What would happen if, the systems we deal with everyday, and the situations we find ourselves in, could trigger us to give something to someone else? This work started by exploring the theme of  money systems and social structures and the ambition to find alternatives for our current economic system, which has failed in several ways. People all over the world are already coming up with alternatives that can supplement and stabilize our money-monoculture and that give new meaning to currency.This research investigates a particular alternative economic system called the gift economy, which has great potential to build meaningful relations and re-establish a sense of  community. Since the gift economy has been mainly researched by anthropologists and ethnographers in the last century, my focus is on implementing its principles in society today. Through literature review, case studies and a series of  design projects, this thesis articulates possible ways of  triggering a gift economy. With a special coin, a concept for a bar and by linking the local bakery to Konstfack, we may start to understand what giving really means, how it can benefit us, in what way it can build more meaningful relationships and how it can offer an alternative way of  thinking than what currently drives our economic system

Es wurde wiederholt gezeigt, dass enge, affiliative soziale Beziehungen (im Folgenden “soziale Beziehungen”) äußerst wichtig für die Gesundheit und das Wohlbefinden des Menschen sind. Eine steigende Zahl von Befunden deutet darauf hin, dass nicht-menschliche Arten Sozialbeziehungen führen, die wichtige Eigenschaften menschlicher sozialer Beziehungen teilen, insbesondere Differenzierung in Stärke, Stabilität und Gleichwertigkeit, und dass diese Beziehungen eine wichtige Rolle für die Fitness und das Wohlbefinden dieser Arten spielen. Allerdings wurden diese Arbeiten von einigen stark kritisiert und es wird argumentiert, die scheinbaren Gemeinsamkeiten zwischen menschlichen und nicht-menschlichen sozialen Beziehungen könnten Begleiterscheinungen anderer, einfacherer Prozesse sein. Zudem wurden nicht alle Aspekte der vorgeschlagenen, gemeinsamen Eigenschaften vollständig mit den menschlichen Entsprechungen verglichen. Untersuchungen nicht-menschlicher sozialer Beziehungen werden außerdem grundsätzlich durch einen Mangel an Übereinstimmung darüber, wie nicht-menschliche soziale Beziehungen am besten quantitativ zu bewerten sind, erschwert. Das allgemeine Ziel dieser Doktorarbeit war, die Eigenschaften sozialer Beziehungen zwischen frei lebenden weiblichen Assam-Makaken zu ermitteln und sorgfältig zu prüfen, inwiefern diese den Eigenschaften enger sozialer Beziehungen zwischen Menschen und anderen nichtmenschlichen Arten gleichen. Ich habe mich im Speziellen mit den Kritiken und den Wissenslücken hinsichtlich nicht-menschlicher sozialer Beziehungen befasst. Des Weiteren habe ich die neuen Möglichkeiten, die die soziale Netzwerkanalyse bietet, um soziales Verhalten zu messen, beurteilt und genutzt, sowie geprüft, ob diese Messmethoden unsere Bewertung nichtmenschlicher Beziehungen verbessern können. Die Daten dieser Arbeit stammen von einer einzelnen Gruppe Assam-Makaken, die in ihrem natürlichen Lebensraum im Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary (16°5′–35′N, 101°20′–55′O) in der Provinz Chaiyaphum im Nordosten Thailands leben. Das Schutzgebiet umfasst 1573km² und ist Teil des ca. 6500 km² umfassenden, zusammenhängenden Western Forest