The aim of this thesis is to ascertain the extent and nature of belonging to the Australian Catholic Church as experienced by immigrants. This experience of belonging was ascertained through the quantitative study of the National Church Life Survey of 2001 and to a lesser extent the Catholic Church Life Survey of 1996. Both surveys were conducted with attenders at a particular Sunday Eucharist and hence measured the experiences only of Catholics who attend Church. This quantitative study was complemented with a qualitative study of a small group of Vietnamese Catholics who were members of a particular parish. The importance of belonging to a religious tradition is that it provides an aspect of an individual’s identity. Identity is many-faceted and formed and reformed in the context of belonging, whether that belonging is to people such as family or to groups of people such as fellow members of a religious tradition. In the process of migration and settlement, the set of primary groups to which an individual belongs is at best disrupted and at worst, lost. Belonging to a religious tradition may provide a constancy of belonging in the immigrant’s life when all other aspects of belonging are being renegotiated during settlement in the host country. In the case of the Catholic Church in Australia, there has been some debate about whether or not the Church has been welcoming of immigrants but little testing of immigrants’ experience of being welcomed and enabled to belong to the Church. The National Church Life Survey provided a unique opportunity to examine the extent and nature of belonging as experienced by immigrant Catholics. Since all respondents to the survey were asked their birthplace, comparisons could readily be made between the experiences of Australian-born Catholics and those Catholics who were born elsewhere. Since nearly 3,000 respondents completed surveys in Italian or Vietnamese, comparisons could also be made between these respondents and those who responded to the survey in English. Finally, comparisons were made between the small group of Vietnamese parishioners who engaged in the qualitative research, and other groups of Catholics. The comparisons were made between all the groups on the issue of belonging. In the survey there was a particular question that asked respondents about their experience of belonging, but there were other questions that indicated the nature of belonging of respondents, and these were used in the analysis. The results of the analyses show that on almost all measures, immigrants belong to the Church to a greater extent than Australian-born Catholics. Immigrants attend Sunday Eucharist in greater proportion than Australian born Catholics. Immigrant Catholics participated more in devotional activities, they reported a greater degree of satisfaction with their faith life and they hold more orthodox beliefs than Australian-born Catholics. However, they did participate less in parish roles and groups than did the Australian-born Catholics. Whilst it may be concluded that this participation is limited because of the barrier of language, the results of this research indicate that this is not the only barrier to participation. Even those immigrants who responded to the English language survey did not participate in parish roles and groups to the extent that Australian-born Catholics did. Further research may be able to ascertain whether cultural barriers outside the scope of this work determine the level of participation of immigrants. This research concludes that since the Second World War, Catholic immigrants have ‘done the work’ of belonging to the Australian Catholic Church. They have done this despite the ‘benign neglect’ of the Church itself and they represent in fact the Church’s ‘most Catholic’ members.

<p>This paper addresses the expectation that immigrants will assimilate into the culture of their new country, why that expectation may be legitimate and how the modern state may act upon it. The central contention made is that because a national culture provides meaning and structure to the lives of members, and because that culture must be both traditional and institutionalized by the state to fulfill that purpose, if the state’s institutions, processes and procedures through their association with the national culture create an assimilative pressure on immigrants, this is morally permissible. However, the modern state is restricted from actively pursuing assimilation in the private sphere because of its commitment to individual liberty. Implications of this argument for the nature of citizenship and public policy are also discussed.</p>

This thesis treats the normative power of the European Union and its affect on Macedonia. The main purpose has been to look closer with the use of the application of Ian Manners theory of normative power on the Macedonian case. The focus will be to answer the following questions: Does the European Union act as a normative power in relation to Macedonia, if so, how are these values diffused? Has there been any effect of the spreading of these values? Based on six interviews and the available material of European Union strategies for the Macedonian membership I have attempted to understand to what extent the European Union’s normative power has had an influence in Macedonia. The result of my analysis is confirmation of the European Union as a normative power in Macedonia and the understanding of the methods of application.

