vis-à-vis de la nourriture, au point d’en faire une véritable aliénation. Alors même que les patients concernés se présentent plus objets que sujets, un affect émerge dans le transfert : la honte. La honte est une émotion enfouie, secrète, le plus souvent silencieuse. Elle ne s’avoue pas facilement, effectivement « la honte de la honte empêche de dire la honte » qui revient à mettre en évidence l’impossibilité d’exprimer l’indicible. Partant du constat selon lequel les sujets souffrant de troubles alimentaires ressentent majoritairement de la honte, nombre d’auteurs (M. Corcos, G. Apfeldorfer) ont estimé que ce sentiment, en cas d’obésité notamment, était lié à l’image véhiculée, reléguant l’affect de honte au rang de symptôme annexe, quand il sera question ici de le considérer comme à l’origine de celui-ci. Non seulement la honte ne serait pas un symptôme secondaire, mais encore elle constituerait bel et bien un symptôme primaire dont le trouble alimentaire ne serait qu’un avatar. La honte sera ici considérée sous l’angle du trauma, notamment d’un trauma infantile dont nous tentons d’en démontrer les origines. Partant de là nous abordons les demandes formulées par cette clinique spécifique et les ouvertures thérapeutiques dont la médiation artistique. / To be a slave, to lose one’s autonomy, to have one’s freedom curtailed: there are many ways to experience the enslavement that is addiction. Addiction is defined as a repetitive behavior due to dependence and that causes excessive consumption. This definition reveals a form of slavery and, by extension, broadens the scope of research on addictions to the field of eating disorders. Eating disorders involve indeed often addictive behaviors with respect to food, to the point of making the disorder a real alienation. Even though the affected patients behave more like objects than subjects, an affect emerges in the transfer: shame. Shame is a hidden, secret, and most often silent emotion. Patients do not confess it easily. In fact, patients "are ashamed of their shame” and this prevents them of “saying their shame". This brings to light an impossibility of expressing the inexpressible. While noting that a majority of subjects with eating disorders feel shame, many authors (M. Corcos, G. Apfeldorfer) considered that this sentiment, especially in the cases of obesity, was linked to body image, and relegated shame to the rank of a secondary symptom. We propose here in contrast to consider shame as a cause of eating disorder. Not only would shame not be a secondary symptom, but it would indeed be a primary symptom and eating disorder its avatar. Shame will be considered here from the point of view of traumas, including childhood traumas and we will strive to demonstrate its origins. We will use this conceptual basis to discuss the specific requests that arise in the clinical practice of treating patients with eating disorders and how artistic mediation can offer a therapeutic opening.

Si la négativité psychique est commune à chacun, elle peut envahir la dynamique et l’économie psychiques dans des tableaux psychopathologiques eux-mêmes marqués par cet envahissement. Un tel processus psychopathologique viendrait empêcher le rôle « seuil » du corps via la sensorialité, et viendrait grever lourdement les destins pulsionnels ; symbolisations et affects. Selon nos hypothèses, cadre et technique cliniques seraient alors à adapter par une thérapeutique avec et par le corps propre du sujet. Un protocole de 18 sujets cherche à évaluer les efforts de répression, l’alexithymie, la sensorialité aux points d’appui du corps et les représentations corporelles dans des hypothèses qui révèleraient des « abus de négativité psychique ». Quatre études de cas de suivis thérapeutiques permettent une discussion plus en détail en considérant le cas par cas. Nous concluons par des propositions de réaménagements théoriques et cliniques qui permettraient la prise en compte d’un tel abus de négativité dans le cadre de psychothérapies. Pour certains sujets, nous pensons que c’est précisément sur ce seuil qu’un effet thérapeutique est le plus mobilisable. / Psychic negativity exists for everyone, but it can invade both the dynamic and the economic aspects of the psyche, resulting in psychopathologies that are influenced by this invasion. Such a psychopathologic process could hinder the ‘interface’ role of the body through sensibility, and could largely prevent instinctual drives; symbolism and affect. Our hypothesis suggests that the clinical setting and technique should be adapted, with a body-mediated therapy. A study of 18 persons aims at evaluating repression efforts, alexithymia, sensibility at the level of the supporting points of the body and body representations, in supposed cases of ‘excessive psychic negativity. Four case studies focusing on follow-up therapy provide valuable insight on a case-by-case basis. As a conclusion, we make suggestions about theoretical and clinical reorganizations so that ‘excessive psychic negativity’ is taken into account in psychotherapies. For some persons, we think this ‘interface’ role is precisely what could produce a therapeutic effect.

