This research has investigated local fair trade in Kitchener-Waterloo, seeking to determine its extent, the supports and obstacles it experiences, and the reasons people engage in it. Local fair trade combines localism with the ethical principles of fair trade, and is defined as 'any business for which profit-making is a means to achievement of social goals through local action'. Twenty-eight key informant interviews were conducted with local practitioners of fair trade, and with experts knowledgeable about fair trade, business, and Kitchener-Waterloo. Five follow-up interviews with practitioners added to the data on people's motivations for working in local fair trade businesses and organizations. The research revealed that many local fair trade businesses exist in Kitchener-Waterloo, but these businesses do not see themselves as connected with one another in the practice of local fair trade. No formal or informal network exists among them. The research findings indicated numerous major supports for local fair trade including: funding, volunteers, public awareness, a focus on business management, connections between producers and consumers, support from community and individuals, and action for change on multiple levels. Interestingly, the major obstacles to local fair trade were all associated with major supports. Obstacles included financial issues (high costs, low income), need for funding, difficulties with business operations, and a lack of public support, awareness, and understanding. People were motivated to work in local fair trade by a sense that what they did was 'good' or 'right', by a desire to work towards increasing people's economic security and human development, and because they wanted to promote sustainability, human health, and a healthy environment. The findings suggested that business issues are an ongoing source of challenge for many local fair trade businesses and organizations. They also suggested that local fair trade involves a difficult balancing act between business goals and social goals. The research highlighted a perceived need for greater public awareness and support for the goals of local fair trade, as well as, contradictorily, a sense that local fair trade would be more successful if it could reach 'mainstream' consumers through good business practice (rather than shared values). The research concluded that local fair trade, while present in Kitchener-Waterloo, needs better support and promotion for existing businesses to represent a serious alternative to conventional economics. Promotion must occur on various levels, from the education of individuals to advocacy at the international level, in order to promote fair trading rules and the rights of localities to make decisions in favour of localization and of environmental protection. Promotion should also include making information on local fair trade available to prospective and current business-people, investigating a long-term solution to the problem of funding, and developing a network for local fair trade business and organizations.

Past automation research has focused primarily on machine-related factors (e.g., automation reliability) and human-related factors (e.g., accountability). Other machine-related factors such as type of automation errors, misses or false alarms, have been noticeably overlooked. These two automation errors correspond to potential operator errors, omission (misses) and commission (false alarms), which have proven to directly affect operators trust in automation. This research examined how automation-error-type affects operator trust and reliance in and perceived reliability of automated decision aids. This present research confirmed that perceived reliability is often lower than actual system reliability and that false alarms significantly reduced operator trust in the automation more so than do misses. In addition, this study found that there does not appear to be an effect on the level of subjective trust within each experimental condition (i.e., type of automation error) based on age. There does, however, appear to be a significant difference in the reliance on automation between older and younger adult participants attributed to differences in perceived workload.

Emily Dickinson, with a soul passing beyond the confines of mainstream gender ideology, religiosity, natural theology, transcendentalism, and literary conventions, creates the sublime in her poetry, which demonstrates her realization and manipulation of inspiring thoughts and liberating movements experienced where diverse conscience stirrings, ideologies, ideas, axioms and discourses intersect. Dickinsonian sublime offers an example for Jean-François Lyotard¡¦s discourses on the modern and postmodern sublime, which coincidentally mirror Dickinson¡¦s time, her personal response and reaction. Liberating herself from the confines of gender ideology as well as female literary conventions, Dickinson invents her own self and identity, suggesting differences among women, who can be discontinuous and multiple instead of being a category with ¡§ontological integrity¡¨ (Judith Butler, Gender Trouble 23). She embodies a writer who creates according to her nature and experience as a sensitive person constantly investigating inwardly and outwardly, blurring traditionally-assigned gender distinctions, alternating between various roles, and reversing gendered traits instead of just being a subordinate advocate of mainstream domesticity, gender identity, or religiosity. Not traveling on the path constructed by the traditional theological system but abolishing its authority over her thoughts, attitudes, deeds, or interpretations and manipulation of language, Dickinson interrogates received doctrines and develops her own understanding of religion, idiosyncratic employment of the Bible, and definition of language. Inspired but not dominated by new sciences, natural theology, or transcendentalism, Dickinson cultivates and reinforces her ability to analyze, judge, and examine things ¡§without respite, without rest, in one direction¡¨ but in all directions (Ralph Waldo Emerson, ¡§Intellect¡¨ 179), transcending the confines of both natural theology and optimistic transcendentalism while displaying her ¡§active soul,¡¨ "power of forming great conceptions¡¨ and ¡§vehement and inspired passion¡¨ (Longinus, ¡§On the Sublime¡¨ 80) and intending to be what is advocated in Emerson¡¦s ¡§The American Scholar¡¨¡X ¡§Man Thinking¡¨ (64). Not conforming to literary traditions, Dickinson enters a realm of artistic experiment, representing a great poet reflecting the individualism and potentiality of American poetry in her age as well as in the modern and postmodern periods. Not making her readers passive receivers of messages or meanings, her idiosyncratic methods in rhyme, language, images, and syntax promote ¡§the sense of palpitant vigor¡¨ (Amy Lowell 7) and sublimity, repeatedly challenging, deconstructing, or activating her readers¡¦ thinking and various faculties. As a self-reliant nonconformist experimenter with a Socratic philosophic spirit, her poetry of ¡§possibility¡¨ provokes ¡§polymorphous,¡¨ multiple, ¡§psychological¡¨ inspirations and creates a subjective, dynamical, and liberatory sublime.

