Studien syftade till att undersöka förekomsten samt utformningen av samarbeten mellan kriminella nätverk, samt vad dessa aspekter har för betydelse för brottsligheten. Vidare ämnade studien att kvalitativt undersöka de kriminella nätverkens penningtransaktioner till utlandet, samt hur dessa kunde kopplas till tidigare forskning, med avsikt att få en djupare förståelse kring internationell ekonomisk brottslighet. Centralt för detta arbete var det material som undersöktes i form av domslut, med tillhörande förundersökningsprotokoll, gällande valutaväxlingskontoret World Exchange. Den valda metoden social nätverksanalys (SNA) användes för att kartlägga nätverkspositioner och deras relationer. En kvalitativ analys applicerades beträffande de internationella transaktionerna som fördjupades med hjälp av den tillgängliga Encrochatbevisningen. Resultaten visade på att det förekommer en viss grad av gruppöverskridande brottsliga samarbeten - nexus - mellan de studerade nätverken. De mer tongivande nätverken, inom kontexten för transaktionerna inom World Exchange, påvisades även inneha en central position gällande de ekonomiska transaktioner som överfördes till utlandet. / The study aimed to investigate the existence and design of nexus between criminal networks and what significance these aspects have for criminality. Furthermore, the study aimed to qualitatively examine the criminal networks money transactions abroad, and how these could be linked to previous research, with the intention of gaining a deeper understanding of international economic crime. Central to this work was the material examined in the form of verdicts, with accompanying preliminary investigation protocols, concerning the currency exchange office World Exchange. The chosen method Social Network Analysis (SNA) was used to map network positions and their relationships. A qualitative analysis was applied to the international transactions that were deepened using the available Encrochats. The results showed that there is a certain degree of cross-group criminal cooperation - nexus - between the studied networks. Additionally, the results exhibited that the more dominant networks, within the context of the transactions within World Exchange, also held a central position regarding the financial transactions transferred abroad.

This paper offers a re-assessment of the finance-growth nexus in a framework that allows to distinguish between short-run versus long-run effects. Our dataset contains information on 45 developed and developing countries over the period 1995-2011. We make use of the integration and cointegration properties of the data, establish a cointegrating relation and derive the long-run elasticities of per capita GDP with respect to employment, the physical capital stock, and financial development. We employ these results to specify an error correction model and assess whether the years of crisis have changed the relationship between finance and growth. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

The thesis investigates the nature of the relationship between the banking sector depth and long-term economic growth in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States, assesses the banking sector development status in each of the States, and underlines the policy implications in the light of the banking-growth nexus and the banking development benchmarking models’ findings for the region by undertaking three projects. The thesis examines the nature of the relationship between banking sector depth and long-term economic growth in the NRBC—as a proxy for the GCC States— vis-à-vis the rest of the world countries. For the empirical investigation, a dynamic panel data approach, i.e. Generalised Method of Moments (GMM), is adopted over the period 1961 to 2013. By utilising mixed effects and System GMM frameworks, the research identifies the countries with the strongest banking-growth relationships and establishes the banking sector development determinants in those countries. Employing a novel benchmarking process, the thesis assesses the status of the banking sector development in each of the GCC member countries and simulates the change in the banking sector depth across the Gulf region over a period of ten years to highlight the potential policy implications for the sector development. The findings of the thesis suggest that the relationship between banking sector depth and long-term economic growth in the NRBC is non-linear, where the relationship between the banking sector depth and economic growth turns from positive to negative beyond certain levels of sector depth. In comparison to other countries, the results indicate that the banking-growth nexus in the NRBC exhibits a smaller total effect magnitude as well as a shorter time between the change in the sector depth and its effect on economic growth. The benchmarking of the banking sectors in the GCC region suggests that in five of the six member countries the banking sectors are underdeveloped. The simulation results predict that the banking sectors will develop further in half of the countries in the region, given their current levels of banking sector development determinants, while two countries require reforms in terms of undertaking regulations and policies to avoid seeing their sector development levels deteriorate. The thesis contributes to theory by confirming findings in the literature and expanding the body of knowledge through novel findings. This research also contributes to policy by demonstrating the significance of the banking sector development for long-term economic growth in the NRBC, providing policymakers in the Gulf States with the status of their banking sectors, and underlining the banking sector depth determinants that ought to be considered when setting regulations and policies that are aimed at developing the banking sector further.