This study examined information technology professionals' perception of employee organizational commitment (OC) and its relationships to turnover across various industries in Thailand. Perceived job alternatives and thoughts of quitting were included to examine their influence on turnover intention both directly as independent variables and indirectly as mediators. Hypotheses tested were 1) the direct relationship between organizational commitment and turnover intention among IT personnel from various Thai companies, 2) the relationship between thoughts of quitting and turnover intention, 3) the relationship between perceived job alternatives and turnover intention, 4) the indirect relationship between organizational commitment and turnover intention through mediator - thoughts of quitting and 5) the indirect relationship between organizational commitment and turnover intention, as mediated by perceived job alternatives. The survey questionnaire used instruments that were already translated into Thai from previous research (Wongrattanapassorn, 2000). The original items in English were included with each item in the Thai language to provide respondents with additional information on the meaning of constructs. In addition to demographic items, the survey questionnaire contained four measures, one for each of the four variables: organization commitment (Allen & Meyer, 1990), thoughts of quitting (Peters, Jakofsky & Salter, 1981), perceived job alternatives (Peters, et al., 1981), and turnover intention (Hom, Griffeth & Sellaro, 1984). An accompanying letter with the hyperlink to the questionnaire page was sent via e-mail to 300 IT professionals who were randomly selected from the subscribers of Computerworld Thailand magazine and also those who attended IT seminars organized by Computerworld Thailand. Two hundred and eight responses returned, providing an acceptable response rate of 69.3 percent. Correlation and regression were used to test hypotheses. Results revealed that there was no direct relationship between overall organizational commitment and turnover intention. However, there was a negative direct relationship between continuance commitment and turnover intention. There was also no correlation between thoughts of quitting and turnover intention. There was a positive relationship between perceived job alternatives and turnover intention. For the mediating effect between organizational commitment and turnover intention, the results revealed that thoughts of quitting did not mediate the relationship as well as perceived job alternatives.

This study is an analysis of how military issues can contribute to a sustainable ending of civil wars particularly in Africa. The continuous warfare in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) between 1996 and 2004 is used to understand the nature of civil wars and how they relate to classical strategic theory of war in general and their termination in particular. According to classical strategic military theory, war must always be guided by clear political objectives. Without this, war becomes an irrational act and spins out of control. Tactical victory gained in the battlefield over an opponent must be translated into strategic victory for war to end sustainably. This can only be done if the political objective of the war has been attained. But also crucial are the terms and conditions of peace that the victor offers the defeated opponent. Not all wars end with a tactical victory in the battlefield. In many instances of modern wars, and in particular with the current civil wars in Africa, there is a stalemate. This forces the belligerent parties to negotiate. Within the context of the DRC, the first war (1996-1997) ended in a tactical victory for the Rwandan alliance (composed of Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi) over the regime of President Mobutu. However, this victory was not translated into strategic victory (long term peace). The alliance, despite having installed a new leader (Laurent Kabila) in the DRC, remained an occupying force, with the Rwandan military commander taking over the role of the DRC’s military chief of staff. This was in part because the political objectives of the Rwandan alliance had changed from revenge on Mobutu for sheltering and supporting the perpetrators of the genocide in Rwanda, to economic exploitation of the abundant natural resources of the DRC. The outcome was that the proxy (Kabila) turned against his backers as he sought to gain legitimacy and support from his fellow Congolese citizens. President Kabila ordered the Rwandan alliance out of the country. The alliance then started a second war (1998-2002) aimed at deposing the former proxy and establishing new proxies. The situation had however changed as the old proxy (Kabila) had acquired new partners (Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe). This, apart from transforming the DRC war into Africa’s first continental war (in terms of the number of countries that were eventually involved), turned into a stalemate. This resulted in negotiations that took a long time to complete. The first round of negotiations