On May 3rd and 4th, 2023, Serbia experienced two shooting tragedies, one a school shooting and the other one a spree shooting, ending with a death toll of 19, nine of them being children. In Belgrade and other cities, people took to the streets to protest what they stated as the reason for the shooting, which is a pervasive culture of violence and a media landscape that is dominated and controlled by the government. Following the reporting on the protest that followed, along with personally protesting, a question was made over what the differences between media reporting within Serbia and outside of Serbia were, along with a question of how the President, Aleksander Vučić, falls into place in all this. A corpus of newspaper articles during the event was made and analysed with AntConc. The theories used were critical discourse analysis and nexus analysis, along with Fairclough’s 3D model method of analysis. The results state a significant difference in media reporting, as Serbian media suffers from tabloidization, lack of ethical reporting, and false news. Vučić is suggested to be behind the current state of media. Suggestions for further studies include an in-depth reading of Serbian-language newspapers.

This thesis analyzes the correlation between right-wing populist narratives on migration and voting patterns within the European Union. It is argued that recurrent thematic and rhetorical strategies embedded with right-wing populist features are prominent throughout politicians’ discourses. To allow a complex discussion, this thesis utilizes three poststructuralist concepts, including Michel Foucault’s discourse, power/knowledge approaches, and Jacques Derrida’s conception of deconstruction. To provide a comprehensive yet narrow insight into the topic, the theoretical framework is combined with the qualitative content analysis methodology, allowing a systemic analysis of Italy, Sweden, Hungary, and France between 2017-2024. Moreover, the data selection includes politicians’ narratives and secondary data from the latest national elections within the four member states. This provides a complex overview of how rhetorics frame migration as a national ‘threat’, include anti-elitist statements, and legitimize the willingness to reduce it. Therefore, the findings underline that narratives on migration are embedded with the power/knowledge nexus and the dichotomy of ‘us’ versus the ‘others’, producing a sentiment of fear that can be correlated to voting patterns. The recurrent use of discursive strategies and similar voting behavior demonstrates that the right-wing populist narrative phenomenon is a transnational practice.

There is broad consensus that a transition to renewable energy and a low-carbon economy is crucial for future development and prosperity, yet there are differing perspectives on how such a transition should be achieved. The overarching goal of this dissertation, which is comprised of three interrelated studies, is to analyze and compare energy futures scenarios to achieve a renewable energy transition and low-carbon economy in the State of Vermont. In the first study, an analysis is presented of the role of energy pricing regimes and economic policy in the context of pursuing a renewable energy transition in the State of Vermont. Through the development and application of a system dynamics model, results address the limits to technological substitution due to path dependence on nonrenewable energy. The role of complementary economic policy is also highlighted to shift from a goal of quantitative growth to qualitative development in order to decouple economic welfare from energy consumption. In the second study, an analysis is presented of the impact of modeled energy transition scenarios to address energy development and land use trade-offs. Simulations with a spatio-temporal land cover change model find that Vermont could achieve a complete transition to renewable electricity using in-state resources through developing between 11,000 and 100,000 hectares of land for solar and wind, or up to four percent of state land area, including some environmentally sensitive land. This approach highlights the need for integration of energy policy and land use planning in order to mitigate potential energy-land use conflict. In the final study, trade-offs between energy, economic, environmental, and social dimensions of Vermont's renewable energy transition are explored through the use of a multi-criteria decision analysis. Energy transition alternatives were designed to reveal trade-offs at the intersection of economic growth and carbon price policy. While there were no optimal pathways to achieving Vermont's energy transition, some energy transition alternatives achieve a more socially desirable balance of benefits and consequences. Navigating the trade-offs inherent in the ongoing energy transition will require an adaptive approach to policymaking that incorporates iterative planning, experimentation, and learning.

This thesis aims at understanding the impact of Islamic banking development on economic growth and international trade in countries with a dual banking system. For this purpose we use a sample of twenty countries mainly from the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia during the time period from 1999 through 2014. We employ commonly used panel data estimators such as Pooled OLS and Fixed Effects, as well as the generalized method of moments (GMM) to address a possible endogeneity of the banking development indicators. Our findings show that on the one hand Islamic banking development in countries with a dual banking system hinders economic growth while on the other hand it boosts international trade. The study further discusses why Islamic banking might actually obstruct growth.

