This research is about the social/spatial management of water in an urban setting. The water utility of Piacenza, Italy, and specifically, the organization of the now extinct canal system, was investigated for the period between 1545 and 1736. Through analysis of the administration of the canal system and the water utility this thesis constructs an aspect of the political ecology of Piacenza. Political ecology as a discipline lies at the intersection of the environmental context, land use, spatial design, demographics and social relationships. The study looked at how the city organized itself to manage urban water and sanitation delivery, the methods used to communicate with the users, the actions taken to keep the system in good repair, the responses to crises, and the limitations of the social organization and technological capabilities. The archival documents contained within the Congregazione sopra l’ornato (CSO), the municipal committee charged with management of the canals, form the core of the research. Analysis revealed a finely-tuned social system that involved noble oversight, the use of expert engineers, public/private partnerships for maintenance of the canals with millers and consorti as key people, and an attempt to control cheating with fines and penalties.

An increasing number of companies are reporting their environmental performance, impacts, and activities. The objectives of such reports are many including, in particular, reacting to external pressures from company stakeholders demanding more information about environmental performance. This might also be matched by management requiring information to better run the business - hence an internal requirement for information that would then be available for publication. Because, this environmental reporting serves multiple objectives and satisfies different needs of different readers, it varies in the type of information provided, the scope and depth of material disclosed, presentation formats used, the credibility of the information provided and its overall quality. Although richness of report content, scope of topics covered, presentation and credibility of this content have all been used to assess the quality of corporate environmental reporting (CER), to date most prior studies have looked simply at the volume of and/or the types of information when assessing the quality of CER. Studies have used two main indices to measure disclosure quality; subjective analysts' indices and semi-objective indices. Subjective indices such as the Association of Investment Management and Research (AIMR), formerly the Financial Analysts Federation (FAF) disclosure ratings, are built on corporate disclosures' ratings weighted by a panel of leading analysts in each industry. In semi-objective indices, on the other hand, a pre-determined list of items (topics of disclosure) is developed and tested for their presence (absence ) and/or the richness of their content. It is noted that most disclosure studies adopt this second approach in the form of disclosure index studies, a partial type of content analysis. Other disclosure measures have included textual analysis such as thematic content analysis, readability studies, and linguistic analysis. However, there is no consensus about the best measure for assessing reporting quality. One of the most important limitations encountered in the disclosure literature is the difficulty in assessing the quality of disclosure (Healy and Palepu, 2001; Urquiza et al., 2009). For example, these studies identify three key limitations. Firstly, there is inherent subjectivity involved in the selection of the quality measure and in the coding scheme to assess this 'quality' generally researchers choose their own methods or proxies. Secondly, there is an ignorance of the quality perceptions of preparers and users of corporate disclosure. Hammond and Miles (2004) argue that we cannot assess the quality of disclosure independently of a detailed understanding of users' need of disclosure. Thirdly, it has been common to use annual reports (ARs) to assess the extent and quality of corporate responsibility disclosure, ignoring the other reporting media such as corporate responsibility reports (CRRs), websites, home advertisings, etc (Forst et al., 2005; KPMG, 2011). Thus considering the fact that robust, reliable, and replicable quality assessment is problematic, the objectives of this research are threefold. Firstly, to build a more representative quality model based on the findings of a questionnaire ascertaining the views of both preparers and distinct categories of readers of ARs and/or CRRs. Secondly, to apply this model to FTSE 100 CER in both ARs and CRRs to ascertain whether the proxies frequently used in prior literature yield similar results to those derived from this more complex model. Thirdly, to investigate whether the common use of ARs, rather than more detailed CRRs in assessing CER quality is giving a misleading picture of the level and richness of disclosure available to stakeholders.

No description available.

As Rural Development assumes a greater importance in European policy, one strategy to stimulate economic activity across a broad range of sectors is to use small towns as a focal point for economic development. This may be particularly relevant in the UK where there is increasing concern over the future vitality and viability of these towns. However, such a strategy rests on the assumption that there is a strong level of interdependence between small towns and their surrounding areas. While their historical legacy suggests close integration, developments in the wider economy and resultant socio-economic restructuring have undermined the traditional functions of small towns and may have severed many of these local linkages. Methodologies are developed to measure the size and spatial distribution of economic linkages in and around two small towns in rural England; one located in the 'remote' area of South Devon, and one in more 'accessible' Buckinghamshire. Results from two validation exercises indicate that self-completion methods are a useful means of obtaining spatial economic data from producers and consumers. Analysis compares the degree of economic integration of the towns into their respective local economies, and identifies key characteristics of firms and households that are good predictors of strong local integration. Results show that the strength of local economic integration is a function of economic and demographic structure as well as proximity to urban centres. This illustrates that the functional role of small towns in the economy is a more useful criterion on which to base policy recommendations than is demographic size. The town in the 'remote' rural area is found to be more strongly integrated into its locality than the town in the 'accessible' area; indicating that benefits of intervention are more likely to 'trickle out' into the surrounding area in the former case. Further, the minimal role of agriculture in the local economy implies that traditional measures of farm support are no longer likely to provide a valuable method of supporting rural communities. A useful area for subsequent enquiry would be to employ an 'integration index' to develop settlement typologies so that more generalisations can be made to aid the process of policy formulation.

The study of organisational development is central to the discipline of management. Despite an array of models, our systematic knowledge of how organisations grow remains limited, with the dominant models of organisational development offering, at best, partial explanations of firm growth. The dominant schools of organisational development generally emphasise one source of change drivers (e.g., internal vs. external), as opposed to providing a more holistic and complete account of organisational development. There is also a lack of focus in the organisational development literature on the phenomena of continuous change. The literature remains dominated by examinations of radical, second order or discontinuous change, which often provides useful information on how firms deal with crises, but provides little by way of advice on how to avoid such crises in the first place. / PhD Doctorate

The study of organisational development is central to the discipline of management. Despite an array of models, our systematic knowledge of how organisations grow remains limited, with the dominant models of organisational development offering, at best, partial explanations of firm growth. The dominant schools of organisational development generally emphasise one source of change drivers (e.g., internal vs. external), as opposed to providing a more holistic and complete account of organisational development. There is also a lack of focus in the organisational development literature on the phenomena of continuous change. The literature remains dominated by examinations of radical, second order or discontinuous change, which often provides useful information on how firms deal with crises, but provides little by way of advice on how to avoid such crises in the first place. / PhD Doctorate

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, May, 2008. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Missouri University of Science and Technology, 2008. / Vita. The entire thesis text is included in file. Title from title screen of thesis/dissertation PDF file (viewed May 19, 2008) Includes bibliographical references (p. 33-35).

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1990. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 84-85).