This paper addresses the expectation that immigrants will assimilate into the culture of their new country, why that expectation may be legitimate and how the modern state may act upon it. The central contention made is that because a national culture provides meaning and structure to the lives of members, and because that culture must be both traditional and institutionalized by the state to fulfill that purpose, if the state’s institutions, processes and procedures through their association with the national culture create an assimilative pressure on immigrants, this is morally permissible. However, the modern state is restricted from actively pursuing assimilation in the private sphere because of its commitment to individual liberty. Implications of this argument for the nature of citizenship and public policy are also discussed.

The proliferation of online communities on the Internet nowadays may lead people to the conclusion that the development of custom-made communities for particular purpose is straightforward. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Although software providing basic community infrastructure is readily available, it is not enough to ensure that the online community will take off and become sustained. Most online communities suffer from the scarcity of the user participation in their initial phase. To address the problem, this thesis proposes a motivational mechanism to encourage user participation. The main idea is to introduce a set of hierarchical memberships into online communities and reward active users with better quality of services. The mechanism has been applied in a small-scale online community called Comtella and evaluated. The results showed that, although the mechanism was able to motivate users to participate more actively and make more contributions, it led to a deteriorating quality of user contributions, catalyzed information overload in the community and resulted in a decrease in user participation towards the end of the study. <p> Therefore, to regulate the quality and the quantity of user contributions and ensure a sustainable level of user participation in the online community, the proposed mechanism was improved so that it was able to adapt the rewards for particular forms of participation for individual users depending on their reputation and the current need of the community, thereby influencing their actions of contributing. The improved mechanism was also implemented and evaluated in the Comtella system. The results of evaluation showed that the mechanism can guarantee stable and active user participation and lower the level of information overload in the online community and therefore it can enhance the sustainability of the community.

This dissertation binds together and draws conclusions from a research project concerning conditions surrounding the growth of a bureaucratic element in large (union) organisations. In order to promote a wider knowledge of these conditions, a study was made of the great constitutional reform which the Swedish Confederation of Trade Unions underwent in 1941. An attempt was made to find the main driving force behind that constitutional reform.The study was drawn up as a case-study. The method is primarily historical-sociological. The data is primarily drawn from official sources and from the organisations. The results of a number of empirical studies are summarized.On a concrete level, it is possible to trace the Confederation's great constitutional reform back to conflicts between the Government and organisations operating within the labour market during the economic crisis at the beginning of the 1930's. The Government asserted its position in relation to the Labour organisations, and, as a last resort, threatened them with legislation. The putting through of the Saltsjöbaden Agreement between the Swedish Employers' Association and the Confederation of Trade Unions in 1938, with its subsequent changes towards authoritative centralisation in the Confederations1 s constitution, took the place of the legislation in question.On a more general level, centralisation and a reduction in membership influence may be seen as the price to be paid for the Confederation's method of adjusting itself to the development needs of a capitalist economic system. Within the Confederation of Trade Unions, a conflict developed between, on the one hand, the demands of members and the task of functioning as an organ of union struggle, and on the other, the demands of economic politics. These two demands were not always in harmony.The result of the case-study may thus be seen to be generally applicable on the causal side, in the restrictions which a capitalist economy's development, and the conditions of stabilisation politics, tended to set upon union activity (regarding conflict tactics and wage-policies). On the effect side, the results of the case-study are not generally appi i-cable. From the Government's side, conceivable measures in the face of conflict may include direct compulsion, informal appeals, or total passivity. From the organisation's side, possible reactions may range from voluntary cooperation to open conflict and struggle against the state. The main Swedish union organisations have, except in rare instances, cooperated voluntarily - under the latent threat of state intervention. The price, from the Confederation's side, has included a reduction of membership influence concerning conflict tactics and wage-policies.At the organisational level, this development has probably worked along with pressure from the Swedish Employers's Association, advantages to be gained from large-scale operation, and the need to find ways to solve inner conflicts, concerning, among other things, the enactment of the solidarity wage-policy under the restrictions mentioned above. Even the "inner dynamic" in large organisations, as identified by Robert Michels, has probably contributed to the total result. / digitalisering@umu