The thesis concerns the linguistic landscape (LL) of two neighbourhoods, one in Pretoria, South Africa, and the other in Marseille, France. This is a longitudinal study whose data was collected over two years of site visits. LL are explored in terms of both space and place. In terms of place, they are seen to be constitutive of a sense of place, allowing insights into memory, aspiration, and familial and cultural networks. Spatially, they are seen to realise a politics where design and distribution of LL are markers of power and modality. Analysis takes its point of departure in geosemiotics. Artefacts of LL are interpreted as sites of encounter of four cycles of discourse: the interaction order, habitus, semiotics of place and visual semiotics. The focus is on understanding LL artefacts, their production and reception, as a nexus of practice. Methodologically, walking - as a creative practice, and as an actualisation of the place and space of the neighbourhood - is chosen for photographing LL, for observing interactions and for meeting participants to the research. In examining habitus, the discourses, literacy and narratives of the people who live, work and pass through the site are compared. Deep social and economic similarities are noted between the two sites. Exploration of the semiotics of place brings to light regularities in the features of formal and informal LL, the nature of participation with and subversion of these texts, but also disparities among producers and receivers in terms of literacy, access, the socio-cultural and the socio-economic. Visual semiotic analysis continues these findings and it is noted that global and local discourses of identification, aspiration and self-stylisation circulate transversally in the sites. LL are taken to realise a politics of space when multimodal analysis of composition and modality is extended to the streetscape, as LL ensemble. A key facet of the research is the interpretation of informal LL. Their inclusion challenges existing LL methodologies by flagging the necessity to ground quantitative findings ethnographically.

A avaliação da presença de hidrocarbonetos de petróleo em mangue na região entre a Estrada Rio-Santos e o Canal Bertioga ? São Paulo ? Brasil foi realizada através da análise de amostras de sedimento coletadas em testemunhos em épocas distintas (2001 e 2005). O rompimento de um oleoduto em outubro de 1983 derramou 3.000.000 litros de petróleo (também analisado) nesse local. Esse óleo desceu pelo Rio Iriri até atingir o Canal de Bertioga, espalhando-se por cerca de 60 quilômetros. Uma batalha jurídica teve início em 1985 e se encontra atualmente em fase de execução da sentença. Neste trabalho foram descritas algumas questões jurídicas envolvendo o derramamento ocorrido e as análises químicas para serem utilizadas como nexo causal. Os hidrocarbonetos foram analisados através da extração com solvente orgânico em sistema Soxhlet e por cromatografia a gás com detecção de ionização de chama (GC-FID) para n-alcanos e alcanos isoprenóides e com espectrometria de massas (GC-MS) para biomarcadores de petróleo e compostos policíclicos aromáticos (CPAs). Os resultados dos hidrocarbonetos alifáticos somente permitiram avaliar a contribuição de origem petrogênica pela presença de mistura complexa não resolvida (UCM) em algumas amostras de sedimentos. Não foi possível avaliar a contribuição petrogênica nos sedimentos baseado nas concentrações de n-alcanos, de alifáticos totais e as relações pristano/fitano, pristano/n-C17 e fitano/n-C18. A relação entre os homólogos e isômeros dos biomarcadores de petróleo, entretanto, indicou a presença do petróleo derramado no mangue depois de duas décadas. As maiores concentrações dos biomarcadores de petróleo foram encontradas na região mais próxima do derramamento e nos topos dos testemunhos. As análises de CPAs nos sedimentos foram importantes para a identificação de compostos mutagênicos e carcinogênicos provenientes do petróleo derramado no mangue. / The evaluation of the presence of hydrocarbons of oil in mangrove in the region between the Rio-Santos Road and Bertioga Channel - São Paulo - Brazil was carried out through the analysis of sediment samples collected in cores in distinct times (2001 and 2005). The disruption of a pipeline in October of 1983 spilled 3,000,000 of liters of petroleum (also analyzed) in that area. That oil has gone down the Iriri River as far as the Bertioga Channel and has spread for about 60 kilometers. A judicial process has been started in 1985 and nowadays it is in the final phase when the sentence will be given by the law court. In this work some legal issues involving the occurred spilling and the chemical analyses have been described to be used as causal nexus. The hydrocarbons have been analyzed through an organic solvent extraction using Soxhlet apparatus and gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (GC-FID) for n-alkanes and isoprenoids alkanes, and with mass spectrometer (GC-MS) for petroleum biomarkers and polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs). The analysis of the aliphatic hydrocarbons allowed evaluating only the contribution of petrogenic origin through the presence of unresolved complex mixture (UCM) in some sediment samples. It has not been possible to evaluate the petrogenic contribution in the sediments based on the concentrations of n-alkanes, total aliphatic hydrocarbons and the ratios between pristane/n-C17 and phythane/n-C18. The ratio between petroleum biomarker homologous and isomers has indicated the presence of the oil spilled in the mangrove after two decades. The highest concentrations of the petroleum biomarkers have been found in the region next to the spilling and in the top-core samples. The analyses of CPAs in the sediments have been important to the identification of mutagenic and carcinogenic compounds present in the petroleum spilled in the mangrove.