Complex. Die Daten wurden in zwei einjährigen Beobachtungszeiträumen erhoben (Zeitraum 1: Oktober 2007 – September 2008; Zeitraum 2: Mai 2010 – April 2011). Während dieser Zeit bestand die Gruppe aus insgesamt 49-53 Individuen, davon 12 adulten Weibchen im ersten und 15 adulten Weibchen im zweiten Beobachtungszeitraum. Alle adulten Weibchen wurden regelmäßig mittels der Fokustiermethode beobachtet, währenddessen alle sozialen Interaktionen kontinuierlich und allgemeine Aktivitäten nach einer zeitabhängigen Regel aufgezeichnet wurden. Insgesamt wurden über 2100 Stunden an Verhaltensbeobachtungen gesammelt. Die Analyse dieser Daten zeigte, dass die sozialen Beziehungen weiblicher Assam- Makaken wesentliche Charakteristika enger sozialer Beziehungen von Menschen teilen. Wie beim Menschen unterschieden sich die Sozialbeziehungen weiblicher Assammakaken deutlich in ihrer Stärke, wobei Weibchen dazu neigen nur wenige überdurchschnittlich enge soziale Beziehungen zu bilden. Außerdem blieben soziale Beziehungen über ein ganzes Jahr stabil, trotz signifikanter Veränderungen in der Zeit, die Weibchen für andere Verhaltensweisen, wie z.B. Fressen und Ruhen, aufwandten, wie sie mit Veränderungen im weiblichen Reproduktionszyklus einhergehen. Weiterhin konnte gezeigt werden, dass die sozialen Beziehungen über mehrere Jahre stabil bestehen bleiben. Ich konnte nachweisen, dass Weibchen Leistungen balanciert austauschen, allerdings wurden die Art und der Zeitrahmen, über den Leistungen ausgetauscht wurden, im Gegensatz zu sozialen Beziehungen beim Menschen nicht durch die Stärke sozialer Beziehungen beeinflusst. Der Einsatz der sozialen Netzwerkanalyse in meiner Arbeit zeigte, dass diese nicht nur nützliche Messwerte liefert, um die Struktur der sozialen Beziehungen weiblicher Assam-Makaken zu quantifizieren, sondern auch andere, potentiell nützliche Messwerte für zukünftige Studien nicht-menschlicher sozialer Beziehungen. Diese Ergebnisse liefern einen wertvollen Beitrag für unser Verständnis sowohl nichtmenschlicher als auch menschlicher Sozialbeziehungen. Sie geben uns einen tieferen Einblick in das Sozialleben von Assam-Makaken im Allgemeinen, in dem gezeigt wird, dass feste soziale Beziehungen eine wichtige Größe des weiblichen Soziallebens dieser Art sind, während die Rangordnung eine untergeordnete Rolle im weiblichen Verhalten spielt. Sie unterstützen den “Ansatz der wertvollen Beziehungen”, der genutzt wird, um nicht-menschliche soziale Beziehungen zu verstehen, und nicht den Ansatz der, von einigen vorgeschlagenen, biologischen Markttheorie. Schließlich haben diese Ergebnisse Auswirkungen auf unser Verständnis des evolutionären Ursprungs menschlicher sozialer Beziehungen, insbesondere für ihren ursprünglichen funktionalen Nutzen, da sie Hinweise darauf geben, dass soziale Beziehungen nicht-menschlicher Arten wichtige Eigenschaften mit engen zwischenmenschlichen Beziehungen gemeinsam haben. In Zukunft können wir unser Verständnis nicht-menschlicher Sozialbeziehungen vertiefen, indem weiter untersucht wird, in welchen Eigenschaften sich diese sozialen Beziehungen ähneln. Zeitgleich sollten wir versuchen, Eigenschaften, die insbesondere für nicht-menschliche Arten von größerer Bedeutung sein könnten, zu ermitteln und zu untersuchen. Schließlich sollten wir beginnen, unsere Aufmerksamkeit auf die vielen schwachen und dynamischen sozialen Beziehungen zurichten, die in Gruppen nicht-menschlicher Arten existieren, und ihren potentiellen Nutzen zu erforschen.

