Este trabalho avalia a influência da securitização de ativos sobre os indicadores financeiros e o beta das empresas que utilizam esse tipo de operação estruturada, por meio da aplicação de modelos teóricos e testes empíricos que relacionam conceitos de finanças corporativas com elementos da teoria de carteiras. Os resultados indicam que há uma implicação entre o nível de endividamento e os critérios de rating de crédito e que é possível se estimar a força dessa implicação. A amostra desse estudo é composta por empresas que realizaram operações de securitização de recebíveis e também apresentaram ações negociadas na Bolsa de Valores de São Paulo durante o período compreendido entre 2000 a 2005, período em que se encontra a maior concentração do número de empresas que realizaram essas operações estruturadas de securitização. Para verificar a relação entre os indicadores financeiros e o beta de mercado com a securitização de recebíveis foram selecionados, além dos principais indicadores financeiros, o grau de alavancagem financeira, o grau de alavancagem operacional, o grau de alavancagem total, o beta de mercado das ações e o beta alavancado. A hipótese de existência de relações lineares entre essas medidas foi verificada por meio da aplicação de ferramentas matemáticas, testes estatísticos de associação e regressões simples e múltiplas, bem como a relação implicativa estatística fuzzy. Este trabalho também encontrou fortes evidências de que a securitização de ativos implica na melhora do rating de crédito das empresas que a utilizam. / This research analyzes the influence of asset securitization over the financial indicators and the beta of corporations which use this kind of structured operation. This influence is studied through the application of theoretical models and empirical tests which relate corporate finance concepts to portfolio theory elements. The results indicate a relationship between corporate leverage and the credit rating criteria and the possibility to estimate the significance of such relationship. The research sample is composed of corporations which executed operations of receivable securitization and also had their stocks traded at the São Paulo Stock Exchange from years 2000 to 2005. Such sample period contains the largest number of corporate receivable securitization operations. To analyze the relationship between receivable securitization and financial indicators and between receivable securitization and market beta, the following variables were selected: financial leverage, operational leverage, total leverage, equity beta and asset beta. The fuzzy statistical relation and the linear relationship hypothesis between the dependent and independent variables, and between the independent variables themselves was tested through the application of mathematical tools, of statistical tests of association and of simple and multiple regression models. This research also found strong evidences that asset securitization leads to an improvement in credit rating, for the companies which adopt such structured operations.

A securitização de recebíveis é uma modalidade de estruturação financeira que permite à empresa originadora de créditos o acesso direto ao mercado de capitais, constituindo-se em importante ferramenta para a desintermediação financeira. Basicamente, esta modalidade consiste na cessão dos créditos a uma companhia constituída especificamente para este fim e a emissão de títulos, por esta última, lastreados nos créditos adquiridos. O investidor em um título securitizado se beneficia porque não corre o risco da empresa originadora dos créditos, e sim o risco diversificado dos recebíveis que lastreiam o título. No Brasil, a securitização se desenvolveu na forma dos fundos de investimento em direitos creditórios os FIDCs , que captam emitindo cotas seniores e cotas subordinadas. Este trabalho investiga as técnicas relacionadas à securitização, as práticas do mercado de capitais, os benefícios desta modalidade de estruturação financeira, e avalia os riscos dos FIDCs para o investidor em cotas sênior e para o originador que, normalmente, adquire as cotas subordinadas. São apresentadas também as normas estabelecidas pelas autoridades monetárias visando fazer frente aos riscos inerentes à securitização, uma vez que esta forma de estruturação é largamente empregada por instituições financeiras; e avaliado se estas normas estão adequadas para seu propósito. / The securitization is a type of structure finance which allows a company capable of originate receivables to access the capital market, and so, contributing to the financial disintermediation. Basically, the securitization consists in selling credits for a special purpose vehicle, responsible for issuing securities collateralized by those receivables. The investor in a securitized obligation has the benefit of avoiding the risks coming from the credit originator, but the diversified risk from its collateral. In Brazil, the securitization took the form of mutual funds the FIDC, which borrow funds by issuing senior and subordinated cotes. This study investigates the securitization techniques, the capital market practices, the benefits of this structure finance model and, in the case of a FIDC, the risks arising from senior and subordinated cotes. The rules established by the monetary authorities focusing the risks inherent of the securitization process are also presented, considering the fact this structure is largely used by financial institutions; additionally, the adequacy of those rules are evaluated.

Securitization is the move in which an issue is argued to pose an existential threat to a referent object. Speech acts are considered to be the starting point for the securitization of an issue. This thesis viewed governmental counter-terrorism strategies as potential carriers of speech acts - hence the strategies could constitute the start of terrorism becoming securitized by a government. By using a generic speech act typology created by Stritzel, which combines critical discourse analysis with the securitization theory on Swedish and British counter-terrorism strategies, the thesis identifies a speech act in the most recent British strategy. The second finding is that in the case where the speech act occurred, the human rights discourse was significantly lower, compared to the cases where no speech act occurred. The thesis also provides suggestions for future research on the topic of speech acts.