This research examines the substance abuse severity problem of the male narcotics arrestees of Turkey within the framework of Akers' Social Structural and Social Learning (SSSL) model. The SSSL model is tested to understand the impact of social structural factors on drug abuse severity of narcotics offenders, in mediation of social learning process. The research design consists of secondary data analysis and modeling techniques to test the hypotheses pertaining to the SSSL model. The data, consisting of 1,647 male cases, have been obtained from the TUBIM Program. The U.S. ADAM Program year 2003 data including 6,730 cases have also been utilized with the purpose of observing the similarities and/or differences among substance abusers across the nations, as described in Chapter 5. Accordingly, the narcotics criminals of Turkey and the U.S. were compared in terms of demographic status, criminal background, substance abuse behavior and state of substance related treatment. Eventually, it was found that substance abusing populations across these two nations are significantly different. In the second phase of the study, Akers' SSSL model was developed and tested on the male narcotics offenders of Turkey. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis was used to test the hypotheses of the study. A model for the drug offenders whose last charge is drug related (substance abuse or substance distribution) was developed and the model's robustness was tested on those narcotics offenders who have reported committing property and violent offenses before the last charge. It is found that the impact of the social factors on drug abuse and dependence behavior through social learning constructs is non-significant except for the age variable for the drug related offenders subset. Furthermore, the impact of all social structural factors on the seriousness of substance abuse in the mediation of social learning constructs is insignificant for the property and violent offenders subset. Also, the social learning construct of the property and violent offenders' subset does not significantly influence the seriousness of substance abuse.

No description available.

En la provincia de Huaura, uno de los principales factores de deserción estudiantil, es la preferencia por los trabajos agrícolas y la falta de una metodología educativa que responda a los intereses de los locales. Por ello, se planteó como proyecto de tesis, un complejo de carácter educativo-comunitario orientado a desarrollar el programa arquitectónico en relación a la pedagogía por Alternancia; la cual, reconoce la importancia de una formación técnica y básica en el medio rural. A partir de este principio, la escuela logra erigir espacios para el aprendizaje que van más allá de permanecer en las aulas y establece la distribución de estos, basado en los procesos productivos de una agroindustria. Finalmente, la propuesta arquitectónica desarrolla la apertura de los espacios físicos para permitir los nexos entre el campo y el espacio público, semi-público y privado; lo cual, incentiva la formación teórico-práctico de manera experimental y pone en valor las actividades agrícolas-pecuarias. / In the province of Huaura, one of the main factors of student desertion is the preference for agricultural work and the lack of an educational methodology that responds to the interests of the locals. For this reason, as a thesis project, a community-educational complex in the district of Santa María was proposed; which was oriented to develop the architectural program in relation to Alternation pedagogy; which recognizes, in rural areas, the importance of technical and basic training. In this way, it was possible to develop in the architectural proposal the nexus for the connection of the field with the public, semi-public and private space; which encourages theoretical and practical training in an experimental form and places value on agricultural-livestock activities. / Tesis

