Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilka upplevelser och uppfattningar några erfarna pedagoger har kring tecken som stöd samt att få en förståelse för vilken effekt tecken som stöd upplevs ha på språk och kommuniktion bland vuxna och barn i förskolan. Genom frågeställningarna i studien undersöks på vilket sätt några erfarna förskolepedagoger tillämpar tecken som stöd för att främja kommunikationen bland vuxna och barn i förskolan samt vilken inverkan pedagogerna upplever att metoden frambringar. Studien innehåller teorier kring kroppslig kommunikation och sociokulturell interaktionism, men även litteratur om språk och kommunikation, vuxnas mottaglighet, tecken och gester samt förutsättningar och effekter. I kombination med ett kritiskt perspektiv på tecken som stöd har studien ett teoretiskt och litterärt ramverk. Genom kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer samlas empiri in. Ett subjektivt urval och ett snöbollsurval har resulterat i att fem pedagoger, som aktivt använder tecken som stöd i sina verksamheter, deltagit i studien. Då varje pedagog företräder varsin förskoleverksamhet är fem olika förskolor representerade  i denna studie. Intervjuerna har genomförts på deras respektive arbetsplatser. Resultatet som framkommer visar på att tecken som stöd är ett multimodalt kommunikationsverktyg som skapar möjlighet för alla barn och vuxna att föra dialog med varandra. Dessutom visar resultatet på att tecken som stöd bidrar till verksamhetens etiska grund. Detta då tecken bland annat skapar ett behagligt arbetsklimat där alla ges möjlighet att kommunicera, bli synliggjorda och respekterade på sitt sätt. Pedagogerna upplever tecken som stöd som ett positivt och lustfyllt arbetsmetod.

This dissertation claims that the reciprocal exchange of voice—an element for constructing community and strengthening political recognition—may be fostered in small-scale farming communities by (1) the appropriation and transformation of information and communications technologies, (2) artistic intervention, and (3) cross-community research. This study contributes to participatory research methodologies, particularly those that seek to tackle the diverse challenges faced by small-scale farmers from a broad, complex perspective. The main issue identified in this dissertation is as follows: The hegemony of economic behaviors, which stands as a cornerstone of neoliberal capitalism, constitutes the latest stage of a historical process in which the voices of small-scale farmers seem to have been progressively and systematically silenced, their traditional practices largely invalidated, and their reciprocal forms of social, political, and economic organization marginalized. The purpose of this study was to explore whether an open-ended, sociotechnical methodology could be designed and applied in small-scale farming communities with the aim of strengthening their reciprocal practices while amplifying the voices of their members. The author's research addressed the question of how the role of information and communications technologies can contribute to the creation of enabling environments in which subsistence farmers may exercise their own values and make their voices heard. Another goal was to study whether the reciprocal exchange of voice could relate to the construction and dissemination of a knowledge commons and improve the resilience of small-scale farmers in the context of complex and pressing challenges such as anthropogenic climate change. Consequently, the ERV (Enabling Reciprocal Voice) Methodology was developed and applied in small-scale farming communities in order to respond to the questions of this study. The ERV Methodology sought to redefine the modes of usage of information and communications technologies in order to help communities establish a shared communicational praxis and strengthen their reciprocal relations. The ERV Methodology stands in contrast with the technological determinism found in the purely solutionist, short-term initiatives that are generally implemented in small-scale farming communities. Instead of offering rapid solutions to isolated problems, the ERV Methodology sought to consolidate the social networks of farmers through online and offline interaction. The case studies examined in this dissertation were carried out in two small-scale farming communities in Tanzania and Mexico. Following the ERV Methodology, mobile phones and the Internet were used by farmers in those communities as tools for the collaborative creation of a knowledge commons focused on local agriculture. It was found that the ERV Methodology, carried out as artistic intervention, may encourage technological appropriation, induce reciprocity, and amplify voice under certain sociotechnical conditions. These findings suggest that such a methodology might benefit farmers by becoming a significant aid to increase their resilience and their capacity to face complex challenges in the longer term. However, another conclusion was that the ERV Methodology should be applied carefully, with a strong awareness of the local context, and that greater efforts must be made in order to integrate other communities, such as local authorities and scientific researchers, into the reciprocal dynamics enabled by the methodology.