<p>Since HIV and AIDS were discovered in the early 1980s the infection rates have taken on the proportions of a global pandemic. Whilst the rates are still quite low in the Western World there are areas like Sub-Saharan Africa, of which South Africa is a part, where the rates are as high as 25%. In light of this a debate as to how the situation should be handled and dealt with has developed. In 2000 the United Nation Security Council debated HIV/AIDS as a threat tonational and international peace and security. This was the first time a virus or disease had been debated in this forum. The debate was instigated by, among others, the United States. If states in the Western World, where infection rates are still low, can view this issue as a threat to security, how are HIV/AIDS viewed in a country like South Africa with a prevalence rate of 25%? There are those who claim that in order to say that an issue poses a threat to security one has to define what constitutes a threat and define the concept of security. Is it a subjective value? Could a disease and/or a virus be declared a security threat and what would the logic behind that be? Following the end of the Cold War the study of security was developed as some scholars wanted to widen the traditionally state-centred and military concept of security and reconceptualize it so that it would be applicable to non- traditional security-threats. The theory of securitization was developed with this purpose. It introduces a security-concept that is shaped by a grammar of drama and urgency based in a logic of existential threats that call for measures beyond the normal code-of-conduct. Thus, studies into how military, health, social and political issues etc can be defined as issues of security, i.e. become securitized, are made possible. The aim of this thesis is to, through the theoretical lenses of securitization- theory and the discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, establish which meanings are involved in the structuring of the issue of HIV and AIDS in South Africa. Further we aim to establish whether these meanings can be related to a broader security concept, i.e. if there is a case of ‘securitization’ at hand. We have found, by analysing speeches given by government officials and key political documents between the years 1998 to 2002, that there are different trends in how HIV and AIDS have been defined, i.e. which meaning they have been given, and how these have been structured. Between 1998 and 2000 HIV and AIDS were seen as a threat and dealt with as such; they were securitized. In the years that followed we argue that there was a more cautious tone; the issue was desecuritized as the level of drama and urgency that had characterized the discourse of 1998-2000 was lowered between 2000-2002. The thesis acknowledges that it is too early to say whether this (de)securitizing move will succeed or not as time has yet to see the full effect of the move on a full desecuritization.</p>

Since HIV and AIDS were discovered in the early 1980s the infection rates have taken on the proportions of a global pandemic. Whilst the rates are still quite low in the Western World there are areas like Sub-Saharan Africa, of which South Africa is a part, where the rates are as high as 25%. In light of this a debate as to how the situation should be handled and dealt with has developed. In 2000 the United Nation Security Council debated HIV/AIDS as a threat tonational and international peace and security. This was the first time a virus or disease had been debated in this forum. The debate was instigated by, among others, the United States. If states in the Western World, where infection rates are still low, can view this issue as a threat to security, how are HIV/AIDS viewed in a country like South Africa with a prevalence rate of 25%? There are those who claim that in order to say that an issue poses a threat to security one has to define what constitutes a threat and define the concept of security. Is it a subjective value? Could a disease and/or a virus be declared a security threat and what would the logic behind that be? Following the end of the Cold War the study of security was developed as some scholars wanted to widen the traditionally state-centred and military concept of security and reconceptualize it so that it would be applicable to non- traditional security-threats. The theory of securitization was developed with this purpose. It introduces a security-concept that is shaped by a grammar of drama and urgency based in a logic of existential threats that call for measures beyond the normal code-of-conduct. Thus, studies into how military, health, social and political issues etc can be defined as issues of security, i.e. become securitized, are made possible. The aim of this thesis is to, through the theoretical lenses of securitization- theory and the discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, establish which meanings are involved in the structuring of the issue of HIV and AIDS in South Africa. Further we aim to establish whether these meanings can be related to a broader security concept, i.e. if there is a case of ‘securitization’ at hand. We have found, by analysing speeches given by government officials and key political documents between the years 1998 to 2002, that there are different trends in how HIV and AIDS have been defined, i.e. which meaning they have been given, and how these have been structured. Between 1998 and 2000 HIV and AIDS were seen as a threat and dealt with as such; they were securitized. In the years that followed we argue that there was a more cautious tone; the issue was desecuritized as the level of drama and urgency that had characterized the discourse of 1998-2000 was lowered between 2000-2002. The thesis acknowledges that it is too early to say whether this (de)securitizing move will succeed or not as time has yet to see the full effect of the move on a full desecuritization.