Despite the widely acknowledged contention that pollution control measures would be less beneficial than pollution prevention technologies in the long run, pollution control approaches remain a popular solution for organizations seeking, or coerced, to engage in corporate environmentalism. Drawing on the conceptual underpinnings of the Theory of Planned Behaviour as an integrative framework, this study combines the tenets of five major management theories - institutional, stakeholder, planned behaviour, resource-based view, and life-cycle management - to examine how and why small and medium sized manufacturing enterprises (SMMEs) embrace dissimilar approaches to implementing green initiatives under different circumstances. This research adopted a nested, multiple-case design to explore why some organizations have been able to obtain beneficial effects from their green initiative implementation while others have not. The findings, based on the experiences of s even SMMEs, which implemented a total of 27 green initiatives in their production operations, reveal that legislative requirements, stakeholders' expectations, organizations' natural environmental orientation, as well as their environmental resource base and capabilities, jointly drive corporate environmental strategies. The case study found that the higher the external pressures, a combination of legislative requirements and stakeholder expectations, the more likely it was for SMMEs to adopt quick-fix, off-the-shelve solutions, which typically carried limited short-term benefits with associated high long-term costs. By contrast, less intense external pressures offer firms the opportunities to explore plausible options and exploit internal resource capabilities to advantage, giving rise to the adoption of more sustainable approaches. The study further discovers that experiential learning, i.e., a firm's ability to learn from its green initiative implementation experience, separates SMMEs capable of capital izing on the values of their implemented green initiatives to gain competitive advantages and redefine competition from those that are immersed in a cognitive lock-in, unable to free themselves from an unproductive green wall. The findings suggest that nurturing organizational learning among environmentally resistive firms could transform them into environmentally responsible enterprises. The study concludes by interpreting its findings into a number of theoretical propositions for theory building in corporate environmental management.

This thesis explores and analyses the manifold relations between migration and health, what I call the migration-health nexus, in the contemporary Nicaraguan context. The study is based on fieldwork in León and Cuatro Santos and a mixed-methods approach combining qualitative in-depth interviews and quantitative survey data. In the thesis health is “traced” within the migration process; i.e. in places of origin, during travel, at the destination and after return, including the situation and consequences for both migrants and family members to migrants (“left-behinds”). The study shows that migration-health relations in Nicaragua are connected to broader economic, social and political factors and to the country’s historical experiences of colonization, neo-colonization and structural adjustments. Contemporary Nicaraguan migrations are primarily related to the strategies of making a living and the struggle for a better life (i.e. a practice of mobile livelihoods). In the study setting health concerns were both indirectly embedded in people’s mobile livelihoods, as well as directly influencing decisions to move or to stay, and migration involved both advantages and disadvantages for health. Through migration, women could see an end to physical violence and sexual abuse. Internal migrants could improve their access to health care and medicine. Vulnerabilities related to the unpredictable nature conditions could be avoided through moving. And, through the money made from migrant work people’s everyday lives and health could be improved, in terms of better nutrition, housing, and access to education, health care and medicine. However, remittances do not necessarily lead to development, as they are used to compensate for the lacking public sector in Nicaragua. Under these circumstances, I argue that the Nicaraguan population is not guaranteed their social rights of citizenship. I also argue that the negative aspects surrounding migration must be taken into account when discussing the development potentials of migration and remittances. Both internal and international migrants in this study experienced stress while moving to a new place. International migrants had difficulties accessing health care in the destination, particularly those lacking documentation. The separation within families due to migration often caused emotional pain. Family members left behind did not rate their physical health as good as often as non-migrant families. The vulnerability, stress experiences and sufferings of migrants and left-behinds varied, however. I therefore conclude that social differences (in terms of e.g. gender, class, skin colour, and legal immigration status) are key for the enactment of the migration-health nexus, and that an interplay of individual, social and structural factors influence the outcome.