This thesis investigates legal, ethical and social aspects of group participation in genomic research. Groups in research are diverse. They can be families, patient groups, native tribes, local communities, ethnic collectives or entire national populations united by disease heredity, common cultural or personal ties. Despite rapidly rising scientific and policy interest in research with groups, legal protections for group rights and responsibilities are scarce. This work discusses current problems in defining what constitutes groups, together with dominant normative assumptions and ambiguities in existing research protections. It focuses on key issues of representation, accountability, resourcesharing and control in the management of scientific and commercial uses of group research. It highlights the increasing value of groups as research partners and examines emerging cooperative models, in the quest for appropriate legal frameworks for group protections. The thesis recommends a new concept of group empowerment and considers legal models for the implementation of the empowerment principle in modern research ethics. It proposes a way forward for law to focus on the collaborative aspects of group-researcher relationships, and to identify group research gifts as conditional, reciprocal returns of favours. Under the principle of group empowerment, reciprocity and cooperation are central in the development of adequate mechanisms for group protections. This new approach contributes to current thinking about ways to redress inequities in the balance of power between groups and researchers, build viable mechanisms for shared governance, and facilitate group involvement in genomic endeavours.

Cooperating in the Prisoner's Dilemma is irrational and some supporting mechanism is needed to stabilize cooperation. Indirect reciprocity based on reputation is one such mechanism. Assessing an individual's reputation requires first-order information, i.e. knowledge about its previous behavior, as it is utilized under image scoring. But there seems to be an agreement that in order to successfully stabilize cooperation, higher-order information is necessary, i.e. knowledge of others' previous reputations. We show here that such a conclusion might have been premature. Tolerant scoring, a first-order assessment rule with built-in tolerance against single defections, can lead a society to stable cooperation. (author's abstract)

Background: Online marketplaces constitute one of the most successful business innovations of the Web 2.0. Nonetheless so far no branding theory has been connected to the topic of two-sided online marketplaces. This might be due to the high complexity and reciprocity of their value creation which however needs to be in order to apply any marketing and branding strategies.   Purpose:       Therefore, the purpose is to understand and clarify the value creation processes of two-sided online marketplaces and develop branding theory based on the findings thereof.   Method:        Within this thesis we conducted qualitative research.  The study is built on semi-structured interviews with 15 respondents that have used various two-sided online marketplaces either as sellers and buyers.   Conclusion: In order to understand the various variables of two-sided online marketplaces business model, we have identified, conceptualized and extended an integrative model to manage and brand their value. With the knowledge resulting from our literature review we built a model illustrating all pillars which influence value creation and thus brand perception and extended this model with the results of our own research. We have identified that while user behavior and preferences generally remain heterogeneous, commonalities such as social influences and convenience stick out most often for both user sides. Both pillars have barely been covered by research, which solely focused on network effects, price allocation and trust.

We measured the diffraction efficiency response of two photorefractive polymer devices according to the duration of the single laser pulse used to record the hologram. The pulse duration was varied from 6 nanoseconds to 1 second, while the pulse energy density was maintained constant at 30 mJ/cm(2). This changed the peak power from 5 x 10(9) mW to 30 mW. We observed a strong reciprocity failure of the efficiency according to the pulse duration, with a reduction as large as a factor 35 between 1 second and 30 mu s pulse duration. At even lower pulse duration (< 30 mu s), the efficiency leveled out and remained constant down to the nanosecond exposure time. The same behavior was observed for samples composed of the same material but with and without buffer layers deposited on the electrodes, and different voltages applied during the holographic recording. We explained these experimental results based on the charge transport mechanism involved in the photorefractive process. The plateau is attributed to the single excitation of the charge carriers by short pulses (T-p < 30 mu s). The increase of efficiency for longer pulse duration (T-p > 30 mu s) is explained by multiple excitations of the charge carriers that allows longer distance to be traveled from the excitation sites. This longer separation distance between the carriers increases the amplitude of the space-charge field, and improves the index modulation. The understanding of the response of the diffraction efficiency according to the pulse duration is particularly important for the optimization of photorefractive materials to be used at high refresh rate such as in videorate 3D display.

Cette thèse est composée d’un essai sur la relation entre l’aversion au risque des individus et leur décision de migration et de deux essais sur l’importance de sauver la face et la réciprocité en termes d’image.Le premier essai s’appuie sur une expérience de terrain en Chine afin d’étudier si le statut migratoire est corrélé aux préférences en matière de risque, ambiguïté et compétitivité. Il montre que les migrants et les non-migrants ne présentent pas de différences dans leurs préférences concernant le risque et l’ambiguïté dans des loteries standard. En revanche, les migrants ont une attitude plus compétitive face à une incertitude stratégique dans un jeu d’entrée sur un marché.Le deuxième essai étudie si les individus sont prêts à sacrifier des ressources pour sauver la face en payant pour éviter l'exposition publique du membre de leur groupe le moins productif à l’aide d’une expérience de laboratoire à effort réel. La majorité des individus sont prêts à payer pour préserver à la fois leur image et celle des autres. Ce résultat est robuste à une manipulation de l'identité de groupe. Le sentiment de honte toujours présent à la suite d’une exposition publique évince la motivation intrinsèque.Le troisième essai étudie la récompense de la bienveillance et la punition de l’égoïsme en termes d'image. Il montre que les individus récompensent la bienveillance et expriment de la réciprocité vis-à-vis de ceux qui ont préservé leur image ou celle d’un tiers. En revanche, l’égoïsme de ceux qui ne font pas d’effort pour sauver la face des autres n’est pas sanctionné. / This thesis consists of one essay on the relationship between risk attitudes and migration and two essays investigating the importance of saving face and reciprocity in terms of social image.The first essay is based on a field experiment conducted in China to study whether the migration status is correlated with one's preferences regarding risk, ambiguity, and competitiveness. It shows that migrants and stayers exhibit no difference in their preferences over risk and ambiguity as elicited with standard lottery choices. In contrast, migrants are significantly more likely to enter competitive markets in the context of strategic uncertainty. The second essay studies whether individuals forego resources to avoid the public exposure of the worst performer in their group in a real-effort laboratory experiment. A majority of individuals are willing to pay to preserve both self- and others’ image. This finding is robust to a manipulation of group identity. While the threat of exposure encourages effort, public exposure and a feeling of shame crowd out future intrinsic motivation.The third essay investigates whether individuals reward kindness and punish selfishness in terms of image. It shows that people reward kindness and reciprocate to people who have saved their face or others’ face. However, selfish behavior in terms of image saving is not sanctioned.