<p>Religious observance has been reliably shown to improve a wide variety of health outcomes across the lifespan. Significant work has already been done to find mediating processes that explain this relationship, but as yet no studies have been published that attempt to integrate these mediators into a single model to see if they all work together. The current study presents three possible mediators of the religiosity-health link: social support, self-control, and reliance on others. Participants were recruited from Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk worker system (N = 112) for a 14-day diary study in which all relevant constructs were measured on a daily basis, with daily health behaviors being the outcome. Social support, self-control, and reliance on others were all found to be simultaneous partial mediators of the religiosity-health link, though some questions remain as to the causal flow between religiosity and each of these mediators. It is concluded that each of these mechanisms is related to religiosity and in turn aid in the pursuit of superior health.</p> / Dissertation

En revisor kan inta två roller som granskare och som rådgivare. Den huvudsakliga revisorsrollen ses ofta som en extern granskare av sina klienters verksamheter och den som lämnar en slutgiltig bedömning av företaget. Därutöver finns ytterligare en roll då revisorn är engagerad i klientföretaget och bistår med tilläggstjänster i form av rådgivning gällande verksamhetens redovisning och bokföring. För att revisorn ska fylla sin funktion i samhället är dess oberoende och förtroende två viktiga grundstenar för professionen och revisionsbyråns storlek anses ha en viss inverkan på detta. En revisors två roller kan beskrivas som en balansgång mellan dennes granskningsroll respektive rådgivningsroll med en tyngdpunkt som utgörs av kärnan för revisorsprofessionen samt dess grund. Rollerna kan styras av olika faktorer och vi har valt att undersöka vad detta kan leda till för differenser utifrån professionella och sociala normer. Vår studie syftar till att belysa revisorer utifrån två perspektiv och beskriva förhållandet mellan dess två roller, som ekonomisk granskare samt som rådgivare, och studera deras agerande i varierande situationer för att få en uppfattning om det kan uppstå skiljaktigheter i handlingar och resonemang som kan förklaras med hjälp av normdifferenser. Den empiriska undersökningen har påvisat att det egentligen inte finns några större nämnvärda skiljaktigheter mellan rollerna som är över vårt medelvärde. För att ändå undersöka vårt resultat har vi använt de skiljaktigheter som påfunnits för att analysera vad de kan bero på. Vi fann att revisorn i rollen som granskare följer sina professionella normer i större utsträckning än i rollen rådgivare. I rollen som rådgivare tycks de sociala normer spela en viktigare roll än vad de gör i rollen som granskare. / An auditor can play a dual role as a reviewer and as an advisor. The primary auditor role is often seen as an external reviewer of their clients' businesses and providing a definitive assessment of the company. In addition, there is a second role when the auditor is engaged in the client´s business and provides additional services in the form of consulting regarding business accounting and bookkeeping. Independence, impartiality and trust is an important foundation of the profession and for the auditor´s function in society. The auditing firm's size is considered to have some impact on this foundation. An auditor's two roles can be described as a balancing act between its role as an advisory role with an emphasis that is the core of the auditor profession and its foundation. The roles can be controlled by different factors and we have chosen to investigate what this might lead to differences on the basis of professional and social norms. Our study aims to highlight auditors from two perspectives, and describe the relationship between its two roles, as reviewer and as an advisor, and study their behavior in various situations to get an idea if there might be differences in the actions and reasoning can be explained by using standardized differences The empirical study has shown that there really are no major significant differences between the roles that are over our established average. In order to nevertheless examine our results, we used the minor differences that were found to analyze what they can depend on. We found that the auditor in the role of reviewers follow their professional standards to a greater extent than in the role of advisor. The social norms seem to play a more important role as advisors than they do as a reviewer.