The Power of a Small Green Place is an ethnographic case study among the volunteers and urban wilds of Ottawa’s Fletcher Wildlife Garden (FWG). Through the conceptual lens of the geographical concept of place – with its wide range of physical, relational and deeper meaningful considerations – this urban wildlife habitat project emerged as a place of profound significance. Volunteers working to create and maintain the FWG’s diverse habitats benefit from opportunities to engage in physical outdoor activity, establish social connections, make contact with the natural world, find deep personal satisfaction and meaning, and experience healthier and mutually beneficial relations with nature. This case study fills a knowledge gap in geography regarding the significant relationships that can emerge between people and the land they work with, thereby contributing to geography’s “latest turn earthward” examining practices and relationships of cultivation with the land. The case study also contributes to a growing interdisciplinary dialogue on human-nature relations and their implications in the context of future environmental and societal uncertainties.

Le travail dans cette thèse a consisté à l'étude de la propagation des ondes, en particulier la considération d'un problème de cloaking d'une part et d'un problème inverse d’identification de fissure d'autre part. Nous nous intéressons particulièrement à appliquer une stratégie qui est basé sur un changement de variable pour rendre un objet invisible, la validation numérique des résultats de ce problème a été réalisée par la librairie éléments finies XLiFE++. L'analyse de différents aspects mathématiques du problème de cloaking pour une équation elliptique non linéaire a fait l'objet du chapitre deux. La détermination de l'opérateur Dirichlet-Neumann associé à l'opérateur quasi-linéaire nous a permis d'adapter la technique de transformation utilisé pour le cadre des équations différentielles elliptiques linéaire afin de définir la notion de cloaking pour un problème non linéaire. Pour la dernière partie nous nous sommes intéressés à la reconstruction de fissures pour un problème thermique, pour cela un lien entre l'écart à la réciprocité et la transformée de Fourier du saut de la température à travers la fissure a été établi, ce qui nous a amené à développer un algorithme rapide pour la résolution numérique. / We are concerned with the study of the propagation of waves, in particular the consideration of a cloaking problem on the one hand and of a problem of cracks reconstruction on the second hand. We focus more particularly in applying a strategy that is based on a change of variable to cloak an object. The validation with numerical results has been achieved by the nite element library XLiFE++. The analysis of different mathematical aspects of the cloaking problem for a quasilinear elliptic equation has been the subject of chapter two. The determination of the Dirichlet-Neumann operator associated with the quasilinear operator allowed us to adapt the transformation technique used for the frame-work of linear elliptic differential equations to define the notion of cloaking for our nonlinear problem. For the last part we are interested in crack reconstruction for a thermal problem. For that, a link between the reciprocity gap and the Fourier transform of the temperature jump through the cracks was established, which has led to the development of a fast algorithm for numerical resolution.

The effects of goal interdependence on employees’ performance outcomes have been well documented in the literature. Yet, the relationship between goal interdependence and employees’ proactive behaviors remains largely unexplored. Integrating the theory of cooperation and competition with the employee proactivity literature, this study investigates how cooperative goal interdependence and competitive goal interdependence respectively influence employee knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding, and in turn shape their propensity to seek help from coworkers. It further examines reciprocity beliefs as an individual factor in affecting the indirect effect of goal interdependence on help seeking. Specifically, positive reciprocity belief is hypothesized to moderate the mediating role of knowledge sharing, whereas negative reciprocity belief is expected to moderate the mediating effect of knowledge hiding. In Study 1, a total of 127 interviews were conducted with full-time employees working in professional service firms across four cities including Hong Kong, Macau, China and Taiwan. Results of structural equation modeling supported the mediating role of knowledge sharing in the relationship between cooperative goal interdependence and employee help seeking. In Study 2, an experimental study was conducted with 150 full-time students at a university in Macau to replicate the findings in Study 1 and to test the moderation hypotheses. It yielded findings consistent with Study 1 and supportive of the moderating role of negative reciprocity belief in the mediated effect of goal interdependence on help seeking. Specifically, knowledge hiding mediates the relationship between competitive goal interdependence and help seeking, when an individual is high in negative reciprocity belief. Findings of the two studies provide both theoretical contributions to the literature and practical insights to organizations. Cooperative goal interdependence is a valuable method for managers to promote knowledge sharing, inhibit knowledge hiding, and encourage active help seeking among employees.

The old anthropological question of the comparison between an archaic or traditional commercial law on one hand and a modern commercial law on the other is revisited using a conceptualization of an empirical study of legal comparisons performed within the real decision-making processes at work in the current Czech justice system. Commercial law is represented by a single legal institution - the law of reciprocity (comitas gentium) - which regulates the cooperation between various legal authorities and legal systems potentially entangled in cross-border commercial disputes. The reader is first introduced to the context and evidence-dependency of any legal comparison ranging from the representation of law and feud in Yemen at an asylum trial, to the legal systems regulating exchange contracts in Afghanistan involving cross-border disputes. The idea of comparing legal systems as two autonomous social units is abandoned in favor of the study of the comparative practices of a small population of Czech legal authorities, which furnishes readers with plenty of questions about the social organization of legal cognition. The dissertation refrains from drawing final conclusions using legal comparisons, instead it focuses on the limitations and barriers of marshalling evidence (symbolic representations) of...