produced the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement (LCA) in 1999 with two independent tracks that led to two levels of agreements: inter-state agreements and intra-state agreements. None of these were implementable until 2002 when the DRC negotiated with Rwanda and with Uganda separately on military issues of the conflict. These negotiations produced the Pretoria Accords between the DRC and Rwanda, and the Luanda Accords between the DRC and Uganda. The withdrawal of the militaries of Rwanda and Uganda from the DRC paved way for their proxies, The Rally for Congolese Democracy - Goma (Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie - RCD-Goma) and the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (Mouvement de Libération du Congo – MLC) to join the Inter-Congolese National Dialogue (ICND) which ended in 2004 without a conclusive agreement on military issues. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / tm2015 / Political Sciences / PhD / Unrestricted

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2015-12-11T17:11:05Z No. of bitstreams: 1 eneidagomestolentino.pdf: 1911513 bytes, checksum: 38094770cb61b8d0b7a5f3354a8b2fbc (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2015-12-14T15:47:59Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 eneidagomestolentino.pdf: 1911513 bytes, checksum: 38094770cb61b8d0b7a5f3354a8b2fbc (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-14T15:47:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 eneidagomestolentino.pdf: 1911513 bytes, checksum: 38094770cb61b8d0b7a5f3354a8b2fbc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-25 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / A pesquisa “O educador e o brincar: reflexões sob a perspectiva sócio-histórico-cultural” se insere na linha de Linguagem, Conhecimento e Formação de Professores do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação da Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora/UFJF – Minas Gerais, propondo-se a investigar sobre processos de mediação constituídos pelos educadores nos momentos de brincadeira. O que motivou tal pesquisa foi o desejo de compreender as possibilidades de mediação dos educadores no contexto da brincadeira, tendo por objetivos: compreender se os brinquedos e artefatos são considerados por estes como possibilidades de mediação nos momentos de brincadeiras e fomentar a reflexão sobre o significado do ato de mediar. Fundamentada na perspectiva sócio-histórico-cultural, tem como aporte teórico as contribuições de Leontiev, Lúria e Vigotski. O desenvolvimento metodológico foi pautado na Pesquisa Crítica de Colaboração (MAGALHÃES, 2010), em que, num movimento colaborativo, por meio de atividades coletivas de reflexão, pesquisador e colaboradores puderam compartilhar e (re) construir significados que possibilitaram outras compreensões sobre os fazeres pedagógicos. Tais reflexões foram fomentadas em dois momentos, a saber, uma entrevista dialógica, na qual compartilhamos saberes que fundamentam nossos fazeres; e uma sessão reflexiva, com a proposta de análise coletiva e colaborativa de situações cotidianas de brincadeiras. As transcrições resultantes desses momentos de reflexão foram analisadas de forma argumentativa com base nas categorias da Nova Retórica de Perelman e permitiram compreender que por meio das atividades reflexivas, em colaboração, foi possível compartilhar ideias que reverberou em um movimento de mudança. / The research "The teacher and playing: reflections on the socio-cultural-historical perspective" is included in Language, Knowledge and Training Teachers line of the Education Graduate Program of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora / UFJF - Minas Gerais, proposing to investigate about mediation procedures established by educators in playful moments. What motivated this research was the desire to understand the educators’ mediation possibilities in the context of playing, establishing as its goals: understanding whether the toys and playful artifacts are considered by these educators as a possibility for mediation in moments of play and encouraging reflection on the meaning to the mediate act. Based on socio-cultural-historical perspective, it has as the theoretical basis Leontiev, Luria and Vygotsky´s contributions. The methodological development was guided by the Critical Collaboration Research (MAGALHÃES, 2010), in which, in a collaborative movement through reflection collective activities, researcher and collaborators were able to share and (re) construct meanings that allowed other understandings on the pedagogical tasks. Such reflections were promoted in two moments, namely, a dialogical interview, in which we share knowledge underlying our tasks; and a reflective session, with the proposal of collective and collaborative analysis playing daily situations. The resulting transcripts of these reflection moments were analyzed in an argumentative form based on Perelman´s New Rhetoric categories and allowed realize that through reflective activities in collaboration, it was possible to share ideas that reverberated in a changing movement.