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Whaling in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was a global industry. Ships from many nations with crews from ports all over the world hunted in waters from the Arctic Ocean to the Tasman Sea. Whale oil illuminated the cities and greased the machines of the Industrial Revolution. Far from formal legal institutions, the international cast of whalemen created their own rules and methods for resolving disputes at sea over the possession of a valuable natural resource. These unwritten customs were remarkably effective in preventing violence between crews of competing ships. Whaling was intensely competitive, yet the dangers of hunting in often treacherous conditions fostered a close knit community that was able to fashion resolutions to disagreements that also maximized their catch. Legal scholars have cited whaling customs as evidence that property law is often created by participants and not imposed by legislatures and courts. Whaling law was, in fact, a creation of both whalemen and lawyers. At sea, whalemen often improvised and compromised in ways that had more to do with personal and communal ethics than with well understood customs. Lawyers and judges, looking for certainty and consistency, imagined whaling customs to be much more established and universally observed than was ever the case. The same loose whaling customs that prevented violence and litigation failed, however, to check practices that severely depleted the available supply of bowhead and sperm whales. As a close knit community capable of governing themselves, American whalemen should have been able to find a way out of the "tragedy of the commons" which predicts that commonly owned and competitively exploited resources are - without an external or group imposed system of restraint - fated for destruction. Prior to about 1850, whalemen, generally believing that whales as a species were impervious to extinction, saw no need to limit their catch. By the time whalemen recognized that whales stocks were seriously depleted other sources of energy - coal oil and petroleum - had swept the market. There was, at this point, no reason to preserve the prey of a soon to be obsolete endeavor. / History

Yes / In this paper, I would like to share some thoughts provoked by the idea of establishing ‘dialogue studies’ as a distinct academic field, as suggested in the inaugural call for contributions to the new journal. These are not meant to be exhaustive of all the relevant questions that could be considered under this heading. I do not, for example, consider the question of disciplinary contributions or boundaries. My emphasis, rather, is on questions to do with ethos and coherence. In particular, I am interested in exploring the possibility, and the challenges, of cultivating a dialogic approach to the study of dialogue itself. My reflections begin with a look at the tendency, within academia, to privilege debate as a form of communication and the question of whether we might conceive a Journal of Dialogue Studies as a forum for a different kind of exchange. I then reflect on some of the difficulties of studying dialogue itself, particularly where this involves outside observers. The final section raises some issues around ‘studying dialogue’ in relation to teaching, learning and assessment. My overall intention here is to share some current, tentative thoughts in the hope that this contributes to a dialogue on the idea, and perhaps the practice, of ‘dialogue studies’.

The economics of information is a relatively new and important field of economics. This dissertation analyzes the role of information in three case studies within three different branches of economics: health economics, environmental economics, and finance and banking. First I analyze parental nutritional label usage and its effect of children's dietary outcomes (i.e. Health Eating Index and Body Mass Index). I show that parental usage of nutritional labels is associated with a better quality of their children's diet as well as an overall improvement in their health as measured by their Body Mass Index. Secondly, I study the behavioral effect of length of residency on water demand in the arid cities of Reno and Sparks in Nevada. In this case, I observe that social interaction among households affects their water usage. In particular, newcomers' watering behaviors are influenced by the prevailing social norms among neighbors that have lived in the arid area for a longer period of time. Finally, I compare the performance of local versus larger national and regional lending institutions in the years leading to the 2007 mortgage crisis. I find that local or community lenders have a significantly lower foreclosure rate during these years. Local lenders presumably base their origination decisions on an interpersonal relationship with their customers. This provides them with information that is not contained within the standard risk metrics generally used in loan applications. I discuss the policy implications of these results for each case study. / Ph. D.

Women’s rights to safe abortion have become recognized as a human rights imperative, and within the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women(CEDAW), States are obligated to ensure access to abortion. Despite this, abortion laws vary around the world. This suggests that norms of liberalized abortion laws stick better in some contexts than others. This study analyzes and compares norms related to abortion of the Philippines and the Republic of Ireland, in relation to the CEDAW Committee, through the lens of norm translation. The purpose is to explore to what extent the theoretical framework of norm translation can be used to understand how the government in the Philippines and respectively, Ireland, interact with human rights norms of liberalized abortion laws in the context of CEDAW, and if these interactions have produced legislative change. The study uses a qualitative content analysis to examine reports submitted as part of CEDAW’s monitoring procedure. The study concludes that the CEDAW Committees’ ideas on abortion coincide with those supported bythe State Party of the Philippines and Ireland, to some extent; norm translation can describe this to a great extent; norm translation can help us understand how the State Parties’ produce norm consistent measures and policies to a great extent; norm translation cannot describe why humanrights norms of liberalized abortion laws appear to have stuck better in Ireland than in the Philippines.

The humanitarian cowboy is a phenomenon standing in juxtaposition with the fundamental principles of humanitarian action – impartiality, neutrality, independence, and humanity. Yet he seems to survive and thrive in the sector. This master's thesis explores the performance and reproduction of masculinity in the humanitarian sector, focusing on how the work environment contributes to these behaviours and how they relate to power dynamics. A qualitative approach with in-depth interviews with humanitarian staff is used to investigate the extent to which humanitarian organisations influence the performance of hegemonic masculinity, embodied by the archetype of the humanitarian cowboy. The results show that the prevailing organisational norms reinforce these behaviours, leading to a paradoxical environment in which exaggerated masculine behaviour is both a coping mechanism and a perceived increase in efficiency. More so the underlying acceptance of this behaviour in the organisation contributes to its reproduction. The study concludes that through organisational cultures, narratives, and the valorisation of certain behaviours, the humanitarian cowboy is not just a product of individual personalities, but a construct supported and sustained by the very systems designed to alleviate human suffering.

Text in Afrikaans / The actuality of the pedagogical question concerning the role of ideology, values and norms in the life of man in general and education specifically stimulated the interest of the author and prompted her to examine the past in this respect. The contemporary image of ideology, values, norms, personal and global philosophies are looked at in this study. Particular attention is paid to the ideologies that developed from the Renaissance e.g. Humanistic oriented Realism, Rationalism and Naturalism. Certain role players are briefly referred to. The Communist Educational System influenced more than half of the human race over a period of seventy years resulting in a thorough investigation into this system. The influence of People's Education in education in general was also scrutinized. Because so many South Africans are adherents of Calvinism it was important that attention was paid to: The philosophy of Calvinism; What it entails; How it originated and its impact on South African Education. Particular reference was made to the role of Christian National Education. It is fairly generally accepted that a new period in history of the West in relation to values, norms and education is being entered into. The period discussion is more concerned with spiritual development, culture knowledge and religion of the human race than political and military power, although, the latter is not excluded. It was also necessary to take note of the influence of the New Age movement on values and norms. The study is concluded with the evaluation of ideology, values, norms, personal and global philosophies. Some of the most important conclusions arrived at are that these aspects are interwoven and that education is pertinently influenced by the values, norms, culture, personal and global philosophies of the individual, community and government. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Historiese Opvoedkunde)