[pt] A reciprocidade é um tema clássico nos estudos antropológicos, mais frequentemente abordada mediante perspectivas positivas de interação, como a troca de favores e dádivas; no entanto, a violência motivada pela troca de hostilidades e ofensas revela uma parte negativa, que insistimos em recalcar: os ciclos de vingança, as desforras. Tendo em vista entender vingança e honra enquanto elementos culturais, este trabalho procura diagnosticar como tais aspectos estão inseridos em um contexto de reciprocidade violenta, sobretudo na realidade brasileira. Para tal, examinaremos dentre outros fatores as lutas de famílias, o banditismo social, a relação entre os poderes público e privado ao longo da história e as representações culturais que simbolizam e reconstroem vingança e vingador no imaginário popular brasileiro. / [en] Reciprocity is a classical theme among anthropological studies, more frequently considered under positives perspectives of interaction, as the exchange of favors and gifts; however, the violence motivated by the exchange of hostilities and offenses reveals a negative part, strongly repressed: the cycles of revenge, the retaliations. Aimed at understanding vengeance and honor as cultural elements, this work seeks to diagnose how these aspects are inserted in a context of violent reciprocity, especially in Brazilian reality. Therefore, we will examine the blood feuds, the social banditism, relations between public and private powers throughout history and cultural representations that symbolize and helped to forge vengeance and avenger at people s imagination.