Stakeholder theory has transcended academia and is infiltrating boardrooms all over the world. However, the literature is divided and lacks a coherent narrative of stakeholder value creation. The purpose of this exploratory study is to investigate the merits of stakeholder management by examining the arguments used by stakeholder researchers. Using argument analysis an overview of the field is created which describes the preconditions, mechanisms and moderators of value creation facilitated by stakeholder management.

The old anthropological question of the comparison between an archaic or traditional commercial law on one hand and a modern commercial law on the other is revisited using a conceptualization of an empirical study of legal comparisons performed within the real decision-making processes at work in the current Czech justice system. Commercial law is represented by a single legal institution - the law of reciprocity (comitas gentium) - which regulates the cooperation between various legal authorities and legal systems potentially entangled in cross-border commercial disputes. The reader is first introduced to the context and evidence-dependency of any legal comparison ranging from the representation of law and feud in Yemen at an asylum trial, to the legal systems regulating exchange contracts in Afghanistan involving cross-border disputes. The idea of comparing legal systems as two autonomous social units is abandoned in favor of the study of the comparative practices of a small population of Czech legal authorities, which furnishes readers with plenty of questions about the social organization of legal cognition. The dissertation refrains from drawing final conclusions using legal comparisons, instead it focuses on the limitations and barriers of marshalling evidence (symbolic representations) of...

[pt] A vingança, nas artes, é provavelmente um tema tão frequente e tão relevante quanto o amor. Na teoria social, em contrapartida, o assunto se encontra pulverizado, coadjuvando várias outras ideias. Este trabalho busca elevar a vingança à condição de protagonista também nas ciências sociais: para tal, em primeiro lugar, procuro situar vingança e vingador a partir da noção de reciprocidade, contrastando trocas positivas (dádivas) e negativas (ofensas). Procuro ainda examinar uma série de conceitos correlatos — honra, sacrifício e renúncia, por exemplo — sempre com o intuito de circunscrever ou de inserir o objeto entre os elementos contemplados pela teoria antropológica. Em um segundo momento, busco na literatura modelos de vingador; partindo do indivíduo para a sociedade, colocando personagens clássicos da literatura ocidental no centro do drama, tento interpretar as representações da vingança à luz dos modelos antropológicos ora pretendidos. Por fim, no terceiro e último bloco me aproximo da vingança a partir do caso brasileiro, usando como molduras a realidade sertaneja, os contrastes entre interior e litoral, explorando as particularidades sócio-culturais amparadas principalmente na honra como elemento mantenedor da coesão social. / [en] Vengeance, in arts, is probably a theme as recurring and as relevant as love. In social theory, however, the subject is pulverized, supporting several other ideas. This thesis tries to elevate revenge to a protagonist status also in social sciences: therefore, in the first place, it attempts to understand vengeance reading classical studies about reciprocity, contrasting positive (gifts) and negative (offenses) exchanges. Then, still observing social or cultural concepts — as honor, sacrifice and renounce, for example — we proceed trying to circumscribe vengeance between elements contemplated by anthropological theories. In a second moment, targeting literature, there will be a search for our avenging models; from the individual to society, bringing some classical characters to the center of the stage, some representations of revenge will be analyzed in accordance with the theoretical models previously appointed. Finally, the third and last part is devoted to the Brazilian case: using our backlands as a frame, understanding differences between country and litoral, exploring the sociocultural particularities mainly based on honor and violence, as elements that sustain social cohesion.

The theme of gift has in recent years been subject to considerable commentary in diverse disciplines including philosophy, anthropology, sociology, religious studies and literary criticism. The vast majority of these studies focus on how or whether gift can be differentiated from exchange. In this dissertation I maintain that gift is a form of giving and receiving that is distinct from exchange or commerce, and that it need not create an obligation to return or reciprocate. This gift is given unilaterally to the need of the other and results in relatedness rather than indebtedness. This essay considers the characteristics of exchange and of gift, then reviews the thought of five writers on giving/receiving and reciprocation. This is followed by an overview of the gift theme in African Traditional Religion and the Judaic and Christian traditions, and a concluding chapter summarising thoughts on gift and self-interest, sharing, need, and gratitude. / Religious Studies & Arabic / M.A.(Religious Studies)