This paper presents the results of a critical discourse analysis of a selection of Canada’s security texts and argues that the country’s security discourses construct Muslims as dangerous and different from the normative Canadian. The research relies on a social constructionist understanding of discourse and the recognition that our state’s representatives and agents, operating from positions of discursive power, wield disproportionate influence in directing the national conversation and managing the signals that shape our social attitudes and imaginaries. By persistently qualifying terrorism with Islam, portraying the terrorist figure as a religiously and ideologically-motivated actor opposed to ‘Western values’ and by casting suspicion on the ordinary behaviour of Muslims, Canada’s security discourses produce a mental model in which Islam and its followers are associated with a propensity for terrorist violence. The discourses also naturalize the idea that Muslims are in need of surveillance, not only by the state’s agents, but by the public itself. When examined alongside a body of research illustrating Canada’s ‘visible minority’ population continues to be negatively affected by dominant group discrimination, the results of the study raise questions about the culpability of state representatives in the reproduction of ideas of difference which continue to inform the country’s social imaginary and hinder the equality and inclusivity of minority groups within the national collective.

As a country that is highly affected by the changing nature of international migration due to transformative forces of globalization, Turkey is now being defined as a country of both immigration and emigration. This thesis analyzes Turkish state&rsquo / s international migration politics and policies with regard to recent global trends in migratory movements. It examines the underlying dynamics that govern the policy making processes and tries to identify the problems stemming from them. The primary goal of the thesis is to make an elaborate assessment of the existent institutional framework and to detect the presence of securitization paradigm in the political and legal setting of international migration in Turkey by means of qualitative research methods. It investigates how international pressures and trends, national interests, political considerations and especially the dynamics of fragmented institutional structure have affected policy making strategies. In view of these factors, the thesis suggests adopting a humanitarian approach towards refugees, asylum seekers and migrants that leaves political concerns behind and avoids securitization of the issue.

Univ., Diss.--Rostock, 2003. / Literaturverz.: S. 259-286.

Univ., Diss.--Freiburg, 2004. / Literaturverz. S. [521] - 554.

La vulnérabilité alimentaire d'un individu peut être définie comme la susceptibilité qu'il a de faire face, à plus ou moins longue échéance, à une situation d'insécurité alimentaire, au cours de laquelle il n'a plus accès à une nourriture suffisante et satisfaisante d'un point de vue nutritionnelle et sanitaire, et correspondant à ses préférences culturelles. l'enjeu de la thèse est de comprendre les facteurs qui déterminent le niveau de vulnérabilité alimentaire des citadins – puisqu'on s'intéressera au cadre urbain. les citadins élaborent des stratégies de gestion des ressources qu'ils peuvent mobiliser pour faire face aux changements de l'environnement dans lequel ils vivent ; ils s'inscrivent dans le système alimentaire urbain et élaborent des choix de vie (migrations, emploi, logement, investissements) qui tracent une trajectoire de vie, dont leur situation alimentaire dépend. l'enjeu de la thèse est de comprendre ce qui, dans la position que l'individu occupe au sein de son environnement, accroît ou réduit sa vulnérabilité. le terrain d'étude sera la ville de hanoi, capitale du viêt-nam, dont une partie des habitants souffre d'une situation précaire, les conduisant, en cas de choc, à ne plus pouvoir faire face et à se retrouver en insécurité alimentaire. / With a focus on underpriviledged urban dwellers’ everyday practices in Hanoi, this study aims to show the construction of individual and household food insecurity in a city where living standards have dramatically improved over the last three decades. It demonstrates that food budget plays a key role in livelihoods management in an unstable context, by serving as a tool for underprivileged people to adjust to shocks. Therefore, individuals’ food vulnerability should be understood as a long-term livelihoods securitization process.This study shows that livelihoods securitization is based on sustaining social networks. These networks are constantly reactivated by an ongoing circulation of money and goods, and they are the basis of daily mutual assistance at the ward scale. This reveals a strong relationship between lived space and solidarity networks in which risks are mutualized.The analysis of people’s working trajectories shows a high capacity for adaptation, with individuals rearranging their livelihoods (jobs, food production for family’s consumption, rental income, etc.) according to their need and the changes in their environment. Nevertheless, in the context of a metropolizing city, the people’s capacities to take advantage of this development varies greatly. This contrast is reinforced by the fact that resources developments (economic, social, spatial) have a cumulative effect. As a consequence, inequalities are deepened in Hanoi, both at the city scale and wards scale.Such inequalities can be seen in the increasing differences between food practices and consumption patterns among urban dwellers. Products as well as their origines get more diverse, creating new safety concerns ; purchasing places diverge more and more between the rich and the poor ; and foodborne diseases appear while malnutrition issues remain. All along the food supply chain, current shifts illustrate a process that can be called food emergence.Finally, this study reveals that it is primarily non-food phenomenons that result in food insecurity ; it widens the food security framework. In this way, the analysis of urban dwellers’ daily practices provides an illustration of the ongoing urban emergence process of Vietnamese capital.