Cette recherche vise la modélisation d'une pratique artistique avec des communautés, la saisie des principes et des actes qui l'animent. La modélisation se rapporte de façon plus spécifique aux dynamiques des fonctionnements reliant façons d'être et méthodes de travail. Méthodologiquement la construction du modèle a profité de la conjugaison des perspectives heuristique et systémique, l'heuristique favorisant des allers-retours entre l'expérience et la réflexion; la systémique permettant la saisie de complexités organisées. La pratique artistique modélisée s'étale sur trente ans : le savoir s'est donc élaboré à partir d'une solide expérience de terrain. La recherche s'inscrit dans une perspective où la pratique est considérée comme lieu privilégié de développement de connaissances. La construction du modèle s'appuie sur des repères théoriques permettant d'éclairer la pratique et la forme des liens qui l'imprègnent, à partir de points de vue touchant à la fois à l'esthétique (Ardenne, Bourriaud, Nancy), à la sociologie (Godbout, Bolle de Bal), à l'éducation (Dewey, Freire), à la philosophie (Arendt), à la psychanalyse (Winnicot) et à la théologie (Basset). Les résultats de la recherche donnent à voir un portrait de la pratique d'abord à travers l'exposition qui en témoigne et ensuite à travers les principes qui orientent la construction de « l'Œuvre-édifice » dans le « grand chantier » de l'art qui relie; ce portrait est également posé à travers les sept actes représentant les fonctionnements essentiels de la pratique modélisée : quatre actes de conception où se définissent les liens qui se tissent entre la communauté et l'artiste et trois actes de réalisation éclairés par les concepts de jeu (Winnicott), de joie (Basset) et de don (Godbout). ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Reliance, art communautaire, arts actuels, pratique participative, contexte, démocratie culturelle, hétérotopie, création collective, modélisation, pédagogie, jeu, joie, don

This study set out to test the potential of an environmental management planning method to be adapted into a food system planning framework, referred to as a Regional Food System Management Plan (RFSMP). The RFSMP approach is a valuable and useful tool for regional food systems planning as it promotes community and environmental sustainability through enhanced food self-reliance. The RFSMP framework was developed and tested in the context of the Sea to Sky Region of British Columbia. The main components of the RFSMP framework included delineation of regional boundaries, stakeholder values identification and calculation of food self-reliance. Implementation of the RFSMP framework focused on the planning stage and the crop production components of the food system. This study recommends future work to address agricultural data gaps, complete the RFSMP framework beyond the planning phase and production component of the food system, and test the planning framework in other regions.

As automated technologies continue to advance, they will be perceived more as collaborative team members and less as simply helpful machines. Expectations of the likely performance of others play an important role in how their actual performance is judged (Stephan, 1985). Although user expectations have been expounded as important for human-automation interaction, this factor has not been systematically investigated. The purpose of the current study was to examine the effect older and younger adults expectations of likely automation performance have on human-automation interaction. In addition, this study investigated the effect of different automation errors (false alarms and misses) on dependence, reliance, compliance, and trust in an automated system. Findings suggest that expectancy effects are relatively short lived, significantly affecting reliance and compliance only through the first experimental block. The effects of type of automation error indicate that participants in a false alarm condition increase reliance and decrease compliance while participants in a miss condition do not change their behavior. The results are important because expectancies must be considered when designing training for human-automation interaction. In addition, understanding the effects of type of automation errors is crucial for the design of automated systems. For example, if the automation is designed for diverse and dynamic environments where automation performance may fluctuate, then a deeper understanding of automation functioning may be needed by users.

Thesis (Ed.D)--Teachers College, Columbia University, 1990. / Includes appendices. Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: William C. Sayres. Dissertation Committee: Paul Byers. Bibliography: leaves 208-222.

Thesis (M.S.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Aug. 7, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 94-96). Also issued in print.