Resumo: Sabe-se que no processo de ensino e aprendizagem de línguas, um aluno motivado estará mais propenso a assumir maior responsabilidade pelo próprio aprendizado, agindo de forma autônoma e usufruindo dos recursos tecnológicos para aprimorá-lo. O Projeto Teletandem Brasil: línguas estrangeiras para todos se apresenta como um contexto novo para o estudo da motivação e da autonomia de aprendizes ao interagirem por meio de ferramentas de mensagem instantânea (Windows Live Messenger, Skype, Oovoo). Nesse contexto, cada membro do par interagente aprende a língua do outro e ensina a própria, posicionando-se ora como aprendiz, ora como ensinante. A autonomia no Teletandem é construída de forma colaborativa pelos interagentes, onde cada um assume a responsabilidade pelo próprio aprendizado e, ao mesmo tempo, por meio da interação produzem o conhecimento a partir das necessidades individuais e da constante negociação. Dessa forma, a escolha por um dado assunto ou determinada estratégia de ensino-aprendizagem pode repercutir na motivação de cada um dos membros da parceria. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo: i) verificar as motivações iniciais das brasileiras em relação ao aprendizado da língua estrangeira em teletandem e ii) analisar como elas se sustentam ou não, ao longo do processo interativo, tendo em vista fatores pessoais, socioculturais e contextuais. O presente trabalho qualitativo de natureza etnográfica focou as interagentes brasileiras de duas parcerias de teletandem, uma de inglês-português e outra de espanhol-português. Compreendemos as motivações iniciais como as razões que levaram as interagentes brasileiras a interagirem via teletandem, bem como suas expectativas em relação ao aprendizado da língua estrangeira. Yasmim buscou o teletandem porque estava tendo dificuldades com a compreensão e produção oral, por essa razão, ela esperava, principalmente... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: It is known that in the language learning and teaching process, a motivated student will take more responsibility for their own learning, being autonomous and using the technological resources in order to improve their knowledge. The Project Teletandem Brasil: Foreign languages for all is considered a new context to study the learner's autonomy and motivation, who interact through instant message tools (Windows Live Messenger, Skype, Oovoo). In this context, each teletandem partner learns the other's language and teaches his own language, being learner at a moment and teacher in the next one. The autonomy in the Teletandem is constructed in a collaborative way by the teletandem partners, each one takes responsibility for their own learning and, at the same time, through interaction they construct the knowledge from the individual needs and the constant negotiation. Therefore, the choice for a given subject or a learning-teaching strategy may reflect in the teletandem partner's motivation. The current work aims: i) verify the Brazilian teletandem partner's initial motivations in relation to the foreign language learning and ii) analyze if it is maintained or not during the interactional process, considering personal, sociocultural and contextual factors. The current qualitative work, of ethnographic nature, focused on Brazilian learners from two teletandem partnerships, English-Portuguese and Spanish-Portuguese. We understand initial motivations as reasons that conducted the Brazilian teletandem partners to interact in teletandem, as well as their expectancy in relation to the foreign language learning. Yasmim looked for teletandem since she was facing difficulties in listening and speaking, so, she expected, specially, to develop these abilities and learn vocabulary and American cultural aspects. Débora was interested in the teletandem project since she wanted to develop Estágio... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Orientador: Ana Mariza Benedetti / Coorientador: Maria Helena Vieira Abrahão / Banca: Sílvia Matravolgyi Damião / Banca: Suzi Marques Spatti Cavalari / Mestre

Este trabalho analisa três peças de Brian Friel - The Enemy Within (1962), Faith Healer (1979) e Dancing at Lughnassa (1990) escritas em um intervalo de quase trinta anos. Nossa tese é de que Friel escreve as três peças como rituais, o que, por sua vez, retira da concepção elaborada pelos ritualistas de Cambridge, na década de 1920, de que a tragédia grega e o drama se desenvolveram a partir dos rituais de fertilidade. Notamos que a influência da tragédia e dos rituais em Friel está consideravelmente mais vinculada à forma e à abordagem das peças enquanto um ritual que à reescritura de tragédias gregas ou mitos, muito embora alusões sejam recorrentes. Friel retrabalha mitos e rituais a fim de refazer e atualizar o drama enquanto um ritual em si mesmo, cuja razão de ser é permitir a significação e reorganização da vida individual e social no mundo moderno industrial, no caso específico, a vida na Irlanda contemporânea. Ocupamo-nos dos dramas sociais e dos rituais de passagem, com atenção especial ao período liminar, caracterizado pela transição entre papéis sociais envolvendo um período de não-pertencimento. Os três grupos envolvidos em cada uma das peças: os monges e noviços em The Enemy Within, a pequena trupe mambembe em Faith Healer e a família em Dancing at Lughnasa, vivem na periferia de suas sociedades sendo liderados por figuras vivendo uma situação liminar participando de dramas sociais que envolvem processos rituais tanto formais como não-institucionalizados. / This work addresses three plays by Brian Friel - The Enemy Within (1962), Faith Healer (1979) and Dancing at Lughnassa (1990) - written within a period of almost thirty years. Our thesis is that Friel writes all three plays as rituals, a conception taken from the Cambridge Ritualists, who in the 1920s assume that Greek tragedy and drama grew out of the ancient fertility rituals. We notice that the influence of tragedy and rituals on Friel\'s work is more connected to the form and approach to the plays as rituals than to the rewriting of Greek tragedies or myths. Friel reworks myths and rituals in order to update and remake drama as a ritual in itself, whose raison d\'etre for him is to allow the meaning and reorganization of individual and social life in modern industrial world, mainly life in contemporary Ireland. We deal here with social dramas and rites of passage, with special regard to the liminal period, characterized by the transition between social roles and involving a period of not belonging. The three groups involved in each play: the monks and novices in The Enemy Within, the small troupe in Faith Healer and the family in Dancing at Lughnasa, live on the boundaries of their societies and are led by men who are in a liminal situation in social dramas which involve both institutionalized and informal ritual processes.