How does one know whether a service is supplied against payment? While the answer to that question appears to be self-evident, it is, in fact, the sole reason for a host of court procedures across the world of VAT. Indeed, the underlying concept of a supply for consideration has eluded and continues to elude courts and practitioners. This is in part due to the wide range of transactions that are arguably such that they cannot be categorised as a supply for consideration (i.e., a supply against payment). It is, e.g., not obvious how to treat the transaction happening when a by-passer gives a few coins to a street musician, considering that it is debatable whether the coins constitute payment for a music service or a gift given out of sympathy. As an attempt to elucidate the concept of a supply for consideration, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has developed the so called direct link test, consisting of four criteria. The  test  is  applied  in  cases  where  the  nexus  between  a  supply  and  a consideration is indefinite or called into doubt. Given that the CJEU is the supreme interpreter of EU law, the direct link test has consequently become a standardised test in all 28 Member States of the EU. In other jurisdictions, such as Australia and New Zealand, there stands no equally established test to resolve the question of a nexus. More so, the courts of these jurisdictions do not necessarily adhere to the same notions as the CJEU. Against this background, the criteria of the direct link test have been analysed as well as compared to the notions prevailing in other jurisdictions. Following the comparative studies, it stands evident that there are, in some instances, radically different understandings of what kind of transactions that constitute a supply for consideration. These differences exist between courts of different jurisdictions as well as courts of the same jurisdiction. Certainly, there will always be disagreements in respect of legal queries; however, by virtue of the comparative studies, divergences of a more conceptual nature have been unearthed. In turn, these conceptual divergences demonstrate the existence of fundamentally different perceptions of the concept of a supply for consideration within the world of VAT. In light of the analysis, the author has concluded that the direct link test is appropriate for the purpose it is meant to serve. That said, the actual application of the test leaves room for improvement, which may to some extent be sought in the rules and notions prevailing in other jurisdictions and in the comments and critiques put forward by scholars.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Partindo da constatação da emergência de uma crise ambiental planetária e das várias concepções de Educação Ambiental que têm emergido como tentativas de dialogar com tal crise, a presente tese consiste na postulação e aprofundamento de quatro enunciados expressões de problemáticas teórico-práticas,delineadas na experiência pessoal e profissional interdisciplinar da autora -, aqui apresentados na forma de indagações paradigmáticas, epistemológicas, teórico-filosóficas e político-pedagógicas. O objetivo da presente pesquisa é contribuir com o campo dos processos de educação ambiental comprometidos com os modos de singularização emancipatórios, através de proposições reflexivas que possam evidenciar outras bases epistemológicas, filosóficas e conceituais à Educação. O Enunciado I, tendo como referências, sobretudo, a lógica rizomática, de Deleuze e Guattari, a ecologia dos saberes e as epistemologias do Sul, de Santos, e o conceito de complexidade, de Morin, postula a necessidade de emergência de uma Epistemologia dos Nexos, como conjunto de epistemologias, que nos possibilite restaurar a capacidade perceptiva de leitura do mundo em sua inteligibilidade e sensibilidade relacional, complexa, de conexões com nexos, a partir da problematização de uma herança epistemológica hegemônica que, contra a diversidade epistemológica do mundo, foi tecida com os fios da trama colonialista e ocidental cristã. O Enunciado II postula uma Educação Ambiental comprometida com a diversidade de modos e formas de conhecer, de se envolver e dialogar com a realidade e a vida, para além da racionalidade moderna e o conhecimento científico, tendo como referências, sobretudo, Freire, Santos, Maturana e Leloup. O Enunciado III pretende trazer à reflexão, sobretudo com Guattari, Rolnik e Godoy, a importância dos processos subjetivos como matérias-primas e instâncias de modelização na consolidação dos modelos econômicos, que historicamente tem se mantido invisibilizados dentro dos ideários políticos e educacionais, a serviço de uma ideologia dominante. Para tanto trabalha os conceitos de subjetivação, singularização, micropolítica e perspectivas minoritárias. Finalmente, o Enunciado IV, tomando algumas noções da filosofia a saber, o daimon grego, trazido por Boff, como dimensão interior humana; o compromisso quântico em Zohar, que postula um novo modelo relacional; a noção de afetos na Ética de Espinosa, como encontros que possibilitam a expansão ou diminuição de uma potência de agir; a noção de afirmação da vida, em Nietzsche, enquanto alegria e abundância, como uma estética da existência; e a noção de cuidado de si, de Foucault, como uma prática de autonomia do ser postula a proposição de uma Ética Ambiental, como Estética, comprometida com um fazer artístico de ser humano e de seus modos de existência. Tais enunciados, sistematizados através de uma metodologia qualitativa e cartográfica, serão colocados em diálogo, na forma de um Estudo de Caso, com um projeto social que trabalha com jovens, denominado Projeto Florescer: Arte-educação, Cidadania e Ecologia para Jovens, evidenciando ao campo dos processos de educação ambiental uma diversidade de modos educativos - poéticos, políticos, éticos, estéticos e místicos, capazes de tocar o mundo e o ser humano naquilo que eles têm de mais inédito, inusitado e especial