Submitted by Luanna Matias (lua_matias@yahoo.com.br) on 2015-02-06T13:08:19Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Daniela Cristina de Oliveira - 2014.pdf: 5587311 bytes, checksum: 04cf252ad502eada0800e6be03e85784 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2015-02-19T13:33:42Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Daniela Cristina de Oliveira - 2014.pdf: 5587311 bytes, checksum: 04cf252ad502eada0800e6be03e85784 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-02-19T13:33:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Daniela Cristina de Oliveira - 2014.pdf: 5587311 bytes, checksum: 04cf252ad502eada0800e6be03e85784 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-18 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / With regard to education, the humanization process, based on the Cultural-Historical Theory and Activity Theory principles, is materialized through the process of appropriation of knowledge historically constructed. So there is the need of organization of institutionalized education, the contents choice and of teaching activities planning that enable individuals be in activity. The Math Club arises in this context as a learning space organized for children in the early years. Learning triggering situations (LTS) have been prepared in search for situations that promote the different knowledge sharing, collectively, mediated by a content. Algebraic conceptual nexus were chosen as the study object of the individuals in the LTS. Thus, we conducted a didatic experiment, assumed to research methodology, with 12 children from 5th grade of elementary school, from a public school in Goiânia, in order to show evidence of appropriation of the conceptuals nexus of symbolic algebra. We seek to understand our research object through oral and written manifestations of the students and their actions, during the teaching and learning process from Math Club. Obtaining empirical data was through audiovisual recordings, observation, field journal, record sheet and circle of conversation. The software webQDA was taken as a further methodological resource to assist in the analysis and organization of qualitatives data. We assume the analysis units concept, proposed by Vigotski, to apprehend research object, namely: the collective actions and reflections on learning space; playfulness as a feature in LTS organization; signs of appropriation of conceptual nexus of symbolic algebra. Conclusively, we inferred that the children showed signs of appropriation of algebraic conceptual nexus, in a process that begins from the representation need of simbolic algebric language for the beginning of a generalization process. However, the product of this process consisted in teaching organization composed of regular movements, from particular to the general, that emphasized, in a way, the generalization and abstraction processes guided by empiricism. / Tratando-se de educação, o processo de humanização, com base nos princípios da Teoria Histórico-Cultural e da Teoria da Atividade, concretiza-se por meio do processo de apropriação do conhecimento construído historicamente. Com isso, há a necessidade da organização da educação institucionalizada, da escolha dos conteúdos e do planejamento de atividades de ensino que possibilitem aos sujeitos estar em atividade. O Clube de Matemática surge, nesse contexto, como um espaço de aprendizagem organizado para crianças nos anos iniciais. Situações desencadeadoras de aprendizagem (SDA) foram elaboradas na busca de situações que promovessem a partilha de diferentes saberes, de forma coletiva, mediados por um conteúdo. Os nexos conceituais algébricos foram escolhidos como objeto de estudo dos sujeitos nas SDA. Deste modo, realizamos um experimento didático, assumido como metodologia de pesquisa, com 12 crianças do 5º ano do Ensino Fundamental, de uma escola municipal de Goiânia, com o intuito de evidenciar indícios de apropriação dos nexos conceituais da álgebra simbólica. Buscamos compreender o nosso objeto de pesquisa mediante as manifestações orais e escritas dos estudantes e as suas ações, durante o processo de ensino e aprendizagem do Clube de Matemática. A obtenção dos dados empíricos se deu por meio de gravações audiovisuais, observação, diário de campo, folha de registro e roda de conversa. O software webQDA foi tomado como mais um recurso metodológico para auxiliar na análise e organização dos dados qualitativos. Assumimos o conceito de unidades de análise, proposto por Vigotski, para apreender o objeto de pesquisa, a saber: as ações e reflexões coletivas no espaço de aprendizagem; a ludicidade como característica na organização das SDA; os indícios de apropriação dos nexos conceituais da álgebra simbólica. De forma conclusiva, depreendemos que as crianças apresentaram indícios de apropriação de nexos conceituais algébricos, em um processo que perfez da necessidade de representação de uma linguagem algébrica simbólica para o início de um processo de generalização. Contudo, o produto desse processo constituiu-se em uma organização de ensino composto por movimentos regulares, do particular ao geral, que valorizou, de certa forma, aos processos de generalização e abstração pautados no empirismo.

Climate change is the most obvious and pressing impairment of the biological, physical, and chemical systems. To help mitigate this unprecedented problem, I present heads of state, policymakers, and members of civil society with a set of new provisions that they can include in their trade agreements to drive emissions reduction from countries inside and outside of their trade agreements, maintain their ability to compete in an increasingly globalized world, and comply with international trading rules. Ultimately, I seek to demonstrate the untapped potential for leveraging trade agreements to reduce emissions in the midst of an international system that lacks concerted climate action. In light of humanity’s inadequate efforts to address the immense threats posed by a changing climate, decentralized efforts, such as these, are increasingly essential to reduce emissions.

<p>It is visible in the innovation literature the tendency to evolve the innovation process into a moreopen and flexible model where innovators of all types can interact freely. This fairly recentparadigm known as Open Innovation is a phenomenon with still a considerable amount of opengaps and challenges. Therefore the question of how integration is achieved between differenttypes of outside innovators remains unanswered. Many organizations, some in more extent thanothers, are already applying Open Innovation within networks; however there is still not a clearunderstanding or a formal theory that describes the mechanisms that can help integrate theinnovation activities with other actors. To address this challenge, we conducted an exploratorystudy in 7 different organizations representing two types of innovators (private firms andacademic institutions) and a nexus agency that acts as an integrator between them. The first partof the results consist of an extensive list of 27 integration mechanisms applicable in openinnovation projects later categorized in 5 new main categories for their practical study anddiscussion. More abstractly, as relationships between these integration mechanisms and interorganizationalnetworks have not been analyzed yet, we want to propose a framework that canprovide an initial notion of their role and interaction in Open Innovation Projects. Thisframework is valuable to consider the applicability of the proposed integration mechanismscategories in different OI settings and supports the understanding of how the harmonization ofOI efforts occurs with different types of innovators. Having a framework of this typeconsiderably extends the understanding of integration in the Open Innovation field and providesas well a guide for organizations to identify how to integrate open innovation efforts.</p>

<p>The aim of this thesis is to describe and understand the introduction of entrepreneurship and enterprise projects in primary and secondary schools in the North of Sweden and to identify and analyse the driving forces and actors behind this process. In particular the influence and significance of education policy at supranational, national and subnational level for the introduction of entrepreneurship and enterprise in education are analysed. The main questions of the study have been:</p><p>• How and why have entrepreneurship and enterprise education come to the schools in the northern region of Sweden, in particular within the framework of the PRIO1 project?</p><p>• How were important stakeholders involved at the subnational level and how did they reason and act in relation to the introduction of entrepreneurship and enterprise in the schools?</p><p>• How are the concepts of entrepreneurship and enterprise education presented in policy documents at different policy levels?</p><p>The study wants to report on changes in education policy during recent years. Especially the emergence of international policy convergence and new forms of governance are among the factors that are considered. Drawing on a conceptual framework of structure and agency, the analyses in the empirical studies are informed by a combination of theoretical fields. Important contributions are rendered from the education policy literature. The first method consists of a policy study of documents produced by organisations at different levels (supranational, national and subnational). The purpose of this analysis is to capture the ideas and arguments that have been used but also to understand the context and driving forces for the introduction of entrepreneurship and enterprise in education. Starting from the supranational level, the analysis focuses mainly on two organisations, OECD and EU. These organisations were chosen because they are widely regarded as leading organisations in setting the supranational policy agenda for education. The document study consists of a selection of OECD documents that have been released during the period 1970 - 2006, as well as a selection of EU documents. The EU documents cover the last 15 years. Attention is paid to several documents at the national and subnational level as well. The second method is an interview study. The interview study aims to focus on some of the key stakeholders (agents/actors) that have been participating in the formation (initiation, financing and realisation) of a county wide project “PRIO1”, Priority Enterprise in Västerbotten, in the North of Sweden. In order to understand why and how these actors at the subnational level have become involved in the process, there exists a need to hear their arguments. The document study shows that there is interplay between the different levels, but intertextual aspects have also become visible. The policy drive and policy scope show the concatenation but also the complexity of the policy development. Education is increasingly related to economic policies, in particular through labour market policies. Although the concepts of Entrepreneurship and Enterprise have developed within the economic sector, they are penetrating the education and training systems of many countries. From the results presented in this study, it seems that lifelong learning has become the guiding principle for the amalgamation of education and the world of work, while learning is no longer equated with just schooling. The opening of the school towards the surrounding world is a characteristic development in all this, but it is also a process that certainly is stipulated by agencies and actors at different levels, as is shown in this study. The interviews with some stakeholders at the subnational level show that the promotion of entrepreneurship and enterprise in education is related to arguments for economic and societal development. The interviews also reveal some of the “bottom-up” aspects of the policy process. One of the important results of this study is that the education policy studies have to include the level beyond the national borders. The interplay between the different policy-levels (supranational, national and subnational) needs more attention in order to understand the transformation of the education system.</p>