The proliferation of online communities on the Internet nowadays may lead people to the conclusion that the development of custom-made communities for particular purpose is straightforward. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Although software providing basic community infrastructure is readily available, it is not enough to ensure that the online community will take off and become sustained. Most online communities suffer from the scarcity of the user participation in their initial phase. To address the problem, this thesis proposes a motivational mechanism to encourage user participation. The main idea is to introduce a set of hierarchical memberships into online communities and reward active users with better quality of services. The mechanism has been applied in a small-scale online community called Comtella and evaluated. The results showed that, although the mechanism was able to motivate users to participate more actively and make more contributions, it led to a deteriorating quality of user contributions, catalyzed information overload in the community and resulted in a decrease in user participation towards the end of the study. <p> Therefore, to regulate the quality and the quantity of user contributions and ensure a sustainable level of user participation in the online community, the proposed mechanism was improved so that it was able to adapt the rewards for particular forms of participation for individual users depending on their reputation and the current need of the community, thereby influencing their actions of contributing. The improved mechanism was also implemented and evaluated in the Comtella system. The results of evaluation showed that the mechanism can guarantee stable and active user participation and lower the level of information overload in the online community and therefore it can enhance the sustainability of the community.

EU is an organization that has expanded really fast during the last years. When you read about different EU membership processes you notice that some processes have been much faster than others. Spontaneously you think that this depends om that some countries have not been fulfilling the Copenhagen criteria. However, during the last decennium some scientists have written articles about motives that have affected the membership processes. The basic problem in my essay is how we are supposed to understand a membership process? Since I was interested in if I could see the same inconsistent behavior pattern in other membership processes I chose to study Turkey and Croatia. The purpose with my essay is to see how the Copenhagen criteria is or has been used in Turkey's and Croatia's processes and which motives that have been emphasized by scientists. After I have been reading official documents and articles I can conclude that both countries fulfill the political and economic criteria, but it is only Croatia that fulfills the administrative criteria. However, both countries have received critique about their treatments of minorities during the whole processes. According to scientists, security and identity have been strong motives in both countries' processes. When I have analyzed my material from an institutional perspective I can also conclude that EU's enlargement policy has affected the both countries' behavior and development. On the other hand, EU's enlargement policy has been affected by the context both within and outside the organization. Besides the policy has not seem to change the memberstates' preferences, which has resulted in that single memberstates have been acting on their own benefits.

Because bilingual programs provide a secure environment likely to promote school belonging, it was hypothesized that Hispanic students in a bilingual program would experience higher belonging than those in regular education and that they would experience a steeper drop in belonging at the transition to middle school. Participants were 277 Hispanic and White elementary and middle school students who were followed longitudinally from grade 4 to 6. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to compare the mean levels of school belonging across groups and measure the change in school belonging at the transition. Results suggested that Hispanic students both in bilingual and in regular education had higher belonging than White students and that groups did not differ in their change in belonging at the transition to middle school.

Minority government is defined by the relationship between the legislative and executive branches of government in parliamentary democracies; it means single-party cabinet or coalition cabinet, which are not supported by a parliamentary majority in Parliamentary and Semi-Presidential countries. For instance, in Taiwan, Chen Shui-bian won the Presidential Election in 2000, but he just garnered 39.3¢Mof the popular vote, so he was a minority president. After election, the president Chen Shui-bian appointed Chang Chun-hsiung as Premier (Executive Yuan); therefore, ¡§Chen Shui-bian government¡¨ indeed was a minority government. Because the ¡§regime turnover¡¨ happened in Taiwan is the first time, as a ruling party, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) didn¡¦t deal with very well in cabinet portfolios, policy concession or policy implementation. On the other hand, the political disturbance has been existed in the executive-legislative relations since 2000. Under this context, to understand why minority governments form and how they operate become an important issue. As we noted, there is not rich literature on minority governments, so this is why the study focus on initially exploring minority government. This essay includes two research subjects: The first point is to analyze theory of minority government. By following the documents of the scholars¡¦ comparison and research, I try to explain why a minority government form from the part of the institution and strategy; I also introduce the operation and performance of minority government briefly. The second point is to do the studies of cases of minority government and performance in Norway and Fourth Republic France: From the two empirical cases, I expect to find a suitable solution for the constitutional deadlock at